First World Cup of 2020: Antalya – Turkey

Immediately following two CEB events, the European Championships for Ladies and the European Championship for National teams, the Turkish city of Antalya will host the first UMB World Cup of 2020. As it was in 2019, the 2020 cycle will have seven World Cups to decide who follows Dick Jaspers as the overall WC winner of the year. Antalya will be followed by World Cups in Ho Chi Minh City, Porto, Guri, Veghel, Cheongju and Sharm El Sheikh.

Fourteen players have been seeded for the Antalya World Cup: Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Haeng .Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Semih Sayginer, Jeremy Bury, Murat Naci Coklu, Myung Woo Cho, Martin Horn and Jae Ho Cho. The local wildcards were given to Lütfi Cenet and Can Capak, the UMB wildcard went to Pedro Gonzalez.

The first qualification matches in Antalya will start on the 17th of February. The semifinals and final will be played on the 23d. The new 2020 UMB rules will apply: we’ll see the 30 second clock with automatic time-outs and 50-point matches in the K.O. stage of the event, i.e. the last 16.

A quick look at the inscriptions tells us that no fewer than thirteen German players are in the qualification, which is remarkable. Thirteen Koreans as well, and eleven Vietnamese players will make the trip. More than a dozen other countries – and languages – are represented, to turn Antalya into Billiards Babylon for a week. We can look forward to another exciting tournament, the 184th World Cup in history.

The tables will be Zeki Bilardo, the cloth Iwan Simonis 300 Prestige Blue, the balls Super Aramith Pro Cup Prestige. Prize money is unchanged from 2019: 16.000 to the winner, 10.000 to the runner-up, 6.000 to both bronze medal winners, 3.500 to the losing quarterfinalists, 2.500 for 9th – 16th place, 1.500 for 17th – 32nd place.