GURI - The ladies have left the building after their World championship in Guri, from now on the boys are back in town. Therese Klompenhouwer from the Netherlands was the glorious winner and is one of the ladies who will return for the World Cup. The stylish arena in the Guri Gymnasium is ready for the new start, the fifth World Cup this season with the elite of three cushion players to take a shot at the title, and a maximum number of participants in the preliminaries. Frédéric Caudron enters the tournament as the number one in the world ranking. The Belgian leads the top twelve of ranked players. The World Cup regulars set the scene and are expected to compete for the title.
Dani Sánchez won the tournament last year with 2.739 average over five matches, equalizing Torbjörn Blomdahl's world record played in Greece. The Spaniard, who started a billiard club in Seoul one month ago, defeated Tayfun Tasdemir in the final match 40-15 in twelve innings.
The Guri World Cup is the first in which a new UMB rule will be used. From now on, the world ranking is determined by eight World Cups and not by six as before. The rule is especially meant to protect the top ranked players. In the two next tournaments, the World Cups in Guri and La Baulle, the ranking points are awarded, but no points will be deducted. For this reason, Murat Naci Coklu and Roland Forthomme don't lose the 80 and 54 points from the World Cup in Istanbul in 2015, so they will feel less pressure to lose their top twelve position.
The stands in the World Cup arena in Guri were moderately filled for the ladies championship. For the final days of the men's tournament around 700 spectators are expected. That's just a small part of the estimated number of 10 million billiard fans and players throughout South Korea.
The capital, Seoul, with ten million inhabitants in the city itself, 25 million in the entire metropolis, has about 10.000 billiard clubs with between five and ten billiard tables. The Hollywood brand, the match tables on which is played in Guri, sells 50 match tables in a week in South Korea. This is the tenth time that a UMB World Cup is played in South Korea continuously from 2007. The first years was the World Cup in Suwon, from then on in Guri. The World championship in 2014, won by Sung-Won Choi, was played in Seoul. The Korean Federation (KBF), with around 1.000 playing members, puts in eighty people in the entire organization.
The first spectacular match was already seen on Monday in the earliest session of the tournament: 39-year-old Korean Dae Kwon Shin defeated his countryman Woo Jin Choi 30-10 in 12 innings (2.500). Last year in Ho Chi Minh, this Korean player already impressed. Dae Kwon Shin performed in a world class match against Dick Jaspers, which ended in a draw (40-40 in 13 innings). The Dutchman then missed the break shot for the shoot-out, Shin took the win.
The seeded players in Guri are Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers, Dani Sanchez, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir, Roland Forthomme, Sameh Sidhom, Dong Koong Kang, Jae Ho Cho and Nikos Polychronopoulos. The wild cards are distributed to Huberney Catano, Adnan Yüksel, Magued Elias, Jae Guen Kim and Young Hoon Lee. Therese Klompenhouwer, the ladies world champion, is among the players in the preliminaries, she will start on Wednesday.
Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers and Frédéric Caudron (2x) were the winners of the first four World Cups this year.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the races start at 11.00 am Korean time. The last rounds are at 18.30 local time. The final qualifying round starts on Thursday at 10.00. The draw for the main tournament is after the last session, around 20.00. The semifinals and finals are on Sunday 4th September.
The World Cup will be played at eight billiards, the matches are broadcast live by Kozoom. The UMB, the tournament director Mr. Gyo Yong Gweon and the Korean Billiards Federation like to invite you for this fourth World Cup this year.
The Korean player Dae Kwon Shin started of with a match in only 12 innings
The start of the World Cup on Monday