WPA World Nine-ball Championship

The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual, international, professional nine-ball pool (pocket billiards) tournament, founded in 1990, sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Sport (who provide the event's official website, under the less specific name World Pool Championship). It is divided into men's, women's and wheelchair Divisions. Since 2010, it is held in Doha, Qatar.

History[]

In the summer of 1989, the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) began plans for a world championship tournament. The group sent invitations, rules, sports regulations and by-laws. Reception was positive, and a provisional Board was created.^[1]

In March 1990, the inaugural WPA World Nine-ball Championship was held in Bergheim, Germany. The playing field included 32 men and 16 women in separate divisions, and has since become an annual event. The event was organised solely by the WPA from this inauguration through 1999.^[2]

In July 1999, Matchroom Sport attempted to get involved with the organisation of the event, but their bid failed. The WPA event was played in Alicante, Spain, and won by Nick Varner of the United States. Broadcast on ESPN, it was the first pro nine-ball championship to be televised. Matchroom Sport, meanwhile, instead organised tournament called the "World Professional Pool Championship", a competing and non-WPA-sanctioned event in Cardiff, Wales, which was won by Efren Reyes of the Philippines.^[3]

In 2000, Matchroom and the WPA agreed that tournaments would merge into a single official world championship. The WPA also agreed to recognise the results of the 1999 Matchroom event, meaning that official listings show both Varner and Reyes as 1999 world champions. Matchroom changed its promotional name for the event to the "World Pool Championship", dropping the word "professional" from the title. The event remained in Cardiff through 2003.^[2]

In 2001, the number of competitors in the men's division was increased to 128 and a men's division first prize raised to $65,000.^[2][4]

The 2004 and 2005 events were held in Taiwan, with a men's division first prize of $75,000 as of 2004.^[2] The 2005 tournament saw two rules changes: last 64 and last 32 matches were extended to race-to-10 format, and the pockets on the tables were narrowed, to make the game more difficult.^[5]

In the 2006 event, the Philippines became the host country for two years. All matches became alternating-break all the way from the group stages to the finals. Men's division first prize escalated to $100,000. In 2007, the event ran from November 3–11, and Daryl Peach of the England was the victor. Because of the global late-2000s recession the championship did not reappear on the calendar in 2008. For some time neither Matchroom nor the WPA released any predictions regarding its reinstatement, and no 2009 event was held, either.^[6]

After this two-year hiatus, the tournament returned as the 2010 WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Doha, Qatar. Francisco Bustamante of the Philippines won the 2010 title.^[7] Since then, the event has been held annually in Doha.^[8]

Winners[]

Year	Dates	Location	Winner	Runner-up	Final score
		Bergheim, Germany	Earl Strickland		3–1 (sets)
		Las Vegas, United States	Earl Strickland (2)	Nick Varner	9–7
		Taipei, Taiwan	Johnny Archer		13–12
		Königswinter, Germany	Chao Fong-pang
		Chicago, United States	Okumura Takeshi
		Taipei, Taiwan	Oliver Ortmann	Dallas West
		Borlänge, Sweden	Ralf Souquet	Tom Storm	11–1
1997		Chicago, United States	Johnny Archer (2)	Kun-Fang Lee	9–3
1998		Taipei, Taiwan	Takahashi Kunihiko	Johnny Archer	13–3
1999 (A)	July 18–26	Cardiff, Wales	Efren Reyes		17–8
1999 (B)	December 5–12	Alicante, Spain	Nick Varner	Jeremy Jones	13–8
2000	July 1–9	Cardiff, Wales	Chao Fong-pang (2)	Ismael Paez	17–6
2001	July 14–22		Mika Immonen	Ralf Souquet	17–10
2002	July 13–21		Earl Strickland (3)	Francisco Bustamante	17–15
2003	July 12–20		Thorsten Hohmann	Alex Pagulayan	17–10
2004	July 10–18	Taipei, Taiwan	Alex Pagulayan	Chang Pei-wei	17–13
2005	July 2–10	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Wu Jia-qing	Kuo Po-cheng	17–16
2006	November 4–12	Pasay, Philippines	Ronato Alcano	Ralf Souquet	17–11
2007	November 3–11	Quezon City, Philippines	Daryl Peach	Roberto Gomez	17–15
2008	Not held due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008
2009	Not held due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008
2010	June 29 – July 5	Doha, Qatar	Francisco Bustamante	Kuo Po-cheng	13–7
2011	June 25 – July 1		Yukio Akakariyama	Ronato Alcano	13–11
2012	June 22–29		Darren Appleton	Li He-wen	13–12
2013	September 2–13		Thorsten Hohmann (2)	Antonio Gabica	13–7
2014	June 16–27		Niels Feijen	Albin Ouschan	13–10
2015	September 7–18		Ko Pin-yi	Shane Van Boening	13–11
2016	August 1–4		Albin Ouschan	Shane Van Boening	13–6
2017	December 5–14		Carlo Biado	Roland Garcia	13–5
2018	December 10–20		Joshua Filler	Carlo Biado	13–10
2019	December 13–17		Fedor Gorst	Chang Jung-Lin	13–11
2020	Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	June 6–10	Milton Keynes, England	Albin Ouschan (2)	Omar Al-Shaheen	13–9

Records[]

• Earl Strickland holds the record for winning the WPA World Nine-ball championship the most times: three. 1990, 1991, 2002.
• Earl Strickland holds the record for the most consecutive wins: two. (1990, 1991).
• The oldest pool player to ever win the tournament to date is Nick Varner of United States, at 51 years old at the time of his victory, The youngest is Wu Chia-ching of Chinese Taipei, aged 16 years old at the time of his victory.

Top Performers[]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Winner	Runner-up	Finals
1	Earl Strickland	United States	3	0	3
2	Albin Ouschan	Austria	2	1	3
	Johnny Archer	United States	2	1	3
3	Thorsten Hohmann	Germany	2	0	2
	Chao Fong-pang	Chinese Taipei	2	0	2
4	Ralf Souquet	Germany	1	2	3
5	Carlo Biado	Philippines	1	1	2
	Alex Pagulayan	Canada	1	1	2
	Ronato Alcano	Philippines	1	1	2
	Francisco Bustamante	Philippines	1	1	2
	Nick Varner	United States	1	1	2

• Active players are shown in bold.

References[]

External links[]

• World Pool-Billiard Association