Rumours are circulating more than ever regarding the potential of a ‘Reyes Cup’ being announced, involving a team featuring the best players from the Asian continent.
The annual Mosconi Cup is now less than a month away as Europe and the USA lock horns once again, with some expecting this year’s winners to face an Asian team in a brand new exhibition tournament.
Matchroom held their inaugural Hanoi Open Pool Championship last month in Vietnam, with the European and Americans teams being confirmed following that event, but who would make an Asian team based on this year’s standings?
Three places on the respective European and American teams for the Mosconi Cup are decided based on the one-year ranking system, with the remaining two spots being captain’s wildcards.
Using that same structure and only selecting players from South East Asia due to Asia as a whole being too populated, an Asian team would be a contrasting one compared to what some may have guessed.
US Open champion Ko Ping-Chung would earn his spot, having amassed more than $106,000 this year through his Atlantic City and Sharks International Open successes as well as runs to the Hanoi Open semi-finals and the UK Open quarter-finals.
Nevertheless, Ko would be joined by two surprise teammates in two-time ranking event runner-up Michael Feliciano and Spanish Open champion Dang Jinhu, the latter of who won the only World Nineball Tour tournament that he competed in this year.
That would leave the likes of Ko Pin-Yi, Aloysius Yapp, Carlo Biado and Anton Raga in the conversation for wildcard picks, as well as Naoyuki Oi, Wu Kun-Lin and World Cup of Pool champions James Aranas and Johann Chua.
Matchroom could equally decide for the Reyes Cup to be a Filipino team instead of an Asian one, and in that case Feliciano, Raga and Biado would be the automatic qualifiers.
Nonetheless, an Asian team is only hypothetical until Matchroom unveil the exhibition tournament, with managing director Emily Frazer teasing an announcement following discussions in Vietnam.
