WEDEL – Three Dutch women stood on the podium of the Women's three-cushion Grand Prix this Sunday for four medals. The victory went to Therese Klompenhouwer, which is never a surprising result in a women's tournament. Dutch women's billiards dominates the European circuit, as the final score shows. Denmark's Charlotte Sörensen had a year in which she broke the hegemony with two international titles, but has now fallen back to a level that is not enough to threaten Klompenhouwer.
The final at the Grand Prix in Wedel, Germany, was between Therese Klompenhouwer and Monique van Exter and was won by the world number 1. The figures were cool and telling: 30-17 in 25 innings. Even bigger was the margin in the semi-final between Klompenhouwer and Jetten: 30-12 in 29 innings. The other semi final was more exciting, but not nearly as good in terms of average. Van Eter was the better of Sorensen 30-29 in 41.
What the Grand Prix cycle shows is that European women's billiards is sorely lacking in new impetus from young players. Dozens of young female billiards players are currently competing in South Korea for the UMB and especially the PBA league. Therese Klompenhouwer and Charlotte Sörensen are the figureheads of an excellent European generation: both are 42. Also on the podium on Sunday were Karina Jetten (54) and Monique van Exter (59), players with good ambition and justified contenders for the podium.
Therese Klompenhouwer, Charlotte Sörensen, and Karina Jetten have acceptable averages in this Grand Prix with 1,050, 0.807, and 0.780, respectively. Therese played one top game of 1,200, Charlotte one of 1,190, and Karina achieved 1,071 once. The majority of the 24 players, 14 in total, remained just below or well below 0.500.
Therese Klompenhouwer likes to philosophize about the causes of stagnant growth. “I played a good tournament myself,” she began her argument after the victory. “In the quarterfinals against Karakasli, I fought well after a 26-14 deficit and still won. Sunday went pretty easily.”
“I know,” Therese assures us, “that Karina Jetten and Monique van Etten are good billiard players. They both played a great tournament. Monique's match against Sörensen was very strong, because she was able to finish with 6.”
The final standings of the top 8:
- 1 Therese Klompenhouwer 12-1.050-6
- 2 Monique van Exter 10-0.690-7
- 3 Charlotte Sörensen 8-0.807-11
- 4 Karina Jetten 8-0.780-4
- 5 Guzin Mujde Karakasli 5-0.508-6
- 6 Steffi Träm 6-0.459-4
- 7 Estela Cardoso 5-0.475-6
- 8 Ana Juarez 4-0.569-5