2025 UMB 3-Cushion World Cup in Gwangju

He was called “the future best player in the world” when he was barely fourteen. The prodigy from South Korea has not let his fans down. He was the world champion in 2024, and he is now the number one player in the world, having won his third World Cup. The final was mostly dominated by the Koreans, who managed to freeze out the old warrior from Bolzano, Marco Zanetti, with good defence and a little slice of luck. Cho used a few more innings than he liked, but when the scoreboard said 50-30 in 28, he knew he had done enough.

The first of the two semifinals turned into a crowd-pleasing exhibition by Myung Woo Cho. He came up with so many creative shots and unusual solutions to everyday problems, even Merckx had to tap his cue with the chalk from time to time. The Belgian, by far the best player in the tournament until today, never gave up and almost closed the gap with a late run of 10, but Cho’s barrage of fives and sixes had done the damage: 50-39 in 21 to the Korean.  

In the battle of two generations, old lion Marco Zanetti got the better of young panther Glenn Hofman. Zanetti was quick out of the blocks with 7-2-8 in the early innings. Even though he never made a run over 5 after that, he kept scoring consistently and had almost no open innings. Hofman put up a good fight, running 12 to get back into the thick of it. Some of his points were just brilliant, but Zanetti made him pay a high price for his errors: 50-38 in 18/17 to the Italian.  

The Gwangju World Cup was played on a very high level. The tournament average of 1.687 (last 32) is the highest since the introduction of the new format with K.O. matches to 50 points. 

The winner, Cho, averaged 1.833 with a high run of 10. 

The best individual average was played by Eddy Merckx: 2.590.

The best match was played by Haeng Jik Kim: 40 in 10. 

The event’s high run was made by Peter Ceulemans: 19. 

Myung Woo Cho takes over from Dick Jaspers as the world’s number 1. 

The last World Cup of the 2025 season will be played in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in December. 

UMB.