Marco Zanetti

Marco Zanetti
Personal details
birthday	April 10, 1962
place of birth	Bolzano
nationality	Italy
Nickname (s)	Italian gentleman
Active time	1986
Achievements Unless otherwise stated, the information relates to the “three cushion” discipline.
Best ED: 6.666
(March 2, 2014, Modica )
Best GD: 2.735
(2017 LG U + Cup 3-Cushion Masters, Seoul )
Maximum series (HS): 22
(2019 Three Cushion Challenge Masters, Seoul )
World Championships:
4 × (2002, 2008 – three cushion) (1988, 1996 – biathlon)
Continental Championships:
5 × (1983, 1984, 1986, 2013, 2017)
Other tournaments:
see achievements
World rankings
Highest WRL place:	2 (1999)
Current WRL location:	2 (as of December 2019)
Societies)
ALB Lausanne Green Planet Gold Porcia

Zanetti at the 1986 European Championships in Dülmen

Marco Zanetti (born April 10, 1962 in Bozen ) is an Italian carambola player .

Private

His father Erwin, the first Italian national champion in the game of carom in 1960, was then president of the carom club in Bolzano. After the association had moved several times, it was dissolved in 1980. Marco Zanetti started playing billiards at the age of seven and had to stand on a chair to get to the table. Today he is considered a brilliant billiard player and is valued in the billiards scene for his honorable demeanor and sporty demeanor. In 2007, the world's best three-cushion players founded a players' association, the Masters of Billards Association, to which Marco Zanetti was elected president. With his southern temperament, he didn't spare criticism of associations and organizers. So there were some disagreements with various functionaries.

Zanetti lives with his girlfriend Martina and their son Samuel (* 2008) in his native Bolzano in South Tyrol . He is the most successful Italian carom player.

As a South Tyrolean, he speaks fluent German, but also French, English and Spanish.

Career

Beginnings (Juniors)

At fifteen he won his first Italian three-cushion championship in the juniors in Gagnano (Naples). This made him the youngest national champion in Italian billiards history. Several state titles followed in the technical disciplines of the carom game (free game, cadre and binding). Since 1976 he has spent most of his summer holidays with the multiple Austrian national champion Heinrich Weingartner in Vienna, where he was welcomed like a son. Through a lot of training with the best Austrian carambola players, he constantly improved his technique. At his first European Junior Championships in May 1978 in Luxembourg, he took his first of 6 podium places. In June 1981 he was in the Belgian Geel Junior European Champion in the free game.

Achievements (Seniors)

At the age of 18 he was the first Italian national champion in the free game with 100.00 GD (general average). He was the first Italian to finish a game with up to 400 points in one shot at this tournament. Then he devotes himself intensively to the other technical disciplines. As a 20-year-old Marco Zanetti sensationally won the title in Cadre 47/2 at his first international appearance at a European Championship in Elda, Spain . In the final he beat the German defending champion Klaus Hose . A year later he was followed by the title in Cadre 47/1 in Odense, Denmark . In 1985, a third place followed at the European Championship in Dülmen . He just had to admit defeat to Belgian billiards legends Raymond Ceulemans and Ludo Dielis . With 109 points he played the highest series of the tournament. In 1986, a triathlon European championship was held for the first time with the disciplines cadre 71/2, one-binding and three-cushion. Zanetti was also able to secure this title in Klarenbeek , the Netherlands .

1986 was also the big turning point in his career. So far, he has only started as an amateur, thanks to the founding of the Billiards Worldcup Association (BWA), he decided to start as a professional in the three-cushion World Cup . Here he had to compete with the world's best three-cushion players from Europe, Asia and America. After two final defeats in 1987 in Paris and Valkenburg , he celebrated his first World Cup victory in 1990 in Palma with a final victory over Raymond Ceulemans . Marco Zanetti has been one of the best three-cushion players in the world for over twenty years and is always among the best seeded players in the three-cushion world rankings . The culmination of his career so far was the world championship title in three cushion in 2002 and 2008 . Furthermore, Zanetti achieved seven second and third placings in world championships since 1997. Zanetti was also successful in biathlon (three cushion and five-cone billiards ) and won the world championship title in this discipline in 1988 and 1996.

2012/13 season

At the beginning of the season, Zanetti was again Italian three-cushion champion at the Campionati Italiani in June . At this tournament he achieved a new Italian record with 2.137 GD (general average). At the World Cup in Porto in September , Zanetti came third with Frédéric Caudron from Belgium. A week later he was able to improve again at the three-cushion World Cup in Suwon , South Korea , and take second place behind old master Torbjörn Blomdahl from Sweden . Through these successes, Zanetti was able to play back to 10th place in the world rankings .

In March 2013 he won the first Lausanne Billiards Masters in Switzerland against Frédéric Caudron . He won the final with a " fox " to 40:33. In the semifinals he played against Torbjörn Blomdahl from Sweden, the highest series of the tournament with 15 points. Only a week later the two faced each other again in a final, this time at the AGIPI Billiard Masters . And again Zanetti was able to prevail against the Belgian and won with 50:40. On April 14th, Zanetti won the final of the three- cushion European championship against Christian Rudolph with 40:10. He set a new European record in the general average (GD) with 2,500. In the semifinals, he beat world number one Frédéric Caudron 40:37 for the third time in a row , although the Belgian was the fourth player to ever set the world record of the highest series of 28 points. This game is one of the most beautiful and exciting in three-cushion history.

