The three-cushion world title is back in the hands of a European player. Frédéric Caudron became the new world champion in front of his home fans. Myung Woo Cho, the young Korean, was dethroned but still had an excellent year, winning the 2025 World Cup cycle and the World Games. The then-fledgling champion Thanh Luc Tran won the first World Cup in Bogotá in 2025, the other Vietnamese, Quyet Chien Tran, was the last major winner at the end of 2025 with a valuable victory in the Doozy Challenge in Blois. The sporting year of 2025 thus went from Tran to Tran, further demonstrating the growing dominance of the Vietnamese.
The year started the traditional World Cup cycle in Bogotá and concluded, as usual, in Sharm El Sheikh. The Belgian double with a World Cup and a World championship in Lint, near Antwerp, was one of the highlights. It was an ambitious project by Kurt Ceulemans and his team. The climax was a Belgian final between Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx in frot of a packed house of fans. The arena's VIP room also hosted the announcement of a 2026 tournament cycle on the world stage by UMB and Drawshots. The future of professional billiards players is looking increasingly bright.
Korean Myung Woo Cho won two World Cups, in Porto and Gwangju; Dick Jaspers won in Ho Chi Minh City; Eddy Merckx in Ankara; Martin Horn in Antwerp; and Berkay Karakurt closed the year with a World Cup victory in Sharm El Sheikh. The most attractive title in the PBA, the Korean professional tour, went to Semih Sayginer. Therese Klompenhouwer, the women's champion, occasionally has to relinquish her title in the UMB, but her high class always shows her best. This year, she reclaimed her title. It's a dream to hope for a showdown between Klompenhouwer and the PBA champions, where Ga-young Kim is the multiple winner.
A look at highlights in 2025:
January 12: Eddy Merckx takes his twelfth Belgian title since 2000 at the Multis in Blankenberge, which, as always, draws large crowds.
January 26: Dick Jaspers triumphs in the Masters, the Dutch final, with an unprecedented series: 2,926 in the knockout stage. It's his 23rd title as Dutch champion.
February 1: Top day in the Kozoom league with 26 Dutch players and 22 internationals.
February 10: Torbjörn Blomdahl is once again the best in Sweden in the year he later suffers a long-term injury.
February 15: The head-to-head race continues in the Belgian team competition with Mr. 100, Biljart Express, Op de Meir and Herstalien
March 1: The World Cup in Bogota kicks off with sensations: two world champions from the last two years were eliminated in the first round: Myung Woo Cho and Phuong Vinh Bao.
5/3: Thanh Luc Tran is the new star of the Vietnamese team. At 35, he wins the World Cup in Bogotá in the final against Tayfun Tasdemir. With his victory, two Vietnamese, two Tran players, are now in the top five of the world rankings
11/3: PBA players chase the €140,000 jackpot in the final tournament
16/3: The Netherlands with a golden team triumphs and takes the world title for national teams in Viersen: Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn take the final win against the emerging top nation Vietnam
18/3: Sixty-year-old Semih Sayginer wins the PBA final in a Turkish match with Lütfi Cenet
28/3: Myung Woo Cho wins the Asian Championship beating Jun Tae Kim
30/3: Marcos Morales takes the new Spanish title: European Under-25 Champion in Aarhus, where he defeats the Greek Dimitrios Seleventas
April 2: Two Turkish women take the European title for national teams: Güzin Mujde Karakasli and Gülsen Degener
5/4: After the world title, the European Championship also goes to Charlotte Sörensen
9/4 Turks in Ankara to double gold. After the women's team, the men's team also wins with Tayfun Tasdemir and Berkay Karakurt
April 13: Martin Horn rewarded by a major trophy: European champion
April 21: The Spanish billiard school celebrates two young champions during the European championship: Bruno Martinez (17) and Daniel Sainz-Pardo (20)
May 11: Therese Klompenhouwer resumes her upward trajectory with victory in the Gandía GP
May 15: Torbjörn Blomdahl injures his Achilles tendon during a padel match and is out for three months
May 23: The World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City, with new stars, also experiences a sad incident. Frédéric Caudron has to abandon a match and the tournament because his wife is threatened in the stands. Caudron writes on facebook: "Don't touch my family."
