3-Cushion
ZUNDERT - The German billiard player Martin Horn returns to the World Cup cycle in the next two years. He told the news just before the final in the Christmas tournament in Zundert, where he meets Murat Naci Coklu in the final battle. With his come-back to the international circuit, Horn hopes to reach the world top within these two years. ,,I know that it will not be easy with the current level of the top players. But I feel that I am ready and to play all the World Cups again'', says the 46-year-old Horn.
His decision not only has to do with the new financial circumstances: a doubling of the prize money. Horn: ,,That is not my first motivation. I haven't traveled so much for a few years because of private circumstances. My mother died in March this year and my father three weeks ago. He had been ill for quit some time. In these last years of my parents, I wanted to be there when they needed me. It was a difficult period, but on the other hand it was also a kind of liberation for them. My father didn't want to continue after my mother died. Now, I can live with it, however it is really hard, the loss of your parents is.''
Martin Horn has played in the league competitions in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France in the period without World Cups. At the Christmas tournament, this week in Zundert, he showed to still belong to the world top in three cushion. In his career so far, Horn also excelled in other disciplines, such as in one cushion, in which he became world champion in Vienna in 1997 ahead of Francis Connesson and Wolfgang Zenkner.
In the World Cup cycle, Horn was a one time winner, in Antalya in 2009 ahead of Jaspers and Caudron. He obtained five European titles in the classical disciplines. In the world ranking, Martin Horn has a long way to go. The German is 62nd now, not so far from Glenn Hofman, Hugo Patino, Ramon Rodriguez, Jérôme Barbeillon and Therese Klompenhouwer.
,,I give myself two years to be back, like Semih Sayginer did a few years ago.''