ANKARA - The World Cup in Ankara, where the world's top three cushion players gather in the coming week, is mainly dominated by the long-awaited come-back of Myung-Woo Cho, the Korean wonderboy who missed the world events due to military service. This week on Thursday, 'Little Cho' returns to the cycle in the final qualifying round before the main draw. And also back in the World Cup arena are the Vietnamese with Quyet Chien Tran, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen as leaders players in international three-cushion. The World Cup starts on Monday (20 February) with the preliminary rounds, the main tournament is from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 February.
The only one of the Vietnamese to survive the COVID crisis on the rankings is Quet Chien Tran, who, thanks to the UMB's lenient attitude has retained his fourth place behind Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti and Dani Sánchez. Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen have dropped just below the top 14 and will try to get back in.
The elite field of 14 consists for the start in Ankara of 10 Europeans, one Vietnamese (Tran), two Koreans (Haeng Jik Kim and Jung Han Heo) and the African Sameh Sidhom. Jaspers, Zanetti and Sánchez lead the top 3, Semih Sayginer and Torbjörn Blomdahl are on 13 and 14, for sure a dangerous position. Of those two Europeans, Semih Sayginer won the last World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh, Torbjörn Blomdahl won Saturday's European Championship with Michael Nilsson for Sweden.
The Turkish continent of top players is headed for the home crowd this week by Tayfun Tasdemir (7th in the rankings), Murat Naci Coklu (9th) and Semih Sayginer (13th). Two Turks, Lütfi Cenet (18th) and Can Capak (28th) received a wildcard from the organisation, the young Colombian Jose Juan Garcia is the wildcard player from the UMB.
Semih Sayginer, the last World Cup winner, is looking forward to the new start with confidence. ''I've prepared myself mentally and fysically well for this World Cup, all Turkish players are in good shape. My training sessions are often together with Tayfun (Tasdemir) in our club, the Max. We are all looking forward to this World Cup in our new federation centre. It is brand new, although we have already played a few national tournaments. At the start there were some small problems with the heating system, but the conditions are getting better every day.''
''World three cushion is going through a huge progression, it is very exciting and high quality all over'', Semih assures. ''That makes our sport so wonderful to play and watch. It also means that we, as top players, have to practice more and more to be able to beat the up-and-coming generation. I won the World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh, played well at the World Championships that followed, but I was beaten. That will happen more and more. All the billiard players in the World Cups are getting better, have a lot of knowledge of the game and are well trained. The number of players, let's say in the top 75, that can beat the top players is getting bigger and bigger. The reality is that many players can see the games on youtube and other chnnels. I remember in 1986 that we saw a first video from the match between Raymond Ceulemans and Torbjörn Blomdahl. We sat together with 25 Turkish players to watch it and we were shocked. The knowledge to get better is much more easy thes days. That's why young players develop very soon. Torbjörn is almost 60 now, Dick Jaspers and me, we are 57, we still can compete at the top, but the young generation is ready to threat us very soon.''
''It will be a fantastic tournament anyway with many great matches. We are looking forward to it, I wish everyone good luck, especially our Turkish players...''
How has Myung Woo Cho (22), the three-time world junior champion (Hurghada 2016, Izmir 2018, Valencia 2019) been able to prepare after he left Korean army? That is the pressing question for the young super-talent, who has been number three on a World Cup podium four times from 2016 to 2019. And how will the Vietnamese emerge from the crisis?
The top European players, with the exception of Jaspers, Zanetti and Horn, showed good form with their countries at the European Championships. Especially Dani Sánchez, unbeaten but losing the title with Ruben Legazpi, demonstrated his great form with fast matches and great runs. And Torbjörn Blomdahl is ready for the World Cup start in 2022 with an unbeaten series that brought him to the European title with his golden teammate Michael Nilsson.
The second pack of top players is led in the Turkish World Cup by Sung-Won Choi, Myung-Woo Cho, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Peter Ceulemans, Michael Nilsson, Choong Bok Lee, Jun Tae Kim and Dion Nelin. Robinson Morales was already back in Veghel after his PBA adventure, also Pierre Soumagne and Tonny Carlsen make their come-back in a World Cup. They come into action on the first two days of the preliminaries.
The field of 149 players (21 reserves) counts a remarkable amount of young players. Just a selection: the Koreans Myung-Woo Cho, Jun Tae Kim, Sam van Etten (Netherlands), Nikolaus Kogelbauer (Austria), Mahmoud Ayman (Egypt), Dimitrios Seleventas (Greece), Joey de Kok (Netherlands), Tobias Bouerdick (Germany) and Alessio D'Agata (Italy).
The playing days of the preliminaries are from Monday 20 February, first sessions at 9.00 am West European Time. The preliminary rounds are until Thursday. Friday starts the main
Myung Woo Cho (left) the four time junior world champion in one of his last World Cups two years ago with Torbjörn Blomdahl
Murat Naci Coklu, the last runner-up at the World Championship, only beaten by Dick Jaspers