ANKARA - In the week after the World 3-cushion Grand Prix in South Korea, the three cushion elite players will soon travel on to another top event. The World Cup in Ankara, Turkey, the first in the 2023 cycle, is on the international calendar from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 February. The top five on the players list, led by Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez and Marco Zanetti, enters a new battle in the Turkish stronghold after more than two weeks of great fights at the World Grand Prix, where Dick Jaspers captured the 100.000 euros top prize. Most of the players gather again in the first World Cup of a total of seven tournaments in 2023.
The top players are facing more and more busy weeks and months on the global circuit. Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx, for example, get little rest in their preparations for the World Cup in Ankara. Eddy Merckx told us between the events: ''I returned from South Korea last Thursday, had a few days to deal with the long trip, but now I already played in the Netherlands, first for the Dutch cup on Saturday, then the league this Sunday, followed in Belgium on Monday and I leave for Ankara this Wednesday. I can stand travalling well, only the really far trips shouldn't follow too close together, because then I don't have time to recuperate.''
This year's cycle of World Cups, after the Turkish start, will soon continue with the Las Vegas World Cup (USA) from February 26 to March 4, then a trip to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) from May 22 to 28, Porto (Portugal) from June 26 to July 2, Dutch Veghel from October 22 to 28, Korean Seoul from November 6 to 12 and finally to Egypt from December 3 to 9.
The Turkish Billiard Federation is boasting big organizations this year. The World Cup is the start, immediately followed by the World Artistic championships, also in Ankara from 16 to 19 February, the European championships all disciplines with 16 different competitions from 8 to 16 April in Antalya, new is the WCBS championships from 20 to 23 July and three World championships (men, juniors and ladies) from 6 to 17 September.
The coveted positions in the top 14 of the UMB rankings can be divided into three groups. Dick Jaspers and Dani Sánchez lead the rankings with 515 and 462 points. Far behind them, from 3rd place (319 points) to 10th place (263 points), a tight group of eight players is firmly in the top 14 with Marco Zanetti, Sameh Sidhom, Eddy Merckx, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Tayfun Tasdemir, Quyet Chien Tran, Semih Sayginer and Haeng Jik Kim. From 11th place (229 points) to 14th place (211 points), with Jérémy Bury, Jung-han Heo, Myung-woo Cho and Nikos Polychronopoulos, four players are within 18 points of each other in the lower part of the top 14.
The World Cup results of Veghel 2021 are replaced by those of Ankara 2023. The top position of Dick Jaspers (26 points to defend from Veghel) is not threatened by the number two, Dani Sánchez, who loses the maximum 80 points from Veghel. Nor will the Spaniard's position (2nd place) change with his wide lead over the next players in the rankings. Myung-Woo Cho can climb up the rankings at the World Cups in Ankara and Las Vegas as he does not lose any points due to his absence in Veghel and Sharm el Sheikh 2021.
The 14 players from the top and the three wildcards (Pedro Gonzalez from Colombia and Turks Murat Naci Coklu and Berkay Karakurt) enter the tournament on 10 February with the eight groups of four players.
On the first day, Monday, well-known players like Emrullah Basemez, Adrien Tachoire, Maxime Panaia, Sergio Jimenez Lukas Mortensen and young Greek Dimitrios Seleventas are entering the tournament. On the second day we can welcome Pierre Soumagne, Wesley de Jaeger, Joey de Kok, Huub Wilkowski, Thomas Andersen, Ahmet Alp, David Pennör, Dustin Jäschke.
On Wednesday: Tolgahan Kiraz, Robinson Morales, Huberney Cataño, Omer Karakurt, Sam van Etten, Kostas Kokkoris, Rui Costa, Peter De Backer, Ja In Kang, Bong Joo Hwang. Thursday in the final qualifiers among others Martin Horn, Lütfi Cenet, Sung Won Choi, Jun Tae Kim, Dion Nelin, Myeong Jong Cha, Jose Juan Garcia, Gwendal Maréchal, Jacob Sörensen, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Ruben Legazpi, Choong Bok Lee, Michael Nilsson, Peter Ceulemans, Jeffrey Jorissen, Chang Hoon Seo, Roland Forthomme.
On Friday the main tournament is starting, among others with interesting battles in the groups of four, like:
Sánchez and Coklu
Jaspers and Gonzalez
Zanetti, Heo and Karakurt
Tasdemir and Myung Woo Cho
Blomdahl and Bury
Tran and Haeng Jik Kim
Merckx and Sayginer
The Turkish clock is two hours ahead of Western European time. Most matches are played from 9am to 6pm every day.
Quyet Chien Tran, here in a match with Dick Jaspers, two of the big contenders at Ankara World Cup
Eddy Merckx, with all the top guns travelling up and down in the world