VEGHEL - The World Cups featuring the world's best three cushion players, like the one that started this Sunday in Veghel, the Netherlands, are not the favorite events of the world's best ladies. Young Korean Ha Eun Kim, an 18-year-old student, was the first player in a field of 147 men. Next up, Monday, is only multiple champion Therese Klompenhouwer, who then enters the tournament. In short, the World Cups three-cushion are an encounter for mainly men of varying quality with an eventual winner coming from the world top. For the organizers, the severe shortage of ladies is not a concern. Besides the 147 men who do play the tournament, another 130 players have been relegated to the reserve list.
Therese did shine in Veghel before, but only plays one or two World Cups this year at most. Ha Eun Kim, who is a university student in Seoul, is playing five or six this year to show her ambitions. ''I started playing billiards when I was 10 years old, now I practice eight hours a day,'' she told at the start in Veghel using her phone as a translator.
The amiable girl's quality (about 0.750 on average in her first performance) is no match for the best men on this first day. Jerry Hermans, an up-and-coming sportsman who does not practice half the hours, started with a match against one of the Lebanese, 33-year-old Did Aliya, and won 30-16 in 14, averaging 2.143. That put the Brabant player far above the rest of the winners, although his second game was of much lower quality against Turk Yildiz: 30-22 in 26.
For two of the Dutch survivors this day, it was an all or nothing match on the late evening. Kay de Zwart, living in suspense because of his wife's emerging delivery, started his match against Ali Ibraimov with 3, 8 and 4 and continued with 10 zeros. He finished in the 21st inning, Ibraimov needed five in the equalizer, but missed his last. Harrie van de Ven balanced on the brink against Dimitrios Seleventas. The Dutchman ran into trouble after losing a 28-16 lead. The Greek youngster had to score twice in the equalizer for a draw. He was already cheering for his last, but the referee ruled otherwise: no carom and thus 30-29 in 32.
The Dutch were with 11 in the starting field, the same as the Germans on this first day of the preliminaries. From the home country, 6 of those 11 moved up to the next day, the Germans were with 2 of 11 and lost among others father Bajram and his two sons Ali and Amir Ibraimov, two huge talents, among others, by elimination.
Jerry Hermans was the highest in average with 1.538 ahead of Belgian Stef van Hees with 1.276, another Belgian, Steven van Acker with 1.111, Dutchman Kay de Zwart with 1.090 and Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon also 1.090. To finish the day: what keeps the ladies away from the World Cups? Ha Eun Kim is full of ambition, having already played the World Cups in Las Vegas, Ho Chi Minh and Porto this year, so now she starts far away in the Netherlands. And soon she can play the World Cup in Korea. How she pays for it as an 18-year-old student? ''I have a sponsor, 'Green', a frozen food company.'' In her first World Cups, she gathered six points, putting Hi eun in 382nd place in the world rankings.
Therese Klompenhouwer is 240th, for the same reason. The Dutch lady, who was the women's world champion five times and has been in first place in the rankings since 2010, gets no ranking points for the men's world ranking. She only garners some sparse points if she plays in a World Cup. So is Ha Eun Kim, who will at most survive the first few days.
He Eun Kim, 3rd at this year's World championship for ladies, which was won by a compatriot, is not yet thinking of a move to the professional PBA league in South Korea, where many more strong ladies are playing. ''I don't know yet,'' she says hesitantly. ''But I don't think I will go to PBA soon.''
Actually, it is not realistic to expect ladies in World Cups to be able to score many points for the rankings. Women's top players in tennis, for example, have their own big events to make a lot of money. Top players in women's three cushion simply don’t have that luxury and usually only play the World Cups to improve their level.
,,I play in my own country, because I got a ticket,'' Therese says. ''As for other ladies, I don't know, you have to ask them. I think because there is little to earn for a lot of costs.''
The most known players in the groups for the second day:
Poule A met Barry van Beers en Maxime Panaia
Poule B met Frans van Schaik en Adrien Tachoire
Poule C met Jean van Erp en Van Ly Dao
Poule D met Wilco van Wijk en Albert Kooistra
Poule F met Adrie Demming en Vangelis Moulos
Poule G met Ha Eun Kim
Poule H met Therese Klompenhouwer en Tonny Carlsen
Poule I met Francis Forton en Raul Cuenca
Poule J met Glenn Hofman, Jack van Peer en Emilio Sciacca
Poule K met Harrie van de Ven en Lukas Mortensen
Poule M met Kay de Zwart
Poule N met Steven van Acker, Alexander Salazar en Dimitrios Seleventas (de eerste reserve die mocht invallen voor Tom Löwe)
Poule O met Stef van Hees en Jean Reverchon
Poule P met Dave Christiani en Jerry Hermans.
The ranking with the group winners on the first day:
- Jerry Hermans 4-1.538-7
- Stef van Hees 4-1.276-6
- Steven van Acker 4-1.111-8
- Kay de Zwart 4-1.090-8
- Jérôme Barbeillon 4-1.090-6
- Harrie van de Ven 4-0.967-7
- Jack van Peer 4-0.909-5
- Raul Cuenca 4-0.789-5
- Andreas Schenkel 4-0.759-5
- Ha Eun Kim 4-0.731-4
- Adrie Demming 4-0.638-4
- Christos Falangas 4-0.631-4
- Albert Kooistra 4-0.594-4
- Dimitrios Seleventas 2-1.134-7 (first reserve player)
- Hakan Gulter 2-1.020-9
- Adrien Tachoire 2-0.929-5
- Dominik Nebuda 2-0.888-7
Korean 18-year girl Ha Eun Kim
Belgian player Steven van Acker
Kay de Zwart, one of 6 Dutch survivors