With his victories, he moved up from 11th place in the world to 3rd place at the end of the season, his second best world ranking position after second place in 1999.

2013/14 season

Zanetti with the gold medal of the World Games 2013

Zanetti started the new season with the success at the three-band tournament of the World Games 2013 in Cali . In the final, he defeated the reigning world champion Eddy Merckx by a clear 40:20, adding another internationally important title to his collection. Before the start of the current season he moved to BC Munich, for which he competes in the 2nd three-cushion Bundesliga on board 1. On March 2, 2014 Marco Zanetti achieved a new record in the best individual average (BED) against Gabriele Fasciana at the Italian team final in Modica , Sicily. He finished a game to 40 points in six shots. The average of 6,666 is a new Italian record. For the second time in a row he won the Lausanne Billiards Masters. In the final he beat Martin Horn from Germany just 40:36.

Since 2015

At the Lausanne Billard Masters 2016 he won the bronze medal together with the Korean Kang Dong-koong . He was previously defeated in the semifinals to his Belgian final opponent from 2013, Frédéric Caudron, with 14:40. In 2017, after 2013, he won his second gold medal at the European Championships in Brandenburg an der Havel . In the final he defeated Frédéric Caudron from Belgium 40:14 in 11 shots. Marco Zanetti won the LG U + Cup 3-Cushion Masters 2017 with a world-class performance in the general average (GD) of 2.735 and received his highest prize to date with € 60,000.

Others

Because of his criticism of the UMB at the 2009 World Cup in Korea, Zanetti was given a life-long 50-point penalty. Two years later, at the end of the three-cushion World Cup, also in Suwon, South Korea, the UMB withdrew this punishment and at the end of the year he got his 50 points back for the world rankings.

successes

Zanetti is named “Player of the Year 2003” in Antwerp.
Left: Nobuaki Kobayashi ,
Right: Raymond Ceulemans

• Three-cushion world championship : 2002, 2008 2001, 2011 1997, 2000, 2003, 2009, 2012
• Three Cushion European Championship : 2013, 2017 2019 1992, 2003, 2008, 2010
• Biathlon World Championship ( 5 cones , 3 cushion): 1988, 1996
• World Games three cushion: 2013 2009
• Three- cushion World Cup : 1990/5, 1999/3, 2014/5, 2019/7 1987/1, 1987/4, 1991/5, 1993/3, 1995/8, 1996/5, 1999/3, 2009/4 , 2012/2, 2015/6 1994/1, 1996/6, 1998/1, 1998/2, 1998/9, 1998/10, 2001/2, 2001/3, 2001/5, 2003, 2005/3, 2006/3, 2008/3, 2016/3, 2016/4, 2016/6, 2017/3, 2017/7
• LG U + Cup 3-Cushion Masters : 2017
• Cadre 47/1 European Championship : 1984
• Cadre 47/2 European Championship : 1983
• Single binding European championship : 1986
• European Championship (Triathlon): 1986
• European Championship Juniors (Free Game): 1981
• AGIPI Billard Masters : 2013 2010
• Crystal Kelly Tournament : 2010 2011
• Coupe d'Europe (team): 12 × 1998–2001, 2005–2012
• Lausanne Billiard Masters : 2013, 2014 2016
• Three Cushion Challenge Masters : 2019/1
• Italian championship: 40 × in various disciplines (28 of them in three-cushion as of June 2018 )

Awards

• Player of the Year: 2003

Web links

Commons : Marco Zanetti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Zanetti runs 11 on Youtube.com.
• Best official game by Marco Zanetti on Youtube.com.
• Semi-finals World Games 2013 in Cali on Youtube.com.
• Interview Kozoom Germany 5/06/2013 on Kozoom.com.
• Final Italian championship 2013
• Final Italian Championship 2008 on Youtube.com.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World ranking list men
2. ↑ ^{a b} Interview with Zanetti (English). On: Kozoom.com. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
3. ↑ Title holder in 5-cone billiards on FIBIS.it (section: Albi d'Oro). Retrieved November 6, 2012.
4. ↑ Results after the Italian Championships. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
5. ↑ fantastico Marco Zanetti wins Lausanne Billard Masters. On: Kozoom.com. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
6. ↑ Results on Kozoom.com. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
7. ↑ BC-Munich e. V.
8. ↑ Marco Zanetti with a new coup; 40 in 6 = 6.666 GD. On: Kozoom.com. March 4, 2014, accessed March 6, 2014.
9. ↑ Marco Zanetti wants to be loosely called life penulty. (English). On: Kozoom.com. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
10. ^ Markus Schönhoff: Marco Zanetti wins 26th Italian title. Kozoom , June 25, 2017, accessed June 28, 2017 .  
11. ↑ Statistics Marco Zanetti on Kozoom.com. Retrieved October 1, 2013.