Award ceremony (from left to right): Cho Jae-ho (silver), Martin Horn (gold), Frédéric Caudron & Semih Saygıner (bronze)
The fifth three-cushion World Cup 2018 was held from October 22nd to 28th in La Baule on the French Atlantic coast. It was the third World Cup tournament in La Baule and the eighth in France.
A lot has changed in the tournament mode since 2013. The rate system was abolished because the match time could not be calculated. Matches could last between three and five sets. Good timing was therefore not possible. The game distances were set at 30 points in the pre-qualifying rounds and 40 points in the main qualification and in the knockout games. A tie is possible in the qualifying rounds. In the knockout round, overtime (shootout) is played in the event of a tie. Each of the two players starts with the initial push. Whoever scores more points wins the match. If there is also a tie in extra time, the kick starts again until a winner is determined. The shot clock was on 40 seconds.
Four qualifying rounds are played. From the last qualifying round, the 12 group winners and the three best runners-up (lucky losers) qualify for the final round. The main tournament is played with 32 participants.
In the event of a tie, the following order will be applied:
From 2017 the number of players seeded will increase to 14. There are only three wild cards . One UMB wild card and two for the host.
The first 14 players in the world rankings and the wildcard players automatically took part as players in the tournament in the knockout round. The first four of the world rankings are placed at positions 1, 16, 8 and 9.
In the quarter-final match between the newly crowned world champion Dick Jaspers from the Netherlands and the Turkish Semih Saygıner , the latter set a new World Cup record in the individual average (ED) with a score of 6.666 (40 points in 6 recordings). For Martin Horn it was the first semi-final participation since 2010 in Matosinhos, Portugal. Just a week before the meeting with the world number one, he beat Frédéric Caudron in Elversberg with 40:31. In the semifinals, Horn was able to keep his performance and beat the Belgian again. In the final he met the South Korean Cho Jae-ho , whom he was able to beat with 40:39 in 23 shots. It was his first World Cup victory since the 2nd World Cup in 2009 in Antalya, Turkey.
3rd qualifying round
For the sake of clarity, qualification rounds 1 and 2 are not shown. These can be looked up under the links at the UMB.
The first in the group go into the main qualification.
The tournament tree for the final round is listed below.
1/16 final (game up to 40 points)
Round of 16 (game up to 40 points)
Quarter-finals (game up to 40 points)
Semi-finals (game up to 40 points)
Final (game up to 40 points)
BelgiumFrédéric Caudron
40 /9
Turkey Lütfi Çenet
12/9
BelgiumFrédéric Caudron
40 /21
Turkey Murat Naci Çoklu
36/21
TurkeyMurat Naci Çoklu
40 /21
Korea South Kang Dong-koong
23/21
BelgiumFrédéric Caudron
40 /20
Vietnam Mã Minh Cẩm
39/20
Korea South Kim Hyung-kon
32/20
VietnamMã Minh Cẩm
40 /20
VietnamMã Minh Cẩm
40/22/ 2
Vietnam Ngô Đình Nại
40/22/1
Korea South Choi Sung-won
36/26
VietnamNgô Đình Nại
40 /26
Belgium Frédéric Caudron
34/25
GermanyMartin Horn
40 /25
Sweden Torbjörn Blomdahl
18/14
GermanyMartin Horn
40 /14
GermanyMartin Horn
40 /19
Korea South Heo Jung-han
33/19
Korea SouthHeo Jung-han
40 /19
Korea South Oh Sung-uk
23/19
GermanyMartin Horn
40 /18
Italy Marco Zanetti
30/18
VietnamTrần Quyết Chiến
40 /24
Spain Juan David Zapata
26/24
Vietnam Trần Quyết Chiến
31/22
ItalyMarco Zanetti
40 /22
ItalyMarco Zanetti
40 /19
France Gwendal Marechal
30/19
GermanyMartin Horn
40 /23
Korea South Cho Jae-ho
39/23
Korea South Kim Haeng-jik
37/30
TurkeyBirol Uymaz
40 /30
Turkey Birol Uymaz
30/19
SpainDaniel Sánchez
40 /19
SpainDaniel Sánchez
40 /16
France Pierre Soumagne
18/16
Spain Daniel Sánchez
19/18
Korea SouthCho Jae-ho
40 /18
Korea SouthCho Jae-ho
40 /21
Vietnam Mã Xuân Cường
17/21
Korea SouthCho Jae-ho
40 /17
Denmark Dion Nelin
22/17
Egypt Sameh Sidhom
28/24
DenmarkDion Nelin
40 /24
Korea SouthCho Jae-ho
40 /22
Turkey Semih Saygıner
26/22
NetherlandsDick Jaspers
40 /22
Colombia Robinson Morales
33/22
NetherlandsDick Jaspers
40 /18
France Jérémy Bury
23/18
Greece Nikos Polychronopoulos
27/11
FranceJérémy Bury
40 /11
Netherlands Dick Jaspers
25/6
TurkeySemih Saygıner
40 /6
Vietnam Nguyễn Quốc Nguyện
23/15
TurkeyTayfun Taşdemir
40 /15
Turkey Tayfun Taşdemir
30/18
TurkeySemih Saygıner
40 /18
Belgium Eddy Merckx
31/30
TurkeySemih Saygıner
40 /30
Closing table
For the sake of clarity, not all 149 players are listed, but only the best 32 (participants in the final round). The complete list can be viewed at the UMB. The results, with the exception of the HS, only refer to the final round.
The three-cushion World Cup was organized by the founding association, the " Billiards Worldcup Association " (BWA) until 1998 . Disputes between the BWA and the world association Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) led to parallel tournaments between 1994 and 1997. The UMB / BWA organized the tournament together until the beginning of 1999. Since the dissolution of the BWA in 1999, the UMB has been the sole organizer. From 1988-1991 the UMB did not host any world championships. During this time, the annual overall winner of the World Cup was crowned world champion.