LUXOR - The world's greatest open-air museum, as Luxor with the ruins of the Karnak and Luxor temples is characterized, will set the scene for the second three cushion World Cup this year. The tournament, on the banks of the Nile, fires the opening salvoes to continue the world tour from March 27 to April 2. The match room is in the beautifully situated Sonesta St George hotel overlooking the river Nile. The world's best players storm onto the stage for the second World Cup in 2016, after Dick Jaspers won the first session in Bursa. The Luxor event will help spread the love of billiards and increase its popularity. Moreover, a lot of players will make touristic trips to the temples and the tombs across the Nile, like the famous Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, elected Player of the Year 2015 at the Super cup gala a few weeks ago, killed two birds with one stone that night. He also won the battle with Dani Sánchez to take the Super cup. The Swedish player tops the ranking and the top twelve of seeded players for Luxor, followed by Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx and Tayfun Tasdemir.
The top guns in the circuit eager to put their names on the Luxor honour roll after Frédéric Caudron in 2014 and Dick Jaspers in 2015 won the tournament. The young stars and the challengers from outside the top twenty want to figure out where they stand for now. We will see who's the best.
Jae Ho Cho is the only Korean in the top ten of ranked players, in which Sameh Sidhom, the home favorite, is taking ninth place. HaengJik Kim is back in the top twelve after his impressive return to the circuit.
The wild cards are distributed to Chi Yeon Cho for ACBC, Eddy Leppens for CEB, Jose Juan Garcia, the former junior world champion for CPB and Riad Nady and Khaled Erfan on behalf of the organization.
The tournament gets 26 Egyptians at the start and even 27 Turkish participants. Furthermore, South Korea (18), Vietnam (7), the Netherlands and Greece (6) and Germany (5) are the best represented in Luxor. A total of 119 players have been registered from 19 countries.
Most notable is the comeback of Filippos Kasidokostas, who was away from the big tournaments for two years. The Greek ex-world champion already played a few tournaments in his country and showed up in the French league for Andernos. The world ranking is ruthless to the Greek: he dropped to place 122.
Omar Samy Abouzaid is the tournament director in a World Cup in his country for the twelfth year. ,,I am proud to be part of the team built up by Mr. Farouk Barki, that has already organized fifteen major tournaments.'' The World Cup in Luxor, he says, is one of the tournaments with the most highlights. ,,Dick Jaspers played an average of 5.000 last year in the final against HaengJik Kim and Frédéric Caudron played a match with 3.076 and made a high run of nineteen. He won the tournament in 2014.''
Omar Samy: ,, We will see is the best and can provide new highlights in Luxor this year.''
The opening ceremony for the main tournament is on Thursday, March 31st at 11.00. The first matches start in the preliminary heats on Sunday, March 27th at 11.00. The semi-finals and final match are on Saturday, April 2nd.
The organization and the city of Luxor invite you to follow this World Cup. Don't miss the best three cushion performances in the world. All matches are live on kozoom.com.
The Luxor World Cup poster for this year
Karnak temple in the middle of the city of Luxor