World top faces… Sayginer and Ceulemans

NEW YORK - The top three in the world (Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx), the newly crowned Pan American champion (Pedro Piedrabuena), the virtuoso (Semih Sayginer), the all times champion (Raymond Ceulemans) and other top players such as Roland Forthomme (Belgian champion), Eddy Leppens, Hugo Patino and Mazin Shooni give the Verhoeven Open tournament in New York (former Lee Sang tournament) a fantastic line-up this year from 17 until 21 July.

The Carom Cafe in Flushing, New York, first will open its doors for the women's tournament (14-16 July), where the entire world top (with world champion Natsumi Higashiuchi, the former champion Ori Hida and the undisputed favorite Therese Klompenhouwer) is present.

If you want to see billiards at the highest level, even in these summer months, leading up to the
World Games in Cali, can watch all the man’s matches on Kozoom.

The highlight in the history of the New York tournament so far was the 2006 edition, won by Frédéric Caudron ahead of Torbjörn Blomdahl, Semih Sayginer and Sung-Won Choi.

Caudron also won next year, Dani Sánchez was second, Semih Sayginer third and Tayfun Tasdemir fourth.

The line-up was slightly less: the tournament lost a bit of his glamour in the upcoming years when Forthomme (who beat Caudron in the final), Dion Nelin, Luis Avila and Javier Teran took the victory.

Last year, Torbjörn Blomdahl was back on stage. The Swede started off as the big favorite, but lost the final to Pedro Piedrabuena, Forthomme was third.

The provisional list of participants this year:

Men: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Raymond Ceulemans (must be confirmed on Monday), Semih Sayginer, Roland Forthomme, Eddy Leppens, Pedro Piedrabuena, Sameh Sidhom, Gerhard Kostistansky, Allan Lys Jensen, Mazin Shooni, Miguel Torres, Sonny Cho, Hugo Patino, Michael Kang, Julian Torres, William Oh, Alfonso Torres, Carlos Elias, Javier Teran, Luis Aveiga, Luis Avila, Peer Harpsoe, Henrik Gellner, Kim Bentsson, Ronald Rubio, Jorge Rubio, Germy Rivera, Daniel Reyes, Joel Switala, Carlos Palafox, Ricardo Carranco, Hugo Flores, Russ Rosenberger, Gary Eake, Otto Hildenbran, Brian Yi, Young Gull Lee, Arturo Herrera, Lloyd Wallace, Ira Lee, Jerry Geist, Jim Shovak, Andrew Janquitto, Jairo Lenis, Merrill Hughes, John Cristiano, Charles Delorme, Chris Bartzos, George Ashby, Hyuk Yoon, Mark An, Jun Park, Jong Min Lee, Won Sik Kang, Young Ha Choi, Harry Pena, Bob Tracy, Sang Jin Lee, Julian Banol, Lupe Cruz, Serdar Gulluce, Michael Garcia.

Women in the men's tournament: Therese Klompenhouwer, Karina Jetten.

Ladies: Natsumi Higashiuchi, Namiko Hayashi, Orie Hida, Therese Klompenhouwer, Karina Jetten, Helga Mitterböck, Mercedes Gonzales, Esther Park, Su Ah Park, Olivia Lee, Jennifer Shim, Jeong Bo Ra.

Thanks for information:

Andrew Janquitto, Steve Andersen (New York tournament)

Bert van Manen (columnist)

Therese Klompenhouwer (last year's winner)