 |
MATCHROOM Sport is delighted to announce details of the first ever PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool. The event, which will be held at the Newport Centre, Newport, Wales, from Tuesday, August 22 to Sunday, August 27, features 32 two-man teams from around the world and includes some of the sport's greatest players.
Among the field are four former 9-ball World Champions - Earl Strickland (USA), Mika Immonen (Finland), Efren Reyes (Philippines) and Oliver Ortmann (Germany) - while snooker stars Steve Davis, Tony Drago and Ronnie O'Sullivan will also be taking part.
The format of the World Cup will see 31 matches taking place over six action-packed days and there will be afternoon sessions that begin at 2pm and evening sessions which start at 7pm.
Tickets for all of the sessions are FREE and can be collected from the Newport Centre.
Alternatively, you can send an e-mail to info@matchroom.com along with your name, address, details of how many tickets you want and for what sessions then Matchroom Sport will mail your tickets to you.
Each of the 31 nations will be battling it out for the $60,000 top prize and the Philippines, who are seeded No.1, are betting favourites to win the event. Their team comprises of 1999 World Champion Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante, who finished as runner-up in the 2002 World Championships and they will be up against Tony Drago's Malta in one of the highlight matches of the first round.
Holland, seeded No. 2, look to have a strong team as Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg are ranked two and three in Europe respectively and they begin their tournament against Scotland's Michael Valentine and Pat Holtz.
Third seeds USA will be confident of doing well as their side consists of three-time World Champion Earl Strickland and former US Open winner Rodney Morris and they start with a match against Singapore.
Welsh players Ben Davies and Rob McKenna will be hoping the home crowd, which will be upwards of 1,000 people, get behind them and support them in their tricky opening round tie.
Wales face fourth seeds Germany, whose side consists of current European No.1 Thomas Engert and 1995 World champion Oliver Ortmann.
Taiwan, including former World Championship semi-finalist Yang Ching-shun, are seeded fifth and they play India while sixth seeds Sweden entertain Hong Kong.
England will be represented by two teams, the A side consists of former snooker world No.1 Ronnie O'Sullivan and 1995 World Pool Masters winner Raj Hundal, and the B team includes snooker legend Steve Davis and highly-rated Daryl Peach.
It promises to be an exciting, thrilling six days of top class pool so do not miss out and order your tickets NOW.
For more information about the event visit www.worldcupofpool.com
