Marco Zanetti (born 10 April 1962) is an Italian professional

three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each su ...

player and a two-time world champion from

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Privat

Zanetti started playing billiards at 7. He needed a chair to play. His father, Erwin Zanetti, was the president of the Carambole Circle of Bolzano. He is regarded as a brilliant billiards player, but also a controversial person who does not hold back with criticism of the world or continental federation and organizers. This brought him in the past, often the wrath of the organizers, as well as its behavior in different tournaments. Because of his criticism of the UMB at the World Cup 2009 tournament in Korea Zanetti was occupied by a lifetime 50-point penalty.Interview with Zanetti
on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Two years later, at the end of the three-band World Cup, also in Suwon, South Korea, the UMB took this penalty back and the end of the year he received his 50 points back for the world ranking. Zanetti lives with his wife Martina and son Samuel (born 2008) in his birth town in

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

. As a south tyrolian he also speaks fluently German. His nickname in the billiards scene is ''The Italian gentleman''.

Early years

In his early career he won the

balkline Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two and a red on a -covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called ''counts'', by a play ...

European Championship twice, 1983 in 47/2-Balkline and 1984 in 47/1-Balkline. Later he switched to three-cushion where he won the Biathlon (three-cushin and 5-pins) World Championship in 1988 and 1996.

First success in 3-cushion

He reached the finals of the UMB World Three-cushion Championship in 2001, but was bested by

Raymond Ceulemans Raymond, Knight Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 Europea ...

. He made it into the finals again a year later and won the title, defeating Dion Nelin of Denmark. He has been the only Italian to win a world championship in the sport as of 2007. He was ranked 7th in the world as of 2007 by the Confédération Européenne de Billard. Zanetti also has 25 Italian national titles. He is 7-time winner, from 2004/05 to 2011/12, of the ''Coupe d’Europe'', a tournament series for clubs which is held since the season of 1958/59, it is comparable to the Champions League in Football. He plays for the club of ''BC AGIPI Courbevoie'' in France. His teammates in the Season 2011/12 are Frédéric Caudron (Belgium),

Jérémy Bury Jérémy is a French masculine given name. It is a spelling variant of Jérémie, itself the French variant of the biblical name Jeremiah. Its cognate in English is Jeremy. People with the given name Jérémy include: * Jérémy Abadie (born 1 ...

(France) and

Jean-Christophe Roux ''Jean-Christophe'' (1904‒1912) is the novel in 10 volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Prix Femina in 1905 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilbert Cannan. The first four volumes ar ...

(France). On 19 October 2008, he again won the world three-cushion championship in the German city of St. Wendel. He defeated Jérémy Bury of France in the semi-finals and then went on to beat Torbjorn Blomdahl of Sweden in the finals, averaging 1.871 in the five-set match. Through this victory he reached his best ranking in his career, so far, with the 5. place. In 2010 he won the best paid tournament at this time, the Crystal Kelly Cup in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, again

Torbjörn Blomdahl Torbjörn Blomdahl (born 26 October 1962 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish professional carom billiards (and to a lesser extent pool) player from Helsingborg, Sweden who plays for FC Porto. He is a seven time World Champion in three-cushion billiards, ...

was his losing opponent. One year later he was the runner-up to

Filippos Kasidokostas
on Kozoom.com Retrieved 2014-02-25 Filippos Kasidokostas (born 14 ...

from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. The Crystal Kelly Cup was an invitation tournament which has been sponsored by the Dutch software developer

Joop van Oosterom Joop van Oosterom (12 December 1937 – 22 October 2016) was a Dutch billionaire, chess and billiards sponsor, and twice correspondence chess world champion. His fortune, made with the Volmac Software Group, was estimated by Dutch financial mag ...

. It has been named after his daughter Crystal Kelly.

Season 2012/13

At the 2012 3-cushion World Championship in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, Portugal he came, together with Caudron in third place. One week later he placed second at the third 3-cushion World Cup of 2012 in the South Korean town of

Suwon Suwon (, ) is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea's most populous province which surrounds Seoul, the national capital. Suwon lies about south of Seoul. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". With a populati ...

. On 17 March 2013 he won the final of the first ''Lausanne Billiard Masters'' in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, Switzerland against Frédéric Caudron from Belgium. Zanetti was winning on the last ball with a fluke to 40-33. In the semi-final, opponent was Torbjörn Blomdahl, he was playing the highest run of the tournament with 15 balls which gave him an extra bonus of 400 €. Finally he has been paid 6,700 € for his victory. Just one week later he was winning the

AGIPI Billiard Masters The AGIPI Billiard Masters was a three-cushion billiards tournament which was held annually in Schiltigheim, France between 2008 and 2013. In 2008 the invitational tournament for the best three-cushion players in the world has started. The games ...

Schiltigheim Schiltigheim (, , and sometimes by non-local speakers of French; Alsatian: ''Schelige'' ; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The inhabitants are called ''Schilikois'' in French and ''Scheligemer'' ...

, again Caudron was his opponent. On 14 April he won the

CEB European Three-cushion Championship The CEB European Three-cushion Championship is three-cushion billiards tournament organized by the Confédération Européenne de Billard. Held since 1932, it is one of longest-running tournaments in the sport. The 2007 event offered a total purse ...

. In the final he beats German ex-1996-World-Champion Christian Rudolph with 40-10. In the semi-final, he won third time in row against Caudron, although the Belgian was equalizing world record in High-Run of 28 points. Zanetti also made the new European record in General-Average of 2,500. Marco Zanetti-Winner as the player of the Year 2003

Marco Zanetti-Winner as the player of the Year 2003

Personal records

His highest run in a match is 21 and his best game average is 5.555 (50 points in 9 innings).2006 Edition of the Sang Lee International Open Site.
.

Honours

In 2003 he won the title as "Player of the Year" in Antwerp.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zanetti, Marco 1962 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Italian carom billiards players World champions in three-cushion billiards World Games gold medalists World Games bronze medalists World Games silver medalists Competitors at the 2009 World Games Competitors at the 2013 World Games Competitors at the 2017 World Games