Who were the best in three cushion in a spectacular year

ANDERNOS - Two world titles, individually and with the Belgium team, give Eddy Merckx a legitimate right to the title Player of the Year in 2012. The ranking we made, is just a game, not an official ranking, nonetheless we thought it is nice to make an unofficial top fifteen in three cushion at the end of this year, not on the basis of the world ranking, but regarding performance in other tournaments than World Cups, high runs etc.

Two Belgians lead the top of this ranking: not only Eddy Merckx performed in a remarkable year, also Frédéric Caudron had a fabulous year and is therefore rewarded with the number one position in the world.

Torbjörn Blomdahl is crowned for his magnificent comeback with a place on the podium. Pedro Piedrabuena, who seldom appears in official tournaments, has recorded an impressive honor roll this year and should not be missing in the top twelve.

Roland Forthomme certainly deserves a place in the top due to his world record run of 28 at the end of this year.

The top fifteen:

1 Eddy Merckx (Belgium)

2 Frédéric Caudron (Belgium)

3 Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)

4 Sung-Won Choi (Korea)

5 Filippos Kasidokostas (Greece)

6 Martin Horn (Germany)

7 Jérémy Bury (France)

8 Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)

9 Dani Sánchez (Spain)

10 Pedro Piedrabuena (USA)

11 Roland Forthomme (Belgium)

12 Marco Zanetti (Italy)

13 Kyung-Roul Kim (Korea)

14 Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey)

15 Raimond Burgman (Netherlands)

1 Eddy Merckx:
The World title in Villa Nova de Gaia (Porto) after a flawless performance was the highlight of his succesful year The 44-year old Belgian defeated Sung-Won Choi in the final 40-24 and Frédéric Caudron in the semifinals 40-30.
Merckx won the world championship for teams in Viersen with Caudron, with a final win over Martin Horn 2-1.
He took his third Belgian title in a row after beating Caudron in the final.
Merckx also won the Superprestige in Lommel in the final against Caudron (Kozoom wrote: with a Cavendish sprint).
He won the Dutch Cupfinal with TOVV, made a masterly run of 26 in the Belgian league, was sixth in the Agipi Masters, Player of the Year in Belgium, reached the semifinals of the Suwon World Cup and the quarterfinals in the Hurghada WC. He won the most recent Belgian tournament in a final against Peter Ceulemans: 40-13 in 13 innings.

2 Frédéric Caudron:
The most notable victory this year was the triumph in the duel with Dick Jaspers for the Juanjo Trilles Cup, where the number one in the world and the world champion met each other. Caudron was superior in a race over 600 caroms in ten sessions: he won 600-501 in 274 innings (2.190/1.828). Most of all the seventh session was transcendent level: 34 in 4 innings, 51 in 7 (4,426 average).
Furthermore Caudron closed the year with a brilliant victory in the World Cup in Hurghada, where he defeated Lütfi Cenet in the final (averiging 2.500) and in the semifinals Dick Jaspers (2.429). Caudron dethroned Blomdahl in Egypt as the new number one in the world.
Caudron was world champion with Belgium in Viersen, reached the semifinals of the Antalya World Cup, became European champion teams with Agipi (Kozoom headlined: Caudron star dancer at champion gala), won the Spanish team title with Gandia by winning the final against Dani Sánchez, was beaten at the World championship in the semifinals by Eddy Merckx and was second in the Superprestige. He won four titles in the Belgian championship in Blankenberge.
Caudron played high averages so far in all competitions: 2.032 in 13 matches in the Netherlands, 2.623 in 4 matches in Germany and 1.862 in Belgium over 11 matches.

3 Torbjörn Blomdahl:
The 'brilliant show' in the Agipi Masters marked the spectacular come back of Blomdahl in three cushion world. The Swedish sparkled including a slaughter against Filippos Kasidokostas (50-7), defeated Sung-Won Choi in the semifinals with 50 in 14 (run of 20) and won the final against Kyung-Roul Kim with 50 in 29 innings .
Another demonstration of world class he showed in the Suwon World Cup. Blomdahl won in the semifinals against Dick Jaspers (2.765) and in the final 3-1 aganst Marco Zanetti (3.056).
He captured the number one position on Caudron, but lost him again to the Belgian at the end of 2012.
Blomdahl became Swedish champion and second in the Open Verhoeven in New York, where he lost the final against Pedro Piedrabuena.

4 Sung-Won Choi:
The year started for the wonderful Korean player with a victory in the Antalya World Cup, where he defeated Tayfun Tasdemir for his own crowd in a thrilling final 3-2.
At the World championship, Choi reached to the final by winning the semifinal over Marco Zanetti (40-37). In the battle for gold he was defeated by Eddy Merckx.
Choi was close to a new coup in the Agipi Masters, but was beaten in the semifinal by the incredibly strong Blomdahl.

5 Filippos Kasidokostas:
It was not his best year, but the Greek won in Istanbul the European title, after beating Dutchman Raimond Burgman in the final (40-26) and Murat Naci Coklu in the semifinal.
Before the knockout phase, Kasidokostas was very close to elimination in his match with Lütfi Cenet, with whom he fought a hard battle later in the year in the Hurghada World Cup.
Kasidokostas won a tournament in Athens and glittered amongst others with an 18 run in the French league on a memorable evening, when Jaspers also showed a world class performance against Blomdahl.

