After six tournaments on the European Ranking Schedule, Albania’s Eklent Kaci leads the race to make Marcus Chamat’s team for the 25th annual Mosconi Cup at Alexandra Palace, London this December 4-7.
Kaci leads the ‘Combined Ranking’ by some 75 points with eight events to be played. The 19-year-old won the EuroTour’s Treviso Open last month and has finished third three times in ranking tournaments; at the WPA World 9-Ball Championship, the Italian Open and the Austrian Open, which was won at the weekend by Greece’s Alexander Kazakis.
Mario He is second to Kaci on both the ‘Combined’ and ‘European Ranking’ lists, although his margin to the Albanian is a narrower 22 points on the European list. Albin Ouschan is just a point behind his Austrian World Cup winning partner He on the Combined list, with Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski fourth and Denis Grabe of Estonia in fifth.
The 14 event ranking series will determine three of the five spots on the European Mosconi Cup team as they bid to extend their run of successive victories to nine this December in London.
The events fall into three categories; ‘World Events’ of which there are two; European ‘A’ events, numbering seven and European ‘B’ events of which there are five.
There are two ranking lists, the first of which is the ‘European Ranking’ which includes the seven 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 14 events. The first and second placed players in this ranking will gain spots on Chamat’s 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.
Tickets for Mosconi Cup XXV are on sale now priced from £25 per session, with season tickets available priced £90. Premium seating in rows 4-7 is available at £49 per session or £175 for a season ticket, with VIP Hospitality packages from £155 per person per session with a season ticket priced at £549.
2018 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 of the event and Ultimate Team Gear provide all Mosconi Cup apparel. APA are the Official Team Sponsor of Team USA.
