Royal Pro Cup prerounds with 325 players

AMSTERDAM - At twelve locations in Europe, with a total of 325 players, the prerounds for the Royal Pro three cushion Cup will be played this weekend. The second edition takes this whole weekend for the qualifications. The 24 finalists will be announced on Sunday evening. Two players per location will qualify for the final on April 7 in De Eekhoorn in Oosterhout. The final day will be broadcast live on Kozoom. The organizers are Frans van Schaik, Sander Jonen and Jerry Hermans.

The system in the preliminaries and the final is simple: at the twelve locations, up to 32 players play according to the knock-out system to sets of 7 points in a best of five match. The two finalists from each location will move up to the final. The final will be played in eight groups of three, all three will play against each other and one player is qualified for the quarter finals. From then on, it's knockout to the finish.

The organization has a total of 10.000 euros in prize money. The winner will receive 2000 euros, the number two is rewarded by 1000, the numbers three and four 700 euros, five to eight 400 euros and nine to 24 receive 250 euros.

The Dutch preliminaries are this weekend in Oosterhout, Roosendaal, Capelle aan den IJssel, Arnhem, Midwolda and Heerhugowaard. The foreign players meet on Mywebsport, also they play in Thessaloniki (Greece), Athens (Greece), Leqa de Palmeira (Portugal), Lier and Turnhout.

The organizations of the foreign preliminaries include Nikos Polychronopoulos (Athens), Kurt Ceulemans (Lier) and Ronny Daniels (Turnhout).

The first matches have already been played on Mywebsport. Ronny Lindemann and Andreas Efler are the favourites to reach the final. Other contenders for this weekend include Jerry Hermans, Ad Broeders and Roland Uijtdewillegen in Oosterhout and in other places Barry van Beers, Stefan van Acker, Francis Forton and Dirk Weeremans, Raymon Groot, finalist last year, Dave Christiani, Sander Jonen and Frans van Schaik.

In Arnhem, the complete Ibraimov family is among the participants with the 9-year-old talent Amir. In Belgium, a battle is coming up between Peter and Kurt Ceulemans, Ronny Daniels, Ronnie Brants and Eddy Willems. Paulo Andrade and Jorge Bastos are some known players in Leqa de Palmeira, Portugal, where Goncalo Rodrigues, the enthusiastic organizer, reported to be fully booked after two days. In the Greek groups we fine famous names: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Kostas Kokkoris and Pavlos Zachariadis.