LAS VEGAS - The Las Vegas gambling paradise has been renamed the world's billiards Valhalla for the next few weeks. The World Cup kicks off there on Sunday with the world's top three-cushion players, while today (Wednesday) virtually at the same location 'The CuesSports International Expo' takes the start, an annual gala with many thousands of visitors in the halls with hundreds of billiard tables, lasting until Saturday 4 March. Dick Jaspers, last year's World Cup winner in Las Vegas, figures at that expo as one of the carom players giving well-attended exhibitions there. But first, the Dutchman and his main rivals Dani Sánchez, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl along with Korean and Vietnamese stars will take a gamble at the World Cup tables.
The World Cup, this year's first after Ankara was cancelled due to the earthquakes in Turkey, will be played from Sunday (26 February) to Saturday (4 March) and runs almost concurrently with the expo, which for pool players includes the Alfa Las Vegas Open and the Predator World 10-ball championship (top prize $60,000). Nevada's largest city is located in the middle of the desert and known for its extravagant hotels, casinos and its famous 'Strip', welcomes its billiard stars to the Rio All-Suite hotel and casino. Dick Jaspers is the previous winner in a final against Egyptian Sameh Sidhom, who has now climbed to fourth place in the world rankings following Jaspers, Sánchez and Zanetti.
World ranking leader Dick Jaspers is still 41 points ahead of Dani Sánchez and 184 ahead of Marco Zanetti. The Spaniard (Sánchez) is defending in Vegas 80 ranking points from his victory in Veghel (2021), which makes Jaspers feel slightly less threatened.
The top 14 rankings for Las Vegas are Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Marco Zanetti, Sameh Sidhom, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Tayfun Tasdemir, Quyet Chien Tran, Semih Sayginer, Eddy Merckx, Haeng Jik Kim, Jérémy Bury, Myung Woo Cho, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jung Han Heo. The wildcards handed out went to Javier Vera (Mexico), Pedro Piedrabuena (USA) and Hugo Patino (USA).
The Korean players are best represented with a total of 24, the Americans have claimed 24 places in their home country, the Turks are with 22, Vietnam with 14, the Netherlands with 11 players.
In his first group of four for the main tournament, which starts on Thursday 2nd of March, Dick Jaspers already meets Mexican Javier Vera, Dani Sánchez is paired with Pedro Piedrabuena, Marco Zanetti with Jung Han Heo and Hugo Patino, Sameh Sidhom meets Nikos Polychronopoulos, Torbjörn Blomdahl faces Myung-Woo Cho, Tayfun Tasdemir meets Jérémy Bury, Eddy Merckx opens against Semih Sayginer and two top Asians, Quyet Chien Tran and Haeng Jik Kim, show up for a high-profile opening match.
Ramon Rodriguez, the 55-year-old billiard player and famous musician from Peru, is a standout in the first days at the World Cup. He was twice number 3 at a World championship three cushion (2002 and 2007), but rarely featured again and has dropped to 290th in the rankings. He announced his return with ambition: Rodriguez will start against Belgian Alain Saeijs on Monday.
Among the Dutch stars, Therese Klompenhouwer is skipping this World Cup, Dick Jaspers, the other Number 1, already travelled on Monday night for a stopover in Los Angeles, some 400 kilometers from Las Vegas. ''I'm playing a few exhibition matches,'' explained Jaspers, the defending champion in Las Vegas. On the second day at the World Cup, young Turk Burak Hashas will play twice at the table next to Gülsen Degener, the owner of his billiards club.
Two Mexicans open the World Cup on Sunday, with the schedule also including 12 USA players, Colombians Fabio Jaramillo and Daniel Jaramillo and ex-PBA player Allen Schroeder. On the penultimate day of the qualifiers (Tuesday 28 March), the best-known players are Luis Aveiga, Robinson Morales, Berkay Karakurt, Sam van Etten, Tolgahan Kiraz, Huberney Cataño and David Pennör. After that, many big names are already entering the arena for the final shuffle: Sung-won Choi, Murat Naci Coklu, Martin Horn, Jun Tae Kim, Dion Nelin, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Choong Bok Lee, Lütfi Cenet, Jose Juan Garcia, Jacob Sörensen, Ruben Legazpi, Michael Nilsson, Pedro Gonzalez, Roland Forthomme, Chang Hoon Seo, Peter Ceulemans, Myeong Jong Cha and Jeffrey Jorissen.
The time in Las Vegas, among others, is 9 hours earlier than in Western Europe, 11 hours earlier than in Turkey and even 16 hours earlier than in Seoul.