6 Martin Horn:
The great performance in the Agipi Masters, with the highest average of all finalists, was the best the German showed this year. He defeated Dick Jaspers in both the prelims and in the quarterfinals and he ran a seventeen in the semis.
He became German team champion with Horster Eck, but lost the individual title to Christian Rudolph. Horn also won silver at the World championships for teams with Stefan Galla and became Belgian champion with the team of De Ploeg.

7 Jérémy Bury:
The highlight of the year was the the French record match average: 40 in 9 innings. In the French ranking tournaments Bury shows terrific high's: he is almost unbeatable and only lost to Jérôme Barbeillon at the Laxou event. Bury won the European title with Agipi again and played in the semifinals in the Hurghada World Cup, where he lost a thrilling five-setter against Lütfi Cenet. Bury confirmed its continuing role in the top of the world.
 
8 Dick Jaspers:
The Dutchman lost his world title and European title, but is still one of the world's best with his high averages and beautiful playing style. Jaspers won two Grand Prix tournaments in his country, became Dutch champion, played a world class match against Torbjörn Blomdahl in the French league (average 3.846, 3.308 for Blomdahl, high run of eighteen). He leads the Belgian league (teams) with an average of 2.023 before Merckx and Caudron.
Jaspers was 5th in the Agipi Masters after beating Eddy Merckx, played the semifinals at the Suwon World Cup, where he was outplayed by Blomdahl and the semis in the Hurghada WC beaten by Frédéric Caudron.

9 Dani Sánchez:
The Spanish, triple world champion, seemed on his way to another great performance at the World championship in his second home in Porto, but lost his chances in a blood-sweat-and-teers match against Marco Zanetti.
He became Spanish champion again (final against Rafael Garrido), reached the semifinals in the World team championship with Spain in Viersen (he beat Eddy Merckx in the semifinals) and reached the quarterfinals of the Antalya World Cup.

10 Pedro Piedrabuena:
The 40-year-old American does not cross the ocean so often, unfortunately. He is ready for the confrontation with the world's top players, as he showed this year in the tournaments which he won.
Piedrabuena dominated in his country, winning the Champion of Champions trophy (final against Hugo Patino, run of 16), an Open tournament in Maywood (30 in 8 against Patino, 3.750 average), took the American title again in Las Vegas with a win over Mazin Shooni, won in Boston a USBA tournament and defeated in the Verhoeven Open in New York his famous opponent Torbjörn Blomdahl in the final 40-37.

11 Roland Forthomme:
The world magisterial run of 28 is one of the highlights of the year 2012. Roland Forthomme, who unfortunately slipped a bit too far on the world ranks, demonstrated that afternoon in Zundert, in a game against Eddy Merckx, that he sometimes can show up as a player from another planet.
That day was such one: Forthomme did the world fall silent in his uphill match with his fabulous run. He equaled the world record run of the Japanese Junichi Komori and the best billiard player ever, Raymond Ceulemans.
He missed on a shot that he could have made, but did not care about that. ,,I feel very proud that I am in a gallery now with such great champions,'' he said after the match.

12: Marco Zanetti:

The Italian succeeded brilliantly in saving his position in the top twelve, which he was about to lose. He played a new national record match average with 40 in 8 innings. He showed his huge class at the moments the Agipi team needed him on its way to a new European team title. Zanetti reached the semifinals in the World championship in Porto (defeated by Sung-Won Choi 40-37) and the final of the Suwon World Cup, where he won silver in an outstanding final against Blomdahl.

13: Kyung-Roul Kim:
The Asian title with a victory in the final against the surprisingly strong O. Takeshima raised his status at the world ranking. Furthermore, the Korean could not shine like before with the best players in World Cups, the World championship and European championship. But in the Agipi Masters 'big Kim' was in a termendous form again. He could only be stopped by the winner, Torbjörn Blomdahl, in a world class performance.

14 Tayfun Tasdemir:
His second place in the Antalya World Cup, with a victory in the semifinal over Frédéric Caudron (over two average), seemed a promising start of the year. But the Turkish player, with his brilliant technique, who started the European championship of 5.000 average match against Dani Sánchez, could not confirm what he showed in the early part of the year.
The Antalya World Cup was a highlight: in a great atmosphere Tasdemir lost a termendous final against Sung-Won Choi 3-2.

15: Raimond Burgman:
With his second place at the European championship, after a final against Kasidokostas, the Dutchman showed that 2012 was one of his best years in his career. He got a confidence boost in the Christmas tournament in Zundert, then won two Grand Prix tournaments, became Dutch champion with the team of A1 Biljarts and came to the quarterfinals in the Suwon World Cup.

Other highlights of the billiard year:

The 50th anniversary of Torbjörn Blomdahl.

The new world title of Haeng Jik Kim, the greatest talent in three-cushion world.

The almost weekly high level performances of the phenomenon Raymond Ceulemans.

The Japanese supremacy at the World championship for ladies with the final victory of Natsumi Higashiuchi.