LAUSANNE - Headed by Dick Jaspers the world champion and title holder, twelve players will start at the sixth Lausanne Billard Masters from the 23rd to 25th of November. Diane Wild, the European chairman and Masters organizer, proudly presents the field of participants. Five players are among the current top ten on the world ranking. Three groups of four players come to the arena for the preliminaries.
Frédéric Caudron, one of the big guns in the previous Masters, is the most striking player missing. Diane Wild: "Unfortunately, Frédéric Caudron had to cancel because of obligations in South Korea.'' The other Belgian world top player, Eddy Merckx, is one of the group leaders, the other two are winners of previous editions in Lausanne: Dick Jaspers and Marco Zanetti.
Two Koreans, Jung-Han Heo and Dong-Koong Kang, are the Asians in the field, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez and Martin Horn are among the protagonists in the cozy game room at the Casino de Montbenon and Murat Naco Coklu represents Turkey. Jérémy Bury is a regular guest in Lausanne and for the first time, young Frenchman Gwendal Maréchal, European junior champion, is invited to the tournament.
The winner will be rewarded by 7,000 Swiss francs, the numbers two and three receive 5,000 and 4,000. For runs over 12, 15 and 20 special premiums will be awarded, as well as for matches within 20 and 15 innings and for the best overall average.
The tournament starts on Friday (trainings at 12:00), the final is Sunday at 14:30. Eight players from the preliminaries advance to the quarter-finals. The matches are to 40 points with a 40-second shot clock.
The format:
Group A:
Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
Dani Sánchez (Spain)
Michel Boulaz (Switzerland)
Group B:
Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey)
Jérémy Bury (France)
Dong-Koong Kang (Korea)
Group C:
Marco Zanetti (Italy)
Jung-Han Heo (Korea)
Martin Horn (Germany)
Gwendal Maréchal (France)
Kozoom will broadcast the tournament live.
