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Ankara, June 15th 2025 FINAL DAY
Eddy Merckx does what he does best: win finals.
One of the hardest things to do in 3-cushion is beat Eddy Merckx in a final. Quyet Chien Tran found out, this Sunday afternoon in Ankara. The quiet and unassuming Belgian turns into a warrior when a tournament win is on the line. Sixteen times he was in the final, fourteen times he won the event.
The level of play in Ankara had been splendid all week, but on the final Sunday all four players struggled with a table that had lost a bit of its suppleness, and the lines were getting shorter. Both Hofman (against Merckx) and Sidhom (against Tran) could not really get their scoring going. Sidhom even trailed 19-1 after 9 innings, and his later runs were not high enough to repair the damage. Merckx and Tran, in their respective semi’s, were not on the peak of their form either, but they kept their unforced errors to a minimum. In the end, Tran beat Sidhom 50-22 in 19/18, and Merckx beat Hofman 50-35 in 28.
With Tran and Merckx both dominantly winning their semi, the final was a logical conclusion to the week. Around halftime, there was still no predicting the winner: 24-24. But then came the Belgian’s breakaway: a five followed by a nine. Tran gave it his all and pleased the crowd with a few beautiful solutions, but the gap stayed intact and Merckx finished it 50-40 in 27. His victory was the 14th in his career, and he’s also a double world champion.
All the best individual performances in Ankara were credited to one man: Jung Han Heo. He had the event’s highest general average with 2.491, the best match with 40 in 8 and the tournament high run with 22. The main event (last 32) had a very pretty general average of 1.616.
In the race for the Overall World Cup win of 2025, Dick Jaspers holds on to the lead with 142 points. Merckx is now second, with 116, Quyet Chien Tran third with 108 and Thanh Luc Tran fourth with 106.
The season will continue two weeks from now with the World Cup in Porto. Later in the year, there will be World Cups in Antwerp, Korea and Egypt.
Ankara, June 14th 2025.
Merckx – Hofman and Sidhom – Tran to decide Ankara.
At the end of a long World Cup Saturday, only four players are left standing. In Ankara 2025, those four are Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Glenn Hofman and Eddy Merckx. None of the four had an easy route to the semifinal, because every opponent you meet at this stage is a potential tournament winner. This is how they did:
Quyet Chien Tran, who came ever so close to winning the overall World Cup last year, had to deal with Jung Han Heo in the last 16. The very dangerous Korean had made 40 in 8 yesterday, with a run of 22. Tran kept his cool and got the job done at 50-41 in 21/20 innings. The quarterfinal against Jeremy Bury took a few more innings, and Bury couldn’t shine like he did earlier in the week: 50-35 in 29/28.
Sameh Sidhom is becoming a regular in quarters and semis. The fluent Egyptian first eliminated the talented young Greek Dimitrios Seleventas (50-41 in 44), then played a nailbiter of a match against the Elder Statesman, Marco Zanetti. That could have gone either way, but at 50-49 in 20/19, it was the former dentist who advanced.
Glenn Hofman reached his third World Cup semifinal in two years with wins over Tolgahan Kiraz (50-24 in 22/21) and Haeng Jik Kim (50-36 in 27/26). Impressive stuff from the Dutchman, who scores heavily and is fearless. In the fight for the seeded positions, he’ll be one of the names to watch.
Eddy Merckx is always a strong presence, one of the hardest men in the world to beat. He proved it again with wins over Myeong Jong Cha (50-35 in 24) and Dick Jaspers (50-38 in 26/25). We all know what record Merckx has if he’s in a final (played 15, won 13).
Of the four, the Belgian has the strongest WC resume: 13 wins. Q.C. Tran has four, Sidhom and Hofman are both waiting for their first World Cup win. Given their performances in this event, all could very well win on Sunday afternoon. The race for the overall World Cup of 2025 is wide open, the two previous events having been won by Thanh Luc Tran and Dick Jaspers.
All matches are streamed on Soop. The first semifinal (Merckx – Hofman) is scheduled for 10.30 local time. The final will be played at 17.00.
Ankara, June 13rd 2025.
Ankara: Eleven of the fourteen seeds advance.
Some dominated with three wins in the group, others relied on two wins or even one, and advanced on average. But in general, the seeded players did rather well on the World Cup’s fifth day. Of the fourteen protected players, eleven will return tomorrow in the 50-point K.O. stage. The three that did not make it were Martin Horn, Berkay Karakurt and Hong Chiem Thai.
The most talked-about match of the day was played by Jung Han Heo against Ömer Karakurt: 40-15 in 8 innings with a high run of 22. It took the stylish Korean, who lost only to Marco Zanetti, to a general average of 2.717. His run of 22 is obviously the high run of the tournament so far.
