Hurghada, 26/11/2017
That slogan was written for the Ministry of tourism, but the Egyptian Billiard Federation could claim it as well. After all, Edmond Soussa was our first official world champion 3-cushion, in 1928.
To this day, the country with the pyramids has played an important role in billiard history.
In the 21st century alone, seventeen World Cup tournaments were held in Egypt. The eighteenth will take place in El Gouna, from 3 - 9 December 2017.
As it has before, the Mövenpick resort & Spa will host the event, for which fourteen players were seeded: Sánchez, Jaspers, H.J. Kim, Zanetti, Coklu, Blomdahl, Caudron, Bury, Polychronopoulos, Sidhom, Merckx, Nguyen, Heo and Tran.
Jung Han Heo was last year's winner in El Gouna, when he beat Dick Jaspers in the final to win his first World Cup, Tran and Horn being the losing semifinalists.
The wildcards for this edition of El Gouna were given to Luis Aveiga from Ecuador, Ihab El Messery from Egypt and Ali Hares from Egypt.
With 149 players already signed up and 15 on the waiting list, it will be another very tough qualification tournament to survive. Egypt, Turkey and Korea have a large number of players in the early rounds, but there are also a few dozen hopefuls from Western Europe. It's good to see some ladies names on the list: Therese Klompenhouwer, Sylvia Eckel, Gülsen Degener and Namiko Hayashi.
All matches from El Gouna can be watched on Kozoom, and no Premium Pass is required to see the early rounds.