3-Cushion
TRABZON - The World Cup in Trabzon, a city of 230,000 inhabitants on the northeast coast of Turkey, will open on Monday the series of six tournaments that UMB has put on the international calendar. The seventh on the calendar, in Las Vegas, las week is removed for financial reasons.
The top players and all the others in Trabzon are looking forward to the first major meeting this year in the country where three-cushion is hugely popular, partially due to the promotion that Semih Sayginer made for his sport on the top of his career. The Turkish influence of course will be high in the tournament of Trabzon. The preliminary stage is filled with a large number of Turkish players. A total of 176 players is registered, of whom over one hundred be at the start in the preliminaries, on the first days of this World cup. The tournament will be played at the Novotel in Trabzon.
For players who also enjoy a short holiday after being eliminated: Trabzon is situated at the Black Sea, has a temperate Mediterranean climate. High mountains are separating the city from the interior of Anatolia. The historic center, with its wooden houses and stone bridges, is still very medieval. The district Ortahisar is an attraction with its many beautiful old houses. The Trabzon Museum is an ethnographic museum with a lot of Byzantine objects.
Billiards nevertheless is the most important thing for the players who make the trip to the Turkish city. Dick Jaspers will start as the first player in the world ranking with 451 points, followed by Frédéric Caudron, Kyung-Roul Kim, Eddy Merckx and Martin Horn. Very important also are the places ten to twelve, where Jeremy Bury (238 points), Sung Won Choi (231) and Marco Zanetti (212) are threatened by Javier Palazón (206) and Jef Philipoom (205).
Twelve players are seeded by UMB, the wildcards were given to Jef Philipoom (CEB), Javier Palazón (UMB), Murat Naci Coklu and Cenet Lütfi (organization), Julian Morales and Ramon Rodriguez (CPB) and Ryujji Umeda and Heo Jung Han (ACBC).
On the list of participants are further high-level players like Eddy Leppens, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Gung Dong Kang, Roland Forthomme, Raimond Burgman and Kouji Funaki, one of the remarkable players in Hurghada and the conqueror of Dick Jaspers in that tournament.
The tournament in Trabzon starts on Monday next week at 10.00. The matches can be seen live for members of Kozoom from Tuesday until Thursday. For the final days a Premium Pass is required.