New York , August 5th 2019
Jie Un Han beats two world champions in New York
She is only eighteen years old, but now has a major title in ladies billiards: Jie An Han from South Korea was the winner of the Jennifer Shim open in the Carom Café in New York. She managed to beat the two favorites in the event: Ore Hida from Japan and Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands.
The Jennifer Shim event is held every other year and precedes the Verhoeven Open. The last two editions were won by Klompenhouwer, who looked well on her way to win a third. She had by far the highest average of the field and her rival Orie Hida did not bring her best. The tournament took a surprising turn in the semifinals, when the Japanese favorite was beaten by her much younger Korean opponent Han: 30 – 24 in 31. Klompenhouwer was never really threatened by Yuko Nishimoto: 30 – 18 in 25. The final between proved to be the most exciting match of the event by far: Han and Klompenhouwer went neck and neck until the score was 28 – 29, then a mistake by the Dutch world champion handed the win to the Korean girl: 30 – 28 in 31.
Orie Hida and Yuko Nishimoto shared third place, the other quarterfinalists were Ester Park, Hyun Ji Yong, Ayako Sakai and Jackeline Perez. The winner, Jie Un Han took home 3000 dollars.
New York, July 30th 2019.
Verhoeven Open 2019: Can Merckx defend his title?
On 5 August, the day after the final of the Jennifer Shim ladies event, the 2019 Verhoeven Open will take possession of the Carom Café in Flushing, New York. No points for the world ranking are at stake, but nevertheless, this tournament has always attracted a large number of world class players. This year is no exception.
A quick look at the winners from the recent past: 2010: Luis Avila, 2011: Javier Teran, 2012: Pedro Piedrabuena, 2013: Frédéric Caudron, 2014: Torbjörn Blomdahl, 2015: Dick Jaspers, 2016: Jeremy Bury, 2017: Jae Ho Cho, 2018: Eddy Merckx. It appears to be quite difficult to retain the title in New York: the last player to do that was Caudron in 2007.
Four players have been seeded this year: title defender Eddy Merckx, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez and Semih Sayginer. Two countries have especially strong delegations in the event: Denmark and Vietnam. Some of the better known names in the qualification stage: Tran, Ma, Ngo, Nguyen, Nelin, Knudsen, Forthomme, Sidhom, Kostistansky, Kahofer, Myung Woo Cho and Patino.
As usual, groups of seven or eight players will be formed by draw, and a Round Robin will decide who advances to the second stage. A lottery winner and one or two auction winners will be added to the field.
Kozoom will stream the matches from both the Jennifer Shim tournament and the Verhoeven Open.
New York, July 28th 2019.
Jennifer Shim tournament
From 2 to 4 August, Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands will defend her title in the bi-annual Jennifer Shim tournament, played in the Carom Café in Flushing Queens, New York. The event is named after the Korean-American 3-cushion player who was so well liked in the billiard community until she tragically died in 2015.
The Jennifer Shim traditionally precedes the Verhoeven Open every other year. Some of the familiar faces, such as Mi Rae Lee and Namiko Hayashi, will not be there this year as a result of their participation in the LPBA events. Others, such as Orie Hida, Sruong Pheavy, Ester Park and Bora Kim are in the event. From Europe, Helga Mitterböck and Marianne Mortensen are on the list, as well as Karina Jetten and Sylvia Eckel.
Admission in the Carom Café is free. All matches will be available on Kozoom.