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.

See also: WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship

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, the Matchroom and 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
Main article: List of WPA World Nine-ball champions
Year Dates Location Winner Runner-up Final score
1990 Bergheim, Germany Earl Strickland Jeff Carter
1991 Las Vegas, United States Earl Strickland (2) Nick Varner 9–7
1992 Taipei, Taiwan Johnny Archer Bobby Hunter 13–12
1993 Königswinter, Germany Chao Fong-pang Thomas Hasch
1994 Chicago, United States Okumura Takeshi Yasunari Itsuzaki
1995 Taipei, Taiwan Oliver Ortmann Dallas West
1996 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 Chang Hao-ping 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 Chia-ching 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
2009
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

References
  1. World Pool-Billiard Association – WPA history Archived January 31, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  2. World Pool Championships – Men's 9-Ball Archived September 29, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Reyes is world 9-ball champion! Archived January 22, 2011, at the Portuguese Web Archive Philