From 17 to 19 November, the Casino Montbenon will once again be host to the Lausanne Billiard Masters, the Swiss tournament where world class 3-cushion and raising money for charity go hand in hand.
CEB president Diane Wild and her team have four successful tournaments to look back on, with Marco Zanetti (twice), Dick Jaspers and Dani Sánchez as the winners. A little change in the format means that this year not two but three groups of players will compete for places in the knock-out stage.
Group A consists of Dani Sánchez, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jeremy Bury and Michel Boulaz. Dani is of course the title holder, Nikos makes his debut in Lausanne, Jeremy has played every edition so far. Michel Boulaz is one of the Swiss wildcards.
Group B holds Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Jae Ho Cho and Fernando Couto. Another very strong flight, with two legends and a first appearance for Verhoeven Open winner Cho.
Group C has Marco Zanetti, world nr. 1 and world champion Frédéric Caudron, Dong Koong Kang and Tien Duy Ma. Caudron comes fresh from his briljant win in Bolivia, Zanetti is a multiple winner and almost a home player in Lausanne, and DKK is one of the most feared Koreans, so Swiss player Ma has a mountain to climb.
There’s almost 35.000 Swiss francs in prize money, and the Merck foundation will contribute 5 francs for every point made, to the fight against multiple sclerosis.
All matches can be watched on Kozoom.