ANKARA – The reigning world three cushion champion, Turkish Tayfun Tasdemir, defends his world title in his home land from September 6 to 10. He tops the player list of 48 names announced by the UMB, the world federation, today. Apart from the titleholder from Turkey, the top five includes Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Myung Woo Cho, the first Asian player. The Turks are in their home country after the departure of Semih Sayginer, Murat Naci Coklu and Lütfi Cenet to the PBA with only four players: Tayfun Tasdemir and Berkay Karakurt seeded, wildcards for Tolgahan Kiraz and Omer Karakurt.
Besides reigning champion Tasdemir and wildcard holders Kiraz and Karakurt, 13 players come from Europe (CEB), eight from America, five from Asia and three from Africa. The Koreans are best represented with seven players. The Colombians are with four players, the Dutch, Belgians, Spaniards, French, Swedes, Japanese and Vietnamese as well-known billiard countries with two players. Ryuuji Umeda (Japan) is a former world champion. Torbjörn Blomdahl has the most on his record with six world titles, Dick Jaspers follows with five titles ahead of Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx with two and Tayfun Tasdemir with one title. The two Dutchmen, Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn, are divided in the same group for the preliminary rounds with Korean Ji Hun Ahn. Two players from each group of three qualify for the next round.
Tayfun Tasdemir will play with Javier Vera and Robinson Morales, Torbjörn Blomdahl with Ryuuji Umeda, Myung Woo Cho with Huberney Cataño, Eddy Merckx with Gwendal Maréchal, Quyet Chien Tran with Turkish wildcard holders, Jérémy Bury with Pedro Piedrabuena, Nikos Polychronopoulos with Phuong Vinh Bao, Jung Han Heo with Berkay Karakurt, Jun Tae Kim with Michael Nilsson, Roland Forthomme with Ruben Legazpi and Dion Nelin with Myeong Jong Cha.
The world champion and top 16 ranked players are:
Tayfun Tasdemir, Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Myung Woo Cho, Eddy Merckx, Sameh Sidhom, Haeng Jik Kim, Quyet Chien Tran, Jérémy Bury, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jung Han Heo, Jun Tae Kim, Martin Horn, Ruben Leghazpi, Myeong Jong Cha and Dion Nelin.