3-Cushion
ISTANBUL - The world top in three cushion, led by Dick Jaspers, starts the new season after a short summer stop with the Survival Masters in Istanbul. The tournament, from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 of August at the Radisson Blu Conference & Airport hotel in Istanbul, is the first 3 Cushion Survival Masters in Europe after two tournaments in Korea. The organization is in the hands of Kozoom International.
The invitations have been sent to the world's top 20 players and four wild cards: Dane Dion Nelin and three Turkish players: Turgay Orak, Can Capak, Tolgahan Kiraz. The world's top 20 consists of 10 Europeans, 9 Asians and 1 African.
Dick Jaspers won the last of two Survival Masters so far, Frédéric Caudron the first. The Dutch world champion is looking forward to the new Survival: ''These Survival events give me a special feeling, because it's so difficult to deal with the game. And not only because you are at the table with three opponents. I like the new format and we can play in very good conditions. That is my experience from the previous Survivals. The long wait and only 30 seconds to make the shot is an extra challenge. The new systems today make our sport more exciting. And it's really fantastic that we play in Turkey now. A wonderful initiative from the Turkish federation."
The 24 players are in the line-up are:
1 Dick Jaspers (Neth)
2 Marco Zanetti (Ita)
3 Tayfun Tasdemir (Tur)
4 Semih Sayginer (Tur)
5 Eddy Merckx (Bel)
6 Jae-Ho Cho (Kor)
7 Quyet Chien Tran (Vie)
8 Sameh Sidhom (Egy)
9 Murat Naci Coklu (Tur)
10 Jérémy Bury (Fra)
11 Haeng-Jik Kim (Kor)
12 Martin Horn (Ger)
13 Jung-Han Heo (Kor)
14 Torbjörn Blomdahl (Swe)
15 Myung-Woo Cho (Kor)
16 Sung-Won Choi (Kor)
17 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Vie)
18 Dani Sánchez (Spa)
19 Roland Forthomme (Bel)
20 Lütfi Cenet (Tur)
21 Dion Nelin (Den)
22 Turgay Orak (Tur)
23 Can Capak (Tur)
24 Tolgahan Kiraz (Tur)
The group layouts for the first round:
Group 1: Jaspers, Horn, Heo, Kiraz
Group 2: Zanetti, Kim, Blomdahl, Capak
Group 3: Tasdemir, Bury, MW Cho, Orak
Group 4: Sayginer, Coklu, Choi, Nelin
Group 5: Merckx, Sidhom, Nguyen, Cenet
Group 6: JH Cho, Tran, Sanchez, Forthomme.
The matches are played with four players at the table, according to a game system that is famous in Korea and played in many clubs. The matches last twice 45 minutes with a 5 minutes break. Each player receives a 30-point bonus at the start and before the second half. The player who scores, receives 3 points on his total score, the three opponents lose 1 point for 1 carom.
The player with the most points at the end of the match is the winner. Shot clock is 30 seconds. The numbers 1 and 2 after the 6 games advance to the second round. The numbers 3 and 4 come back for a second chance in the losers round.
The first matches are on Wednesday, August 21 from 10 am. The matches in the second chance are on Thursday from 2 pm. On Friday is the first quarter final session from 12:00. On Saturday, the two semi-finals are at 1 pm. and 3 pm., the final is at 6 pm.
All matches are broadcast live on Kozoom.