SHARM EL SHEIKH - For the sixth and final World Cup of the season 2023, the world's top players are gathering at Park Regency on Garden Bay in Sharm El Sheikh this coming week. The sunny tourist resort (26-28 degrees), at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, is the place to be for this year's last major trophy and the final victory of the World Cup standings. Five World Cups delivered five winners this year: Tayfun Tasdemir in Las Vegas, Torbjörn Blomdahl in Ho Chi Minh, Quyet Chien Tran in Porto, Dick Jaspers in Veghel and Eddy Merckx in Seoul. Belgian Eddy Merckx is the leader in the ranking after those five World Cups together with Myung Woo Cho with 162 points, but the differences in the top 11 are extremely small. The top positions are distributed in Sharm El Sheikh. What is certain is that Eddy Merckx, Myung Woo Cho, Martin Horn, Dick Jaspers, Quyet Chien Tran, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Haeng Jik Kim are secured of the overall win if they win the World Cup in Sharm. That will make them the successor to Dick Jaspers, who was the winner in 2022.
Myung Woo Cho remains surely the leader of the world ranking, where, with 407 ranking points, he is well ahead of Zanetti, Jaspers, Blomdahl, Tran and Merckx. The seeded players in Sharm El Sheikh (from 3 to 9 December) are Marco Zanetti, Myung-Woo Cho, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Eddy Merckx, Haeng Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Phuong Vinh Bao, Jérémy Bury, Jun Tae Kim, Jung Han Heo and Martin Horn.
Wildcards have been handed out to Daniel Morales (Colombia), Riad Nady and Mahmoud Ayman.
The first billiard players and tourists have already arrived at the Park Regency on Wednesday, which can accommodate 1300 people in total. Three days before the tournament, there were 200 tourists, in total with the billiards players included that will be around 500 next week.
The highly qualified players, who will be in action on Wednesday's final qualifier, include Myeong Jong Cha, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Berkay Karakurt, Hong Chiem Thai, Mashhour Abu Tayeh, Peter Ceulemans, Ruben Legazpi, Chang Hoon Seo, Gwendal Maréchal and Roland Forthomme.
Best-known players on Tuesday in the penultimate qualifiers are Robinson Morales, Jeffrey Jorissen, TTT Nguyen, Burak Hashas, Sam van Etten, Ja In Kang, Omer Karakurt.
Eddy Merckx and Myung Woo Cho, the players on top of the World Cup ranking
The World Cup ranking over six events (only Sharm El Sheikh missing):
- Eddy Merckx 162 points
- Myung Woo Cho 162
- Martin Horn 160
- Dick Jaspers 152
- Quyet Chien Tran 150
- Torbjörn Blomdahl 144
- Haeng Jik Kim 142
- Tayfun Tasdemir 136
- Jun Tae Kim 134
- Marco Zanetti 126
- Sameh Sidhom 114
- Jung Han Heo 98
- Hong Chiem Thai 93
- Jérémy Bury 84
- Nikos Polychronopoulos 77
- Peter Ceulemans 69
- Ruben Legazpi 67
- Myeong Jong Cha 64
- Phuong Vinh Bao 62
- Berkay Karakurt 56.