Cho Myung-woo wins the Ankara World Cup... First Asian player to achieve 5 wins in total

Korea's 3-cushion billiards star Cho Myung-woo (Seoul City Hall) reached the top of the 2026 Ankara World 3-cushion Billiards World Cup, becoming the first Asian player to win his 5th World Cup trophy.

World No. 1 Cho Myung-woo won a thrilling one-run victory over Dick Jaspers of the Netherlands, 50-49, in the final of the tournament held in Turkye Ankara on the 14th (local time) after a close match that lasted 21 innings.

With this, Cho Myung-woo became the first Asian player to reach a total of 5 wins since the launch of the Billiards World Cup in 1986.

This record is on par with the record of five wins set by Korean-American Lee Sang-cheon at the 1999 Las Vegas Games.

In addition, he became the 6th active player to achieve a total of 5 wins, following Sweden's Torbjörn Bromdal (46 wins), Netherlands' Jaspers (32 wins), Belgium's Frédéric Coudron (22 wins), Belgium's Eddie Max (14 wins), and Italy's Marco Zanetti (5 wins).

As expected from the finals, there was a great match. Cho Myung-woo got off to an uneasy start, falling behind by 8-21, or 13 points, due to Jaspers' offense through the first eight innings.

However, he exploded with 20 high-run points right from the back, turning the game around to 28-21.

Cho Myung-woo, riding on momentum, seemed to be on the cusp of victory, widening the score to 41-28 through 12 innings.

Jaspers' counterattack was also fierce. Jaspers trailed to 43-37 in the 13th and 14th innings, and eventually tied the score at 49-49 in the 20th inning, continuing a tight battle for match points.

The game was decided in the final 21 innings. Jaspers' shot, which went first, missed by a narrow margin, and Cho Myung-woo, who took the opportunity, calmly scored the last point, confirming the win.

Cho Myung-woo, who won his first championship by defeating Spain's Daniel Sanchez at the Sharm el-Sheikh World Cup in December 2022, went on to sweep the Porto, Gwangju, and Bogotá competitions, and also won the Ankara competition in just four months, achieving his second win of the season.

As a Korean player, he is the second Ankara Games champion, following Heo Jeong-han (Gyeongnam), the winner in 2024.