Marco Zanetti

Marco Zanetti at the 2013 3-cushion
World Championship in Antwerp

Marco Zanetti

Medal record
Competitor for  Italy
Men's Three-cushion billiards
Balkline European Championship
	1983 Balkline 47/2 European Championship	Individual
	1984 Balkline 47/1 European Championship	Individual
Men's Three-cushion billiards[1][2]
Biathlon World Championship (3-Cushion and 5-Pins)
	1988 Biathlon World Championship	Individual
	1996 Biathlon World Championship	Individual
UMB World Three-cushion Championship
	1997 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2000 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2001 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2002 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2003 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2008 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2009 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2011 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2012 World Three-cushion Championship	Individual
CEB European Three-cushion Championship
	2007 European Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2010 European Three-cushion Championship	Individual
	2012 European Three-cushion Championship	Individual
World Games
	2009 Kaohsiung	Individual
	2013 Cali	Individual
Crystal Kelly Cup
	2010 Crystal Kelly Cup	Individual
	2011 Crystal Kelly Cup	Individual
Lausanne Billiard Masters
	2013 Lausanne Billiard Masters	Individual
AGIPI Billiard Masters
	2013 AGIPI Billiard Masters	Individual

Marco Zanetti (born 10 April 1962) is an Italian professional three-cushion billiards player and a two-time world champion from Bolzano, Italy.

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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

Zanetti lives with his girlfriend Martina and son Samuel (* 2008) in his birth town in South Tyrol.^[4] 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 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. 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.^[6]

Zanetti also has 15 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 team mates in the Season 2011/12 are Frédéric Caudron (Belgium), Jérémy Bury (France) and Jean-Christophe Roux (France).^[7]

On the 19th of 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.^[8]

In 2010 he won the best paid tournament at this time, the Crystal Kelly Cup in Nice, France, again Torbjörn Blomdahl was his losing opponent. One year later he was the runner-up to Filipos Kasidokostas from Greece.^[9][10] The Crystal Kelly Cup was an invitation tournament which has been sponsored by the Dutch software developer Joop van Oosterom. It has been named after his daughter Crystal Kelly.

Season 2012/13

At the 2012 3-cushion World Championship in Porto, 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.

On 17 March 2013 he won the final of the first Lausanne Billiard Masters in Lausanne, 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.^[11] Just one week later he was winning the AGIPI Billiard Masters in Schiltigheim, again Caudron was his opponent.^[12] On 14 April he won the CEB European Three-cushion Championship. 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.^[13]

Winner as "Player of the Year 2003".
Left: Nobuaki Kobayashi
Right: Raymond Ceulemans

Personal records

His highest run in a match is 21 and his best game average is 5.555 (50 points in 9 innings).^[14]

Honours

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

References

1. Palmares on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 17 March 2013
2. World Champions in 5-Pin (Stecca) on FIBIS.it (italian). Retrieved 17 March 2013
3. Interview to Marco Zanetti (Italian)
4. Interview with Zanetti on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
5. Marco Zanetti will lose hie life penalty on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
6. Confédération Européenne de Billard (2007).Ranking 3-cushion 2007 (PDF format). Retrieved on 16 February 2007.
7. "Winners Coupe d’Europe 1959–2011" (in German). Archived from the original (PDF; 21 kB) on 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
8. World Ranking List 2008-10-19 (Edition 20/2008) (PDF; 100 kB) at UMB.com. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
9. "Final ranking 2010 Crystal Kelly Cup" (in German). Kozoom.com. 2010-07-06. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-10-09.
10. "Final ranking 2011 Crystal Kelly Cup" (in German). Kozoom.com. 2011-06-29. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-10-09.
11. Marco Zanetti powers to win in glorious endrush Retrieved on 17 March 2013
12. Two giants, one winner: Marco Zanetti on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 26 March 2013
13. Marco Zanetti completes hattrick with title on Kozoom.com Retrieved 15 April 2013.
14. 2006 Edition of the Sang Lee International Open Site..