Verhoeven Open

The Verhoeven Open is a three-cushion billiards tournament held in Flushing, Queens in the US state of New York. The event is sanctioned by the Union Mondiale de Billard and the United States Billiard Association. The event was known as Sang Lee International Open between 2005 and 2008.[1]

2016 tournament logo
Martin Horn at the entrance of the Carom Café in 2016.

History
Tournament poster of Sang Lee international Open inside of the Carom Café.
Michael Kang is the co-founder of the Carom Café and friend of Sang Lee.

Sang Lee International Open

It was founded in 2005 as the Sang Lee International Open, named after Sang Lee, a Korean American player whose goal was to spread his principles as a player and restore the popularity of carom billiards in the United States. One year after his death in 2004, his friend Ira Lee initiated the tournament in tribute to him. It was organized by the United States Billiard Association (USBA) as a member of the world federation Union Mondiale de Billard. The venue for the tournament is the Carom Café, which was founded by Sang Lee (not Ira Lee who is not related to Sang) and his friend Michael Kang, who was also one of the best players in the United States at that time.

Contrary to most other tournaments it was not played in the set system, but to a predetermined score. The structure of the tournament has been changed several times since 2005.

The inaugural event (2005) was won by Sweden's Torbjörn Blomdahl. The 2006 and 2007 editions were both dominated by Frédéric Caudron of Belgium.[2][3] Roland Forthomme, also from Belgium, won it in 2008.[4] The 2008 edition was the last time the event was named as Sang Lee International Open.

Verhoeven Open

After a four-year break, the tournament was relaunched in 2012 under the name Verhoeven Open Tournament (or short Verhoeven Open)[1] by Cindy Lee, CEO of billiards-event organizer Dragon Promotions.[5]

In 2012, 20 players participated at the tournament. Winner was the local hero Pedro Piedrabuena, who beat Torbjörn Blomdahl from Sweden with 40:37 in the final. After a long pause of playing tournaments, the 75-year-old Belgian "Mr. 100 " Raymond Ceulemans was honors player of the tournament and could, after all, still occupy the seventh rank.[6]

Prize money and ranking points
Prize Money 2007[7]
RankPrize
money (US$)		RankPrize
money (US$)
0112,000112,800
029,600122,400
038,000132,100
046,400141,800
055,600151,700
064,800161,600
074,400171,500
084,000181,400
093,600191,300
103,200201,200
Bonuses
HS300BG300
Total amount: 80,000 US$

The following table shows prize money and ranking points (only for USBA-players).[8]

Prize Money
RankUS$RankUS$
018,00011550
025,00012550
034,00013500
043,50014500
052,70015450
062,20016450
071,70017425
081,20018425
091,00019400
1080020400
Total amount: 34,750 US$
USBA-Points
RankPoints
1.80
2.60
3.50
4.40
5. & 6.30
7. & 8.25
9.–12.20
13.–16.15
17.–2410
25.–3205
≥ 3303

Tournament statistic
Jérémy Bury, winner of 2016

The GA shows the general average (all points ÷ all innings).

Men
Sang Lee International Open
Year Winner GA Runner up GA 3. Place GA Ref.
2005 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 2,006 Turkey Semih Saygıner 1,998 Netherlands Dick Jaspers 1,907
2006 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 1,881 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 1,851 Turkey Semih Saygıner 1,741
2007 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 1,774 Spain Dani Sánchez 1,889 Turkey Semih Saygıner 1,615
2008 Belgium Roland Forthomme 1,829 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 1,958 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 1,707
Verhoeven Open Tournament
Year Winner GA Runner up GA 3. Place GA Ref.
2012 United States Pedro Piedrabuena 1,592 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 1,708 Belgium Roland Forthomme 1,658 [9]
2013 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 2,066 Belgium Eddy Merckx 1,886 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 1,838 [10]
2014 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 2,058 Belgium Eddy Merckx 1,941 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 1,927 [11]
2015 Netherlands Dick Jaspers 2,097 Turkey Tayfun Taşdemir 1,715 Belgium Frédéric Caudron 1,931 [12]
2016 France Jérémy Bury 1,542 Netherlands Dick Jaspers 1,975 Belgium Eddy Merckx 1,775 [13]
2017 South Korea Cho Jae-ho 1,650 Belgium Eddy Leppens 1,897 Spain Dani Sánchez 1,847 [14]
2018 Belgium Eddy Merckx 1,872 Spain Dani Sánchez 1,937 Germany Martin Horn 1,908
Belgium Eddy Leppens 1,597
2019 Belgium Eddy Merckx 1,798 Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl 1,777 Spain Dani Sánchez 1,773

