DONGHAE GANTWON - The 23 European billiard players for the 74th World Three-cushion Championship, to be played in Korea from November 9-13, have been announced by the world federation. Dick Jaspers is the defending champion in the most important tournament of the year. Dani Sánchez and Marco Zanetti are the other two Europeans in the top three of the world rankings. The Asian players are also known. The full player list is expected to be known by the end of this week.
Dick Jaspers has been automatically played along with the top 16 in the world rankings. The field will be supplemented to 48 players including national champions, highly ranked players and wildcards.
The Belgian legend Raymond Ceulemans is the undisputed record holder with world titles in three-tie. He won 21 times during his time as the global champion on the green billiard tables. Torbjörn Blomdahl is the number two with six world titles ahead of Dick Jaspers with five, Dani Sánchez with four and Frédéric Caudron with three.
The top ranked players and the champion for the 2022 World championship are:
1 Dick Jaspers, Netherlands
2 Dani Sánchez, Spain
3 Marco Zanetti, Italy
4 Quyet Chien Tran, Vietnam
5 Sameh Sidhom, Egypt
6 Martin Horn, Germany
7 Tayfun Tasdemir, Turkey
8 Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sweden
9 Semih Sayginer, Turkey
10 Eddy Merckx, Belgium
11 Jérémy Bury, France
12 Haeng Jik Kim, Korea
13 Murat Naci Coklu, Turkey
14 Jung Han Heo, Korea
15 Jun Tae Kim, Korea
16 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Vietnam
17 Sung Won Choi, Korea.
Together with Dick Jaspers, the Dutch federation has assigned another player: Dutch champion Jean Paul de Bruijn, who is making his come-back at a World championship. The Turks not only have Tayfun Tasdemir, Semih Sayginer and Murat Naci Coklu from the top of the rankings, but also Turgay Orak as the fourth participant. For Belgium, Roland Forthomme is the second participant together with Eddy Merckx. The French get second, alongside Jérémy Bury, with Gwendal Maréchal, the Spaniards start with Dani Sánchez as well as Ruben Legazpi. For Italy, with Marco Zanetti, Alessio D'Agata also gets a place at this World's, The Germans have Cengiz Karaca in addition to Martin Horn. The Swedes start with Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson. For Egypt, with Sameh Sidhom in the top five, Mohamed Abdin gets a wildcard. Two other wildcards have already been handed out to Mahhour Abu Tayeh of Jordan and Fadi Abousaleh of Lebanon.
The Europeans following the top 17 are:
Ruben Legazpi, Spain
Jean Paul de Bruijn, Netherlands
Turgay Orak, Turkey
Dion Nelin, Denmark
Michael Nilsson, Sweden
Jose Miguel Soares, Portugal
Roland Forthomme, Belgium
Cengiz Karaca, Germany
Nikos Polychronopoulos, Greece
Gwendal Maréchal, France
Radek Novak, Czech Republic
Gerhard Kostistansky, Austria
Alessio D'Agata, Italy.