3-Cushion
ANTALYA - The Turkish riviera with its wonderful sun-drenched beaches is the setting for the first major international clash with all the world's three cushion stars. The World Cup in Antalya, starting tomorrow, Monday, April 23, the first of the season, starts with the traditional series of four days of pre-rounds. The main draw is launched as of Friday with the field 32 players. The Turkish seaside resort in the south of the country is a tourist stronghold with over two million people. The challenge for the world top has never been bigger at the start of a year with many spectacular innovations. The world federation UMB and its partner Kozoom are preparing for a great kick-off.
The first World Cup cycle will be followed directly after Antalya with the second World Cup in Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) in May and in Blankenberge (Belgium) in June. The calendar in the summer gives the players little rest, because the fourth World Cup in Porto (Portugal), the first 3C Masters, the Open Verhoeven in New York and the Mc Creery Champion of Champions, also in New York, follow each other quickly.
Then, in September, the second Masters, the World championship for juniors and ladies in Izmir, Turkey, are at stake. The individual World championship is in October in Cairo near to the world famous pyramids, followed by the World Cup in La Baule, a third Masters tournament, the Lausanne Billard Masters and to finish in style the World Cup in Hurghada and the Ceulemans Continental Cup in Bordeaux, an equivalent of the Ryder Cup in golf. The calendar might be expanded with the LGU + Cup in Seoul and a World Cup in South Korea. The UMB is working hard to find a solution for a disagreement with the Korean federation on media rights.
The 14 seeded players for the World Cup in Antalya are Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Haeng-Jik Kim, Torbjorn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Sameh Sidhom, Murat Naci Coklu, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Jung-Han Heo, Sung-Won Choi, Jérémy Bury and Nikos Polychonopoulos. The wildcard of the UMB goes to the American Hugo Patino and the two tickets from the organizer to Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer. Among the 149 players on the starting list are 35 coming from Turkey and 29 from South Korea.
Frédéric Caudron leads the world ranking with 420 points ahead of Eddy Merckx with 367, Dick Jaspers with 338, Haeng-Jik Kim with 332 and Marco Zanetti with 317 points.
The World Cup in the Bosphorus hotel is the 22nd World Cup in Turkey since 1993. The first four were played in Istanbul. The Korean Sang-Chun Lee was the first winner in a final against Raymond Ceulemans. For the seventh time, a World Cup will be played in Antalya. The last Turkish World Cup was in Bursa last year, where Frédéric Caudron won the best World Cup final ever against Dick Jaspers: 40-14 in 7 innings.
Filipos Kasidokostas returns (left-handed?) to the circuit. Three well-known Vietnamese, Quyet Chien Tran, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Minh Cam Ma are just outside the top 14, like Dong-Koong Kang and Myung Woo Cho. Well-known players from the top 20 who try to reach the main draw are the Koreans Jae-Ho Cho, the new Asian champion and Jae-Guen Kim, the Spaniards Javier Palazón and David Martinez, the Belgians Eddy Leppens and Roland Forthomme, the Dutchman Glenn Hofman , the German Martin Horn and the Turks Lütfi Cenet and Adnan Yüksel. The European junior champion, the Frenchman Gwendal Maréchal, also belongs to the participants.
The ranking points in Antalya replace the scores of the World Cup in Hurghada in 2016. The Korean Jung-Han Heo loses 80 points he won. Dick Jaspers defends 54 points, Quyet Chien Tran and Martin Horn 38.
The pressure is on in Antalya, because after the World Cup of Ho Chi Minh the top 20 players are invited to the first global Masters tournament in July with 220.000 dollars prize money.
The tournament will be broadcast by Kozoom: the first two days of qualifying free for all members, from Wednesday for the premium pass members.
