VILA NOVA DE GAIA - ,,We are ready for it, Porto here we come'', tweeted the group of supporters of the Belgian player Eddy Leppens from the airport yesterday night. Markus Dömer, the German, who makes his debut at the World championship, greeted his fans very early this morning from the Frankfurt airport (6.45) and was leaving a few minutes later for a beautiful mission.
,,Come on Eddy'', will be heard from the stands in the Yeatman Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia. And the Kozoom team in Porto will give his German reporter a warm welcome: ,,Jetzt geht's los, Markus.''
The World championship is one day away from the start of its 65th edition, in which Dick Jaspers defends his title. What we all wonder is: will the big field with challengers be able to break the hegemony of the top players that won the World championship in recent ten years: Dick Jaspers (twice), Dani Sánchez (twice), Filippos Kasidokostas, Ryuuji Umeda, Marco Zanetti (twice), Eddy Merckx and Semih Sayginer, the only one in this illustrious list that does not play in Porto.
The WC in Porto starts off at 11.00 tomorrow (Wednesday) with the usual 48 players, with 48 qualifying matches spread over sixteen sessions. And all these matches will be broadcasted live on Kozoom for Premium pass holders.
The emphasis in the playing system lays on the first two days: On Wednesday and Thursday six rounds will be played on four tables: so 24 matches per day. The first round starts at 11.00 am and the last at 21.00 in the evening. From 17.00 on Wednesday, the top players of the rankings enter the roum in the sessions from 19:00. Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Dani Sánchez and Torbjörn Blomdahl meet the players that lost their first match in the flights.
On Thursday at 20:00 is the last round: at that time the sixteen winners of the flights known and the draw will be done for the eighth finals, to be played on Friday. That day still will be played on four tables: four matches at 13.00, four at 15:00. In the evening there are no matches.
On Saturday the four quarterfinal matches are played on one table: 13.00, 15.00, 18.00 and 20.00.
And on Sunday the semifinals at 11.00 and 13.00 on one table. The final is at 17.30.
Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Jérémy Bury, Filippos Kasidokostas, Sung-Won Choi, Kyung-Roul Kim, Jae Ho Cho, Martin Horn, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Murat Naci Coklu, Lütfi Cenet and Choong-Bok Lee are on top of the sixteen flights. The matches will be played to 40 caroms.
The tournament is not in Matosinhos, like the last World Cup, but in the Yeatman Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, a coastal town in the Portuguese district Porto opposite the town of Porto on the south bank of the Douro. The city covers an area of 170 square kms, more than 300.000 inhabitants and is the center of all Porto wines.