3-Cushion
HURGHADA - The last World Cup this year, from 7 to 13 December in Hurghada, Egypt, should highlight the player who wins the 2014 World Cup and therefor the opponent of Sung-Won Choi (new world champion) at the Supercup Gala in Antwerp on 21 February 2015. Six players still have good chance to triumph in the World Cup cycle. Frédéric Caudron is the leader after four tournaments with 168 points ahead of Eddy Merckx with 142, Dick Jaspers 130, Torbjörn Blomdahl 126 and Jae Ho Cho 122. Sung-Won Choi has 124 points, but is already one of the two players at the Super Gala as world champion.
Tomorrow (Friday), Ludo Dielis will announce at a press conference in Antwerp how the Supercup and the Player of the Year election will look like.
The four World Cups, played so far in 2014, were won by Jae Ho Cho (Istanbul), Frédéric Caudron (Luxor), Dick Jaspers (Porto) and Eddy Merckx (Guri).
In the last World Cup in Hurghada the world ranking is under pressure. Torbjörn Blomdahl defends his first place, Frédéric Caudron is ready to regain the position on top. Dong Koong Kang and Dani Sánchez lose many ranking points from the World Cup in Guri (2013), where they played the final.
Starting the new year (2015) there will be more huge changes on the ranking. Then will expire the points of three World Cup tournaments in total: Guri 2013, Peloponnese in 2013 and Medellin 2013. Torbjörn Blomdahl loses 150 points from the 411 he has now, Frédéric Caudron 114, Sung-Won Choi 68, Eddy Merckx 32, Dick Jaspers 60, Jae Ho Cho 58, Dong Koong Kang 114, Marco Zanetti 48, Filipos Kasidokostas 92, Dani Sánchez 62, Quyet Chien Tran 31, Jean Paul de Bruijn 21 and Jérémy Bury 42.
The World Cup in Hurghada, the annual closing of the cycle, has the same organization as every year with Farouk Barki, Omar Sami, Susan Milbank, Nabil Salama, Mohamed Soliman and Rageh Hosni. The location: the beautiful Sunride Beach Garden Hotel. The temperature in the tourist resort at the Red Sea fluctuates in the next week between 26 and 30 degrees.
Twelve players are seeded for the main tournament, the wildcards go to Anh Vu Duong (Vietnam), Jérémy Bury (France), Hugo Patino (USA), Sameh Sidhom and Mohsen Fouda (Egypt).
The players list counts 149 names, on the reserve list are 26 players, including Hyun Min Seo, who was so strong at the World championship in Seoul, Chi Yeon Cho, Myung Woo Cho, Young Chull Kim, Johann Schirmbrand, Robinson Morales and Orhan Erogul.
The hosting country comes with 26 players to the start, the Turks even with thirty with Tayfun Tasdemir as the best ranked.
Belgian Ronny Brants opens the tournament on Sunday 7 December (11.00, Egyptian time) against Dutchman Jacky Dekkers. Further in the first rounds: Pascal Claus, Mohamed Suliman, Mohamed Ardash (the tournament photographer), Robert Effenhauser, Wilco van Wijk and Dirk Muylaert.
Peter De Backer, the young Spanish talents David Martinez, David Zapata and Antonio Montes, Francis Forton, Mehmet Yavas, Yvo Gazdos and Karina Jetten start on Monday (December 8).
Peter De Backer returns to the tournament where he was very successful in previous years.
Semih Sayginer starts his new mission one day later (on Tuesday) amongst others with Javier Palazón, Tolgahan Kiraz, Tonny Carlsen, Therese Klompenhouwer, Jef Philipoom Regay Henry, Radek Novak, Jean Reverchon, Tae Soo Lim and Pierre Soumagne.
Wednesday is the final qualifying round for the main tournament including Jean Paul de Bruijn, Jung Han Heo, Choong-Bok Lee, Roland Forthommme, Eddy Leppens, Lütfi Cenet, Jae Guen Kim, Christian Rudolph, Peter Ceulemans, Adnan Yüksel, Savas Bulut, Vinh Ly The, Ahmet Alp, Murat Naci Coklu, Glenn Hofman, Murat Tüzül and Nikos Polychronopoulos.
The preliminaries will be played with eight tables, in the main tournament on Thursday (start at 12.00) with four tables. The semifinals and finals are on Saturday, December 13th.
The tables are Gabriels, the preliminaries are played to 30 caroms from the final qualifying to 40 points.
The winner receives 5.500 euros, the number two 3500 and the losing semi-finalists 2200 euros.
All matches are broadcast live by Kozoom.