In the group stage from July 17th to the morning of July 19th, eight groups of eight players each played against each other in round robin mode . The two best in the group and the four best third placed moved into the first final round. There they met the two seeded players Torbjörn Blomdahl and Frédéric Caudron (No. 1 & 2 in the world rankings), as well as the honorary players Raymond Ceulemans and Semih Saygıner . At noon on July 19, the final round 1 began with the "last 24". In the group stage the game was played to 25 points and in the final round to 40 points. The tournament had no referees who supervised the individual games. The players had to trust each other and enter their scores themselves. Above each table there is a kind of abacus on which the player had to display the score after finishing his recording. The players also had to enter the entries on the computer themselves. There is no shot clock. The US players ( USBA members) received ranking points.
Prize money table and nations
The following prize money and ranking points (only USBA players) were awarded:
The tournament started with a field of 64 players. Among them were two women, Therese Klompenhouwer and Karina Jetten, both from the Netherlands. Klompenhouwer had won the previous women's tournament. She impressively demonstrated that she can also keep up with the men in her game against Manuel Linda from Equator, whom she beat in just 10 shots with 25:11 (ED 2,500). In the end, she only ended up in fifth place and Linda came in second in the group in the first final round. For the best individual average (BED), however, Roland Forthomme ensured in his game against the Korean Lee Young-gul, whom he left behind at the table in only 4 shots (ED 6.250) and a high series (HS) of 13 points "to zero". He lost his only game against the Austrian Gerhard Kostistansky, who moved one round tied with Forthomme. Eddy Leppens (Belgium), Allan Jensen (Denmark) and Luis Aveiga from Ecuador were the only ones who made it into final round 1 without losing a game. US players Mazon Shooni and Harry Pena from Colombia came third as the best. Ricardo Carranco (USA) and the Colombian Julian Torres completed the finalists via lottery and auction.
Final round 1
In addition to the 20 qualifiers in the first final round, Torbjörn Blomdahl from Sweden and the Belgian Frédéric Caudron were added to the list. The 76-year-old 34-time former world champion “Mr. 100 “ Raymond Ceulemans have been invited. The runner-up in 2005 and third in 2006 and 2007 Semih Saygıner from Turkey made the round of the "last 24" complete.
Eddy Leppens got off to a good start on matchday two. Against his opponent Harry Pena from Colombia whom he left at the table after only 11 shots with a GD of 3,636. Ceulemans had won his first two games, as had Merckx. In the third game, the ex-world champion and the reigning champion met. The game was consistently balanced, in the end Merckx was ahead and won with 40:30. In Group D, the favorite Sygıner had won the first two games and now met the Uruguayan and US top player Pedro Piedrabuena . The Turk, otherwise so strong, could not really find his way into the game and in the end clearly lost with 12:40 in 17 shots. Ceulemans had apparently recovered and won his game against Leppens 40:33. Merckx won in his fourth game 40:31 against the US number 2, Mazon Shooni, who could not achieve a single win in four games. Merckx has won all of its games by then and leads the group table with 8 match points (MP). Merckx and Ceulemans were the first to qualify for the quarter-finals. In the Belgian duel, Leppens could no longer maintain his extraordinary performance and lost against Merckx with 26:40. Ceulemans had no problems against the Colombian Julian Torres and won his last group game with 40:18 in 15 shots (ED 2.666).
Final round 2
Ceulemans was the first player to win his game against the American Miguel Torres in just 14 shots with 40:23 (GD 2,667). Shortly afterwards Caudron ended the re-edition of the previous evening game against his compatriot Roland Forthomme . This time, however, he was successful and won 40:23. The Austrian Gerhard Kostistansky , who was successful up to then , was unable to match the reigning world champion Merckx with the required level of play and was almost 25:40. The defending champion Piedrabuena played against his last year's final opponent Blomdahl from Sweden. The Swede quickly took the lead in the first half, but Piedrabuena was then able to catch up and was ahead in the 18th shot with 31:24. Blomdahl followed up with three series of 6, 3 and 3 points and led again. After the 22nd recording at 38:33 from the Swede's point of view, Piedrabuena played a series of 5 and equalized. After that, both played a point each and Blomdahl had match point in the 24th intake and converted it to 40:39.
In the final round 1, the placements in the final table were awarded after the placement at the group conclusion. The order was assigned as follows:
Match points group stage
General average
The match points of the 24 first placed only relate to the final round. Roland Forthomme achieved the best individual average (BED) in the qualifying round. The same applies to Luis Aveiga's top series. The final table up to 24th place is the final ranking of the USBA.
Frédéric Caudron
Torbjörn Blomdahl
Gerhard Kostistansky
Sameh Sidhom
.svg){kind=small}