ISTANBUL - The 2014 World Cup cycle takes off in a week in Istanbul. The Bahcelievler Siyavuspasa Sports Center is the stage for 155 participants in the week from 10 until 16 February, the organization is hoping for 196 players. They have reserved forty places.
Frédéric Caudron shows up as the new number one, the other top twelve seeded players are Torbjörn Blomdahl, Filipos Kasidokostas, Marco Zanetti, Dick Jaspers, Sung -Won Choi, Jérémy Bury, Eddy Merckx, Kyung-Roul Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Dani Sánchez and Dong Koong Kang, who closes the field of nine Europeans and three Koreans.
The wildcards of the organization have been given to Murat Naci Coklu and Tolgahan Kiraz. The Japanese O Takeshima is invited on behalf of the Asian federation, Carlos Campino for South America.
Frédéric Caudron defends his top spot in this first World Cup with a total of 456 points, followed by Blomdahl wit 406, Marco Zanetti is already far behind with 329 points. The battle for the top twelve positions is very important. Dong Koong Kang is the current number twelve with 212 points, ahead of Lütfi Cenet (188), Jae Ho Cho (161), Roland Forthomme and Murat Naci Coklu (both 142).
Twelve known players show up on the last day of the qualification with the qualifiers (two in a group) from the days before. Those twelve are Lütfi Cenet, Jae Ho Cho, Roland Forthomme, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Eddy Leppens, Alexander Salazar, Quyet Chien Tran, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Ngo Dinh Nai, Adnan Yüksel, Choong Bok Lee and Sameh Sidhom.
Players in the Pre qualification groups are amongst others Jung Han Heo, Carloman Ortiz, Christian Rudolph, Hyung Bum Hwang, Ruben Legazpi, Savas Bulut, Ahmet Alp, Javier Palazón, Jae Guen Kim, Murat Tüzül, Birol Uymaz, Jérôme Barbeillon, Dave Christiani, Gokhan Salman, Jose Maria Mas, Johann Schirmbrand, Peter Ceulemans, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Xuan Cuong Ma, Jean Reverchon, Therese Klompenhouwer and Anh Vu Duong.
The eighth finals are on Saturday at 11.00 and 13.00, the four quarterfinal matches at 17.00.
The semi-finals and the final are on Sunday.
Kozoom starts with live coverage from the first qualification day. The matches in the main tournament will be broadcast all.