The 7th and final event of the 2025 World Cup cycle kicks off this weekend. The wonderful tourist resort of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt on the Red Sea will host the world's best three-cushion players starting tomorrow, Sunday, December 7th, until Saturday, December 13th. Besides the €16,000 victory bonus in Egypt, where Marco Zanetti triumphed in 2024, the second major goal is the final ranking for 2025 across all 7 World Cups: €30,000, €15,000, and €10,000 for the top three. In the UMB Events Ranking, Dick Jaspers defends his 80 points from Porto 2024, while Myung-woo Cho will defend 54 points.
The 17 seeded players for Sharm El Sheikh are Dick Jaspers, Myung-woo Cho, Quyet Chien Tran, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti, Thanh Luc Tran, Tayfun Tasdemir, Jung-han Heo, Sameh Sidhom, Jérémy Bury, Tolgahan Kiraz, Berkay Karakurt, Frédéric Caudron, and Martin Horn. The three wildcards are Pedro Piedrabuena, Mahmoud Ayman, and Riad Nady.
Egypt's time zone is one hour ahead of Western Europe. Most matches will be played between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM Western European Time.
Five players are vying for the top prize in the World Cup cycle: Myung-woo Cho with 222 points (2 wins), Eddy Merckx with 188 (1 win), Tayfun Tasdemir with 178 (2 finals), Dick Jaspers with 172 (1 win), and Marco Zanetti with 170 (1 final). Martin Horn and Thanh Luc Tran each won one World Cup this year, but their total of points is not enough to reach the top spot in this ranking.
Eddy Merckx has the highest average across the 2025 World Cups so far. The top ten over the 6 World Cups:
1. Eddy Merckx 1,908
2. Myung-woo Cho 1,850
3. Haeng-jik Kim 1,769
4. Glenn Hofman 1,725
5. Frédéric Caudron 1,719
6. Dick Jaspers 1,717
7. Marco Zanetti 1,712
8. Sameh Sidhom 1,687
9. Martin Horn 1,683
10. Tayfun Tasdemir 1,668
The field of participants for the last World Cup includes, besides the home country, mainly many Turks (30), with a strikingly small number of Koreans and Vietnamese. The Belgians, with four, also show little interest in a disguised holiday. The Netherlands still stands out positively with 12, France with 7, and Germany with 8.
The first selection starts on Sunday, December 7, with Cédric Melnytschenko, Francesco Orlando and Alex Tremoulis, among others. On Monday, Tobias Bouerdick, Adrie Demming, Marcos Morales, Jose Maria Mas, Amir Ibraimov, Alessio D’Agata, Takeshima O, and Lukas Mortensen will join the field.
On Tuesday, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Jose Juan Garcia, Arnim Kahofer, Pierre Soumagne, Ahmet Alp, Birol Uymaz, Michael Devogelaere, Huub Wilkowski, Maxime Panaia, Dimitrios Seleventas, Mashhour Abu Tayeh, Ronny Lindemann, David Pennör, and Gwendal Maréchal will make their kick-off.
Wednesday is reserved for the final qualifying rounds, featuring big names like Torbjörn Blomdahl, Glenn Hofman, Haeng Jik Kim, Phuong Vinh Bao, Peter Ceulemans, Hong Chiem Thai, Nick Polychronopoulos, Roland Forthomme, Ruben Legazpi, Sergio Jimenez, Jeffrey Jorissen and Gökhan Salman.
The main draw kicks off on Thursday with eight groups of four players, who will then proceed to the knockout stages to determine the 16 players. Highlights on this day include Eddy Merckx vs. Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti vs. Berkay Karakurt, Tayfun Tasdemir vs. Jérémy Bury, and Jung Han Heo vs. Sameh Sidhom.
The two final days are on Friday, December 12th, and Saturday, December 13th.
Eddy Merckx' on top of the average ranking over the World Cups in 2025