May 25: Dick Jaspers, almost 60, superman in Vietnam
June 1: Arnim Kahofer crowns himself a fantastic year. The Austrian wins the European title in 71/2 in the Spanish city of Cervera, bringing his total to three gold medals in three disciplines
June 2: Andernos in a thriller to the title in the French team competition: defeats Soissons in the final
June 10: Doozy challenge announced in Bois: a tournament with big cash prizes
June 13: What a climax in the Ankara World Cup: Korean Jung Han Heo concludes a preliminary day with a victory against Omer Karakurt, a run of 22 in the 7th inning and the finish one inning later with 3: 40-15 in 8
June 15: Eddy Merckx wins his 14th World Cup after a victory in the final against Quyet Chien Tran
June 21: Dutchman René Dericks grabs world gold in artistic competition
June 30: Portuguese heat wave hits billiard players at the World Cup in Porto
July 1: World Cup in Porto is not for Summer dresses
July 5: The maestro, the champion, and two outsiders in the Porto World Cup: Myung Woo Cho, Gökhan Salman, Jérémy Bury, and Marco Zanetti. Myung Woo Cho is the cool winner in the Porto heat
July 8: David Martinez wins his 8th in PBA tour
July 13: European Cup for Soissons, Caudron record holder
July 23: Billiard players travel to China for the World Games. And Dick Jaspers turns 60, a top-fit number 1 in the world rankings
August 12: Yusuke Mori, the first Japanese player to win a PBA tournament
August 13: Therese Klompenhouwer makes history with victory at the first women's World Games
August 14: Myung Woo Cho wins the World Games after taking the UMB world title, after defeating Sameh Sidhom in Chengdu, China
September 7: Ga-young Kim makes a spectacular performance in the LPBA final against Sruong Pheavy. This is the 17th career victory for Ga-young Kim, a former pool player
September 17: World Championships and World Cup in Belgium, guided by the master, preview with Kurt Ceulemans and organizers
September 25: Therese Klompenhouwer is back on the golden throne and wins her sixth world title in the final against Ha Eun Kim, one of the young stars of Korean billiards
September 26: New Kims and feared Turks at the World Junior Championships
September 28: Mexican Ubaldo Sanchez a sensation at the World Junior Championships
October 5: Dutch and Belgian invasion at the World Cup and World Championships in Lint
October 9: Phuong Vinh Bao equals Jaspers' record: 40 in 4 with a run of 25
October 12: Martin Horn completes a trilogy at the World Cup in Antwerp with a final victory against Tayfun Tasdemir
October 13: The World Cup in Belgium transitions seamlessly into the battle for the world title. The Belgian club, led by Kurt Ceulemans, delivers a top organizational performance
October 14: The hunt for the world title is on: top match with Bao
October 18: Frédéric Caudron reigns supremely in his home country with a world title after a dream final against Eddy Merckx
October 19: The world's elite will compete for big money in the UMB and Drawshots World Masters. The cyclus begins in Colombia in March, then travels to France (June), Vietnam (August), South Korea (date to be announced), and finally China (December). Mr. Farouk Barki, president of the UMB: "This tournament series heralds a new era for professional carom billiards."
October 27: Amir Ibraimov shows class with a victory in the Grand Prix Longoni in Bergisch Gladbach, where he defeats Toni Garcia in the final
28/10: Korean Kim (18) defeats Sanchez for €70,000
3/11: Dutch top team Babbelz retires due to financial problems
7/11: Miraculous scores in Korea World Cup and Merckx averages over 3
9/11: Youngest beats oldest in Gwajung World Cup: Myung Woo Cho (27) better than Marco Zanetti (63)
23/11: Martin Horn is untouchable in Germany. In a year of international success, Horn becomes champion in his country for the 15th time
29/11: Dick Jaspers sharpens his form with a top match in France, 40-13 in 14 against Reverchon
30/11: Day of extremes in the Dutch premier league. Peter Ceulemans leads his Eekhoorn team to an 8-0 victory over Zundert.
December 8: Dani Sánchez caps PBA year with second title.
December 10: The World Cup in Sharm features a unique preliminary round: four Belgians play in the same group for two spots in the round-16 knockouts. Frédéric Caudron and Peter Ceulemans advance, while Eddy Merckx and Roland Forthomme are eliminated.
December 13: Berkay Karakurt, the 30-year-old Turk, celebrates his first major success on the Red Sea. He wins the World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh in the final against Sameh Sidhom, who excels in his home country but misses out on his first World Cup win. Myung Woo Cho wins the overall World Cup for 2025 and also leads the world rankings
December 20: Masterclass in Doozy finals: two Belgians, two Vietnamese
December 21: Quyet Chien Tran defeats two Belgians and wins the tournament in Blois, which carries a main prize of 30,000 euros. The start of an attractive series of tournaments outside of the World Cups.
December 25: Spanish billiards loses a figurehead. Antonio Ortiz, a master in many ways, passes away at the age of 75. Forever in the hearts of Spanish billiards.