3-Cushion
HO CHI MINH CITY - Three days before leaving for the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City, Dick Jaspers triumphed in a Grand Prix in the Netherlands and Dani Sánchez won a Grand Prix in his own Spain. The world's top two is ready for a new battle. The Dutchman showed his brilliant form with a 40-in-9 match, the Spaniard also won a match in 9 innings (4.444) and took the final in 18 innings. Dani Sánchez, the world champion, doesn't like to make a prediction. Dick Jaspers, the world's number one and perfectionist in preparations: ,,I hope to recover in time, from two seven-hour flights, back to back.''
What about the other top 10 players in the run-up to the third World Cup this year? Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx couldn't win the Belgian Cup (Roland Forthomme was the winner). Nikos Polychronopoulos took the Greek title for the fourth time in a row. Furthermore, it was a pretty quiet weekend in the circuit. Sounds of silence around Marco Zanetti, the new European champion, around Torbjörn Blomdahl, who fell out of the top five after losing his world title and European title. And certainly no news about the Asians, so focused on a World Cup in their own environment. For sure the coming-man Nguyen Quoc Nguyen is one of the players to reach the podium like last year.
For Ho Chi Minh City, it is the third World Cup in three years. The world's players strike down in the Vietnamese city with its millions of people. On Monday, May 22, is the start, on Sunday 28 May the final.
The World Cup ranking after Bursa (Caudron) and Luxor (Sánchez) is led by Dick Jaspers with 108 points, despite his two lost finals. Dani Sánchez and Frédéric Caudron follow with 96 and 88 points. Jaspers is on top of the world ranking with 404 points followed by Sánchez with 402 and Caudron with 384 points.
The magic three will lose 8, 8 and 16 points respectively in Ho Chi Minh City from Luxor World Cup 2016. The Spaniard can conquer the number one position if he records a better result than his Dutch rival. Eddy Merckx (11th on the ranking) and Jérémy Bury (6th) are under pressure, because they have to defend 80 and 54 points. The top 14 of the ranking is at full strength in Ho Chi Minh and is automatically seeded for the last 32.
The three wildcards are given to Hugo Patino (UMB), Quyet Chien Tran and Minh Can Ma from the organizing country. The 149 participants include 59 Koreans, 32 Vietnamese, 14 Japanese and a total of 105 Asian-continent players. One American, three Colombians, five Egyptians. Of the European continent, 35 players decided to make the far trip to Vietnam, including sixteen Turks.
The matches in the preliminaries, played on eight tables from 22 to 24 May, start at 11.00, the last day session is at 20.00 local time. With a 5-hours time difference between West Europe and Vietnam, that means that the first matches start at 6 o'clock and end at 15.00. The matches from May 25, on six tables, start at 10.00 Vietnamese time.
Major and strong groups in the final qualification: Roland Forthomme and Xuan Cuong Ma, Semih Sayginer and Huberney Catano, Lütfi Cenet and Murat Tüzül, Anh Vu Duong and Can Capak, Hyung-Sun Kim and Jae Guen Kim, Adnan Yüksel and Myung Woo Cho, Dinh Nai Ngo and Javier Palazón.
All matches will be broadcast by Kozoom.
The stage in last year's Ho Chi Minh World Cup
Vietnamese top gun Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, one of the favourites for victory