EL GOUNA/HURGHADA - The elite of global three cushion returns to Egypt next week, to the country with a rich history in billiards. Egypt player Edmond Soussa was the first official world champion in three cushion in 1928. The last World Cup this year will be played from 3 to 9 December in El Gouna, a resort not far from Hurghada. The country of the pyramids has played an important role in billiard history over the years. Already seventeen World Cups were played in Egypt in this century. The 18th is launched in El Gouna this Sunday.
Sun, beaches, dea and billiards are the ideal combination for a World Cup on the edges of the Red Sea. In El Gouna, it's all about the decision who will close the year as the World Cup leader. After Bursa (Turkey), Luxor (Egypt), Hochiminh (Vietnam), Porto (Portugal), Cheongju (Korea) and La Baule (France), this is the seventh and final World Cup for 2017. The winners in the first seven World Cups, in order of appearance, are Frédéric Caudron, Dani Sánchez, Eddy Merckx, Haeng-Jik Kim (twice) and Torbjörn Blomdahl.
El Gouna is about twenty kilometres away from Hurghada and is an Egyptian resort that stretches for 10 kilometres along the Red Sea. With temperatures between 18 and 26 degrees in December, the place is popular for players coming from many countries. The last World Cup of the year is decisive for the World Cup ranking. The winner will show up in the Supercup gala early next year, for which Frédéric Caudron already qualified as the world champion. In the World Cup ranking, Haeng-Jik Kim is the leader with 218 points ahead of Torbjörn Blomdahl with 210 and Frédéric Caudron with 182 points.
The final ranking rewards the winner with 5.000 euros. The other big prizes last year were the winner of the World Cup events (8.000 euro), the winner of the Supercup (5.000) euro, the player of the year (5.000) and the world champion (10.000).
Last year Jung Han Heo beat the Dutchman Dick Jaspers in the final match 40-29 in 19 in El Gouna final. In the finals in Hurghada, Gabriels' billiards were good for high averages in the final round: 1.535 in 2014, 1.648 in 2015 and 1.489 in 2016. In hotel Mövenpick, the Loontjens boys have build up eight tables with Simonis 300 cloths. Kozoom broadcasts all matches live, the time difference with Egypt is one hour for the European countries. 10.00 in Egypt is 9.00 in the Netherlands, Belgium, France etc.
The ranking points of La Baule's World Cup lapse in this tournament. Murat Naci Coklu defends 80 points, Dani Sánchez 54, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Marco Zanetti 38. Frédéric Caudron loses only eight points and therefore remains the number one on the world ranking at the end of 2017.
The 17 seeded players for the main tournament are Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Haeng-Jik Kim, Marco Zanetti, Murat Naci Coklu, Torbjorn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Jérémy Bury, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Sameh Sidhom, Eddy Merckx, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Jung Han Heo, Quyet Chien Tran and three wildcards: Luis Aveiga (UMB), Ihab El Messery (org) And Ali Hazen (org).
