For more than a quarter of a century Marco Zanetti has been at the top of three cushion billiards in Italy. Once again, in 2016. for the 25th time, Zanetti has captured the Italian National Championship his 9th in a row. Facing a field of 30 of Italy's best the 54 year Zanetti proved why he has consistently ranked in the top 12 in the world.
Winning his first Italian title way back in 1977 Marco has only experienced two two-year interruptions at the hands of his rivals Francesco Monicciolo and Antonio Oddo. His best average for the championship event came in 2013 where he won with a 2.137. This year he averaged a tournament best 1.642 with a high run of 10. The 7th place finisher Alfio Basile topped the high run with 11.
Zanetti, no stranger to controversy, commented at the end that he played his worst match in the final, blaming a difficult and irregular table. Nonetheless his win in the final match where he faced Giorgio Mancini was a still a convincing 40-16 in 31 innings. Zanetti and Mancino will now pair to represent Italy in the World Championship for teams in Viersen next year.
With this win Zanetti maintains his sixth position in the UMB ranking of the world's top players behind Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers and Dani Sánchez. Congratulations to Marco Zanetti, Italy's 2016 National Champion of Three Cushion Billiards.