3-Cushion
LUXOR - The first World Cup this year, in Luxor (Egypt), has been fully booked in the weeks before the start with players from many countries. Six days before the start of the preliminaries, 138 players are on the list of participants. The tournament, which was for the first on the calendar last year, is played at the stylish Sonesta St George Hotel on the banks of the Nile. Frédéric Caudron won the first edition in the final against Torbjörn Blomdahl.
The Korean world champion Sung-Won Choi is topping the World Cup top twelve for the first time. The world champion leads the ranking along with Eddy Merckx (both 313 points). The other top twelve ranked players are Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Marco Zanetti, Dick Jaspers, Jae Ho Cho, Tayfun Tasdemir, Dong Koong Kang, Dani Sánchez, Jean Paul de Bruijn and Roland Forthomme.
The five wild cards are given to the Asian champion HaengJik Kim, Filippos Kasidokostas Pedro Piedrabuena, Sameh Sidhom and Riad Nady. The World Cup 2015 cycle consists of five tournaments: Luxor, Porto, Hochiminh, Guri and Hurghada.
Luxor welcomes a lot of players from Turkey (34) and Egypt itself (30). The Korean delegation consists of seventeen players, three of whom are in the top twelve: Sung-Won Choi, Jae Ho Cho and Dong Koong Kang.
The most known players following the top twelve are:
Javier Palazón, Jérémy Bury, Murat Naci Coklu, Lütfi Cenet, Semih Sayginer, Choong-Bok Lee, Hyung Bum Hwang, Jung Han Heo, Hyun Min Seo, Jae Guen Kim, Hyung Kon Kim, Chi Yeon Cho, Xuang Cuong Ma, Quyet Chien Tran, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Anh Vu Duong, Dinh Nai Ngo, Vinh The Ly, Arnim Kahofer, Christian Rudolph, Eddy Leppens, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Therese Klompenhouwer, Emrullah Basegmez, Can Capak, Peter De Backer, Adnan Yüksel, Murat Tüzül, Tolgahan Kiraz, Ahmet Alp, Savas Bulut, Birol Uymaz and Jean Reverchon.
Jérémy Bury and Murat Naci Coklu play the last qualification round in Luxor.
Many European players have to deal with the transition in temperature: from the cold just above freezing in countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to 35 degrees next week in the historical Luxor.
How is the form and what are the recent results?
xx Marco Zanetti showed up in a fabulous match in the second Bundesliga in Germany on Sunday. The Italian made his forty points against Carl Laschet (40-5) in twelve innings (3.330) with a run of eighteen.
xx Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx and Dick Jaspers are topping the individual rankings in the Netherlands and Belgium: Caudron 1.848 and 2.101 average, Jaspers 1.995 and 1.822 and Merckx 1.855 and 1.665. The three top players took the title in the Belgian league two weeks ago and lead the Dutch league, where the top four battle for the title in the playoffs.
xx Torbjörn Blomdahl was the best player in Belgium last week in a match against Glenn Hoffman, with 50 points in sixteen innings.
xx Lütfi Cenet won the last Grand Prix in Ankara in the final against Emrullah Basegmez (40-23 in 23) with 1.700 overall average. Basegmez reached the main tournament last year in Luxor. He's suffering a shoulder injury now.
xx Dick Jaspers, in the shadow of Zanetti, was one of the stars in Germany this weekend: 40 in 16 innings.
xx Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu took the team title with Ravensburger last weekend after a strong performance in the German league. The main competitor was Bergisch Gladbach with Blomdahl and Horn.
xx Very interesting to watch in Luxor: HaengJik Kim, who is the new Asian champion and back on top.
xx Pedro Piedrabuena took the fifth American title in a row in Carom Cafe in New York.
Marco Zanetti, on top of the podium in Hurghada, showed a magnificent form in Germany last weekend.
Monday (March 30), in the PPQ qualification, the most known players are Peter De Backer, Karina Jetten and Young Chull Kim.
Tuesday: Murat Tüzül, Jean Reverchon, Ahmet Alp, Birol Uymaz, Gökhan Salman, Vinh Ly The, Dinh Nai Ngo, Arnim Kahofer, Jae Guen Kim, Savas Bulut, Hyung Kon Kim, Emrullah Basegmez, Therese Klompenhouwer.
Wednesday in the last qualification round: Javier Palazón, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Anh Vu Duong, Xuan Cuong Ma, Lütfi Cenet, Chi Yeon Cho, Quyet Chien Tran, Choong-Bok Lee, Murat Naci Coklu, Hyung Bum Hwang, Jung Han Heo, Christian Rudolph, Jérémy Bury, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Eddy Leppens.
The main event will start on Thursday, April 2nd, with the pre-seeded players in the schedule: Sung-Won Choi, Eddy Merckx, Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl.
All matches will be broadcast live on Kozoom.