Group A. Not Jaspers but Bury was the dominating player. He won three times, beating Jaspers 40-31 in 19. Jaspers, Vera and de Bruijn all had one win, Jaspers claiming second place on average, his 1.786 doing the trick.
Group B. Myung Woo Cho was never in danger, three wins and a lofty 2.352. Glenn Hofman beat Tarik Yavuz and Gökhan Salman to finish second.
Group C. Haeng Jik Kim and Eddy Merckx, both on 5 points after two wins and a draw, clearly the two best in this group. Yilmaz Özcan and Hong Chiem Thai eliminated.
Group D. Three players with two wins in this group, so average came into play. Q.C. Tran comfortably on 1.946, Phuong Vinh Bao second on 1.555, Muammer Rahmet the unlucky third with 1.379. Ja In Kang in fourth and last place.
Group E. Dimitrios Seleventas the surprise group winner, two wins and an impressive 1.947 for the young Greek player. Thanh Luc Tran second, he also advances. End of the show for Berkay Karakurt and Turgay Orak.
Group F. Another group with three players on four points, and this one was especially cruel. Myeong Jong Cha wins with 1.642, Tasdemir second with 1.527 and Ruben Legazpi has to go home: 1.523.
Group G: Marco Zanetti wins three times and comfortably advances. Jung Han Heo explodes with a 40 in 8 (high run 22) to claim second place. Ömer Karakurt and Vecdet Yilmaz are eliminated.
Group H: Tolgahan Kiraz concedes one draw and wins twice, recording a nice 2.000. Sameh Sidhom follows in second place and outscores the Turk with 2.291. Ahmet Alp and Peter Ceulemans don’t make it.
The K.O. matches that start tomorrow at 12.000 local time will be to 50 points, without an equalizing inning. Here’s the schedule:
M.W. Cho – Jaspers
M.J. Cha – Merckx
H.J. Kim – T.L. Tran
Kiraz – Hofman
Zanetti – P.V. Bao
Seleventas – Sidhom
Q.C. Tran – J.H. Heo
Bury - Tasdemir
Ankara, June 12nd 2025.
WC Ankara: the level keeps rising.
How well do you have to play to survive the final qualification round in a World Cup? The answer is: you have to be exceptional, and a little bit of luck can help. Of the twelve group winners on Thursday, none were under 1.300 and the best three were over 2.000. Tarik Yavuz, Jeremy Bury and Ja In Kang were the cream of the crop, with very solid performances from Turgay Orak, Ruben Legazpi and Vedat Yilmaz in their wake.
Haeng Jik Kim, Glenn Hofman and Jean Paul de Bruijn were the three best second-place finishers, they enter the main draw also. Two famous Belgians did not make it: Roland Forthomme and Frédéric Caudron both finished third in their flight. Austria lost both Kostistansky and Kahofer, the Netherlands lost van Etten, Cetin and Jorissen. The Turkish presence is still strong.
Here are the winners of the day:
Tarik Yavuz 4 – 2.352
Jeremy Bury 4 – 2.285
Ja In Kang 4 – 2.162
Turgay Orak 4 – 1.777
Ruben Legazpi 4 – 1.666
Vedat Yilmaz 4 – 1.481
Peter Ceulemans 4 – 1.379
Ahmet Alp 3 – 1.311
Ömer Karakurt 2 – 1.975
Myeong Jong Cha 2 – 1.644
Dimitrios Seleventas 2 – 1.558
Muammer Rahmet 2 – 1.480
The best seconds:
Haeng Jik Kim 3 – 1.159
Glenn Hofman 2 – 2.114
Jean Paul de Bruijn 2 – 1.487
The groups in the main draw:
A) Jaspers, de Bruijn, Vera, Bury
B) M.W. Cho, Hofman, Salman, Yavuz
C) Merckx, H.J. Kim, H.C. Thai, Özcan
D) Q.C. Tran, P.V. Bao, J.I. Kang, Rahment
E) T.L. Tran, Seleventas, B. Karakurt, Orak
F) Tasdemir, M.J. Cha, Horn, Legazpi
G) Zanetti, J.H. Heo, Yilmaz, Ö. Karakurt
H) Sidhom, Ceulemans, Kiraz, Alp.
All matches are streamed by Soop.
Ankara, June 11st 2025
Houdini Aksoy does it again, JP de Bruijn shines.
