SHARM EL SHEIKH - Two times Dick Jaspers, once Dani Sánchez, Eddy Merckx and Torbjörn Blomdahl. Those are the winners of the first five World Cups this year in the maximum cycle after the Corona era. The 2022 World Cup series (Ankara, Las Vegas, Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Veghel, Sharm El Sheikh), of which Jaspers is already the overall winner, concludes next week on the Red Sea: from Sunday 4 December to Saturday 10 December. This will be the first World Cup with Tayfun Tasdemir as the new and proud world champion, with Semih Sayginer as the last Sharm El Sheikh winner, 25 Turks in total, 24 Egyptians, 12 Dutch, 11 Koreans and 10 Belgians.
The apparent trend in this World Cup is that Dutch, Belgian, Danish and German billiard players are travelling slightly less en masse to the tourist resorts, that Koreans and Vietnamese are less numerous and more countries are going on World Cup missions with small delegations. The 144-strong field of players comes from 22 countries, including some with 1 (Iraq, USA, Italy), 2 (Sweden) and 3 players (Colombia, Lebanon, Jordan, Austria, Portugal). Four young teenagers in the Egyptian arena are Burak Hashas, Dimitrios Seleventas, Lukas Mortensen and Joris van 't Zelfden and because Therese Klompenhouwer is staying at home, only two well-known women players are playing: Karina Jetten and Gülsen Degener.
Dick Jaspers is almost certainly not to be knocked off his throne as world number one and is already sure of the overall World Cup win over 2022. Jérémy Bury, Jung Han Heo, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Martin Horn are in vulnerable positions in the world rankings (11-14), the players close to them are Jun Tae Kim, Myung Woo Cho, Sung Won Choi and Choong Bok Lee.
The top 14 seeded players are: Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Marco Zanetti, Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Martin Horn, Tayfun Tasdemir, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Semih Sayginer, Eddy Merckx, Jérémy Bury, Haeng Jik Kim, Murat Naci Coklu and Jung Han Heo. The most notable absentee is Ruben Legazpi, the runner-up at the last World championship following the champion Tayfun Tasdemir. Wildcards have been handed out to Jhon Fredy Martinez of Colombia and two Egyptians, Riad Nady and Samer Kamal.
The main tournament starts on Thursday 8 December with eight groups of four, from which the best two in a group qualify for the best 16 and strong players are paired together, including:
X Marco Zanetti and Jung Han Heo
X Quyet Chien Tran and Murat Naci Coklu
X Sameh Sidhom and Haeng Jik Kim
X Martin Horn and Jérémy Bury
X Eddy Merckx and Tayfun Tasdemir
X Torbjörn Blomdahl and Semih Sayginer
The first well-known players already enter the tournament on the first day (Sunday 4 December): Pierre Soumagne, Dimitrios Seleventas, Burak Hashas, Allen Schröder and Karina Jetten. Monday's entrants include: Raul Cuenca, Omer Karakurt, Tonny Carlsen, Thomas Andersen, Ahmet Alp, Sam van Etten. For Tuesday, on the game plan are: Tolgahan Kiraz, Robinson Morales, Rui Costa, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Gökhan Salman, Berkay Karakurt, Xuan Cuong Ma, Peter De Backer, Ja In Kang, Arnim Kahofer.
The final qualifying day on Wednesday features: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Myung Woo Cho, Lütfi Cenet, Choong Bok Lee, Jose Juan Gharcia, Roland Forthomme, Peter Ceulemans, Gwendal Maréchal, Dion Nelin, Jeffrey Jorissen, Ronny Lindemann, Myeong Jong Cha, Jun Tae Kim, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen.
The main tournament starts at 10.00 on Thursday, with the final round at 8pm. Friday will start with 16 players at 11am, the last round at 6.30pm. The final day is Saturday, December 10, with the semi-finals and finals. The time zone differs by one hour with Western Europe: in Egypt one hour later.
The Park Regency resort on the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh, where the World Cup is played next week