3-Cushion
BLANKENBERGE - The World Cup circuit continues with the third 2019 tournament this week from Monday 17 to Sunday 23 of June. On the Blankenberge boulevard in Belgium, where Kurt Ceulemans is the leading organizer and brought back World Cups to Belgium. The three cushion worlds top players will arrive in the coming days. The qualifications start this Monday morning, the main tournament with all the top guns is launched on Friday in the always spectacular billiard arena at the Blankenberg casino. Dick Jaspers was the first winner there after a spectacular final against Semih Sayginer in 2018.
Following the victories of Tayfun Tasdemir in Antalya in February and Frédéric Caudron in Ho Chi Minh, the Belgian coastal city is the stage for a second time in a row for a total of 149 players. 17 players were seeded directly for the final table: fourteen players from the world rankings plus three wildcards. After the recent announcements by the UMB about the suspensions for players from PBA circuit, that will be implemented from July 15, players from that organization may show up in two more World Cups, in Blankenberge and in Porto. After that, the UMB irrevocably starts the suspensions for national and international tournaments and matches.
Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Jae-Ho Cho, Semih Sayginer Tayfun Tasdemir, Quyet Chien Tran, Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Murat Naci Coklu, Jérémy Bury, Jung-Han Heo, Sameh Sidhom and Ngo Dinh Nai are the leading 14 of the rankings. The organizer's two wild cards go to Roland Forthomme and Eddy Leppens, from the UMB the wildcard goes to Korean Haeng-Jik Kim. Among the 149 players are 24 Belgians, 23 Turks, 17 Dutch, 15 Koreans, 11 French, 8 Germans, 8 Spaniards, 7 Vietnamese, 7 Danes, 6 Greeks, without Filippos Kasidokostas, five Portuguese, 4 Austrians, 3 Egyptians, 3 Japanese, 2 Italians, 2 Sweeds, 2 Colombians and 2 Czechs, together 18 representative countries.
The costs of the top 14 worldwide are supported by the UMB and the Survival tournaments, for which the top 20 are qualified. The position of the number one in the world, Dick Jaspers, is not in danger. The lead of the Dutch, world champion and European champion is considerable with 506 ranking points against Caudron 394 points, Quyet Chien Tran 312 and Semih Sayginer 303. Tran will lose the most points in Blankenberge: 80 from the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh last year. Ngo loses 54 points, Nguyen and Caudron 38. Players like Jaspers, Sayginer, Sidhom, Bury and Coklu lose only 8 points.
The tournament starts on Monday with, among others, Peter De Backer, Sam van Etten, Davy van Havere, Bart Ceulemans, Dave Christiani and Wesley de Jaeger in the first sessions. On Tuesday the most known players are Peter Ceulemans, Ronny Lindemann, Francis Forton, Maxime Panaia, Ronny Brants, the new Portuguese champion Rui Costa, Steven van Acker, Jean Reverchon and Jacob Haack Sörensen. The third day, Wednesday, is reserved for, among others, In-Won Kang, Gwendal Maréchal, Antonio Montes, Ahmet Alp, Jérôme Barbeillon, Murat Tüzül, Juan David Zapata, Trung Hau Do Nguyen, Dustin Jäschke, Kostas Kokkoris, Jean Paul de Bruijn , Barry van Beers, Therese Klompenhouer and Xuan Cuong Ma.
On the final qualifying day, with fifteen places to win for the main draw, the players are: Dani Sánchez, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Myung-Woo Cho, Martin Horn, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Minh Cam Ma, Robinson Morales, Lütfi Cenet, Javier Palazón, Tonny Carlsen, David Martinez, Sung-Won Choi, Birol Uymaz, Anh-Vu Duong, Adnan Yüksel, Riad Nady, Can Capak, Dion Nelin and David Pennör and the best players from the qualifications.
The matches which are already known for the main tournament, with groups of four, of which the first two are placed, are:
Dick Jaspers-Haeng-Jik Kim
Frédéric Caudron-Eddy Leppens
Roland Forthomme-Dinh Nai Ngo
Semih Sayginer-Sameh Sidhom
Tayfun Tasdemir-Jung Han Heo
Jérémy Bury-Quyet Chien Tran
Marco Zanetti-Murat Naci Coklu
Eddy Merckx-Nguyen Quoc Nguyen.
All matches are broadcast live by Kozoom.