Women

In 2013 for the first time a competition for women was held. It took place from July 14 to 16, right before the men's competition. Winner was world number one Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands. She beat the four-time world champion Orie Hida from Japan 25:16 in 17 innings in the final. However Hida played the best individual average with 1,562. Klompenhouwer succeeded with 9 points in the best high run.[15]

In 2015 the women's tournament was called Jennifer Shim International.[16] The tournament was named in memory of the American elite player Jennifer Shim, who was shot on March 6, 2015, by her ex-boyfriend at the age of 41.[17][18]

Year Winner GA Runner up GA 3. Place/
Semi Finalists		 GA Ref.
Verhoeven Open Tournament
2013 Netherlands Therese Klompenhouwer 1,016 Japan Orie Hida 0,850 South Korea Park Su-ah 0,631 [15]
Jennifer Shim International
2015 Netherlands Therese Klompenhouwer 1,123 Cambodia Pheavy Srong 0,662 Japan Orie Hida 0,970 [19][20]
2017 Netherlands Therese Klompenhouwer 1,116 Japan Orie Hida 1,035 South Korea Lee Mi-rae 0,648 [21]
2019 South Korea Han Ji-eun 0,863 Netherlands Therese Klompenhouwer 1,195 Japan Orie Hida 0,780 [22]
Japan Yuko Nishimoto 0,754

References
  1. "World top faces… Sayginer and Ceulemans". Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  2. "Frederic Caudron is Champion at the 2006 Sang Lee International Open". AzBilliards.com. August 22, 2006. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
  3. "Caudron Comes From Behind To Defend Title". AzBilliards.com. August 19, 2007. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
  4. "Roland Forthomme wins Sang Lee International Open". AzBilliards.com. August 1, 2008. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
  5. "July 29 – Aug 5, 2012: Carom Cafe = Billiards Heaven on Earth". 3-Cushion Carom News. July 18, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  6. "Dreiband – Verhoeven Open Tournament – New York (USA) – 01.08.12 bis 05.08.12". Kozoom.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  7. "Sang Lee International Open – Draw and Format (2007)". AzBilliards.com forum. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  8. "General Infos". Archived from the original on July 4, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  9. "Dreiband – Verhoeven Open Tournament – New York (USA) – 01.08.12 bis 05.08.12". Kozoom.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  10. "2013 Verhoeven Open (Final Ranking)" (PDF). USBA.net. United States Billiard Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 18, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  11. "Torbjorn Blomdahl wins the 2014 Verhoeven Open". Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  12. "2015 Verhoeven Final Results". Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  13. "Jeremy Bury wins Verhoeven Open". Professor Q Ball's National Pool & Billiard News. August 3, 2016. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016.
  14. "2017 Final Ranking" (PDF). United States Billiard Association. August 14, 2017.
  15. "USBA Women's Invitational Tournament". Kozoom.com. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  16. "Women's world stars in Jennifer Shim tournament". Kozoom.com. June 17, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  17. "RIP – Jennifer Shim". AzBilliards.com forum. March 22, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  18. "The Three Cushion World Remembers Jennifer Shim with Women's International Championship". poolbuzz.org. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  19. "Therese completes trilogy in New York". kozoom.com. July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  20. "3-Cushion – Jennifer Shim International – New York (USA) – 7/18/15 to 7/20/15". kozoom.com. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  21. "Ranking Ladies 2017". Kozoom. July 6, 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  22. "Results Ladies 2019". Kozoom. August 4, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
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