Ankara World Cup 2026

What a beautiful temple of billiards the Turks have built. You can’t walk around in it without admiring the courage and the vision that made it possible. Eight tables await the players, as the Turkish Federation’s Ankara headquarters will host the third World Cup of the 2026 season, from 8-14 June.  

To freshen up your memory: the Bogota WC was won by Myung Woo Cho, the Ho Chi Minh WC was won by Frédéric Caudron. The top players will already have an eye on the Overall World Cup that is to be decided over seven events. 

The UMB has seeded the following players for Ankara: M.W. Cho, Merckx, Jaspers, Tasdemir, Zanetti, Sidhom, Horn, B. Karakurt, T.L. Tran, Caudron, Q.C. Tran, Bury, Hofman and H.J. Kim. The local wildcards went to Tolgahan Kiraz and Gokhan Salman, the CPB/UMB wildcard went to Pedro Piedrabuena.  

The tables in Ankara are Zeki Bilardo, the cloth is Simonis 330 Prestige, the balls are Aramith Prestige. The usual ranking points are at stake: 80-54-36-26-18-10-8. And let’s not forget: the UMB still has that extra prize of 29.000 Euro on offer, for a run of 29 made in a World Cup (or world championship). 

The player list shows that a sizeable number of players from Korea and Vietnam will be present. Also, a handful of players from South America who have done really well recently in their home events, will take part. And then of course, there is the large talent pool of Turkish players. It has all the signs of a strong few days of qualifications. 

All matches can be viewed on Soop. Full results are available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.