On the third day of the Ankara World Cup, the battle for survival was hard, unforgiving. Quite a few strong players missed out on advancing to the Q-round, such as Long Nguyen Chi, Birol Uymaz, Sergio Jimenez and Alexander Salazar. Jean Paul de Bruijn excelled in a tough group with a 35 in 12 and 1.794 over his two matches, making him the best of the bunch. Escape artist Mehmet Aksoy (two wins with 30-29 yesterday) did it again: he won his group after a 35-34 win over Japan’s Atsushi Kiyota, having trailed most of the match.
Here are the day’s group winners:
Jean Paul de Bruijn 4 – 1.794
Muammer Rahmet 4 – 1.521
Vedat Yilmaz 4 – 1.346
Arnim Kahofer 4 – 1.296
Denizcan Akkoca 4- 1.272
Maxime Panaia 4 – 1.272
Mehmet Aksoy 4 – 1.186
Dimitrios Seleventas 4 – 1.147
Tarik Yavuz 4 – 1.093
Ahmet Alp 4 – 1.076
Necdet Yalcin 4 – 1.014
Kevin Vasseur 4 – 0.897
Volkan Cetin 3 – 1.000
Mikael Devogelaere 2 – 1.297
Emrullah Basegmez 2 – 1.107
Ronny Lindemann 2 – 1.065
For tomorrow, we can look forward to a whole contingent of “big guns” who were unseeded so they’ll have to play the Q-round. Polychronopoulos, Hofman, Legazpi, Ceulemans, Caudron, Seo, Haeng Jik Kim, Cha, Bury and others, it’s quite a field.
All matches are streamed by Soop. Full results are available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.
Ankara June 10th 2025.
Long, Yalcin and Nguyen lead the pack in Ankara.
A trio of successful group winners finished on an identical average: 1.578 and two wins. Nguyen Chi Long, Necdet Yalcin and Hoam Tat Nguyen made sure they qualified for tomorrow’s PQ round. A Colombian, A Swede, a Korean, a Greek, a German and a Spaniard survived amidst all the Turkish talent.
The group format can be brutal. Kostas Papakonstantinou for example, averaged a beautiful 1.685 but he finished second in his group with a win and a loss. Tom Löwe also had a win and a loss, but he miraculously won the group on average with a modest 0.872. Mehmet Aksoy proved to be an escape artist: he won both his matches 30-29, running out with a six twice.
Here’s today’s li
st of group winners:
Nguyen Chi Long 4 – 1.578
Necdet Yalcin 4 – 1.578
Hoan Tat Nguyen 4 – 1.578
Alexander Salazar 4 – 1.304
Vedat Yilmaz 4 – 1.250
Mehmet Aksoy 4 – 1.204
Doyhun Kim 4 – 1.200
David Pennör 4 – 1.111
Ecevit Eray Erdogan 4 – 1.111
Muharrem Peker 4 – 1.090
Murat Celik 4 – 0.983
Javier Gomariz 4 - -.983
Recep Bulut 4- 0.983
Denizcan Akkoca 4 – 0.909
Georgios Tsokantas 3 – 1.071
Tom Löwe 2 – 0.872.
Tomorrow, players like Lindemann, Vasseur, Panaia, Seleventas, Wilkowski, de Bruijn and Jimenez will enter the draw and the arena. All matches are streamed on Soop.
Ankara June 9th 2025.
Ankara is off to a flying start.
Not just the home players from Turkiye, also the Greek contingent turned the first round of the Ankara World Cup into a feast of scoring. No fewer than eight Turks and four Greeks managed to win their group and advance to tomorrow’s PPQ round. The best of the bunch was Necdet Yalcin, with two wins and an impressive 2.068. The level of play did not look like a PPPQ at all, with averages like these.
Several familiar names made it: Incekara, Papakonstantinou, Salazar (a former bronze medal winner in the World Championship of 2013), Tsokantas, to name just a few. Among the ones that did not advance were Mas, Crespo and Karakasli, the latter being one of the prominent Turkish female talents.
Here are today’s group winners:
Necdet Yalcin 4 – 2.068
Hakan Incekara 4 – 1.578
Kostas Papakonstantinou 4 – 1.578
Dionisis Tsokantas 4 – 1.463
Murat Celik 4 – 1.224
Alexander Salazar 4 – 1.200
Daniel Kristiansen 4 – 1.132
Temel Kaptan Bayramoglu 4 – 1.090
Georgios Tsokantas 4 – 0.952
Ecevit Eray Erdogan 4 – 0.937
Javier Gomariz 4 – 0.722
Mehmet Aksoy 4 – 0.697
Athanasios Matiakis 4 – 0.612
Mostafa Fadl 4 – 0.576
Vedat Yilmaz 3 – 1.666
Recep Bulut 3 – 0.882
All matches are streamed by Soop. There’s a one-hour time difference between Western Europe and Ankara.
Full results are available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.