THE UK OPEN, promoted by the GB9 Tour in the UK, is the latest event to be added to Team Europe’s Mosconi Cup ranking event roster. Taking place from August 4th to 6th in Telford, the event offers a €13,000 guaranteed prize fund and is a Level Three event offering 28 ranking points to the winner.
The same event was part of last year’s qualification and it was won by Holland’s Niels Feijen who defeated Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP) to take maximum points.
Commented Adam Stevens of the GB9 Tour; “GB9 has been the home to several of Great Britain’s greatest players and we are delighted that Matchroom Sport have once again given the us the opportunity to award Mosconi Cup ranking points at this year’s UK Open.
“The Mosconi Cup is the pinnacle of our sport and something that every player at GB9 dreams of being a part of. This opportunity once again makes this dream a reality. The 2016 event attracted some of the biggest names in pool and we hope to make the 2017 event better than ever.”
In other news, the Bergen Open has been cancelled for 2017 and is consequently removed from the roster of points events.
Unlike previous years there will be only two rankings instead of three. The first will be the ‘European Ranking’ which includes the five European ‘A’ and five European ‘B’ events. The winner of this ranking will gain a spot on the Mosconi Cup side.
The second ranking will be the ‘World Ranking’ which will comprise all 12 events. The first and second placed players in this ranking will gain spots on the European Mosconi Cup team.
In the event that the winner of the European Ranking also comes first or second in the World Ranking, then the player filling the third position in the World Ranking will gain an automatic spot. The remaining two players will be wildcard picks.
The next ranking event is the Austrian Open which starts on Thursday May 18th.
2017 European Mosconi Cup Rankings – World and European List (After three events)
1. Ralf Souquet (GER) 102
2. Nick van den Berg (NED) 90
3. David Alcaide (ESP) 57
4. Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) 54
5. Dennis Grabe (EST) 45
6. Mark Gray (ENG) 44
7. Niels Feijen (NED) 43
8. Wiktor Zielinski (POL) 37
T9. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP) 31
T9. Joshua Filler (GER) 31
11. Daryl Peach (ENG) 30
T12. Mario He (AUT) 23
T12. Albin Ouschan (AUT) 23
T12. Damianos Giallourakis (GRE) 23
T12. Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) 23
T12. Eklent Kaci (ALB) 23
T12. Sebastian Ludwig (GER) 23
T12. Tomasz Kaplan (POL) 23
T12. Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) 23
Points Cut Off
Events with a field upwards of 80 players – top 32
Events with fields between 64 and 79 players – top 24
Events with less than 64 entries – top 16.
2017 MOSCONI CUP is sponsored by Rasson Billiards who supplies the Official Table; the cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue and Chalk of the event and Ultimate Team Gear provide all Mosconi Cup apparel.
Luke Riches, Matchroom Sport: [email protected]
Notes: MATCHROOM SPORT is one of the world’s leading producers of televised sport and is responsible for over 1,000 hours of original programming across a range of sports. Based in the UK and chaired by charismatic founder Barry Hearn, they operate three pool events; the Mosconi Cup, the World Cup of Pool and the World Pool Masters. In addition, the company produce a multitude of events in darts, snooker, tenpin, golf, fishing, ping pong, poker and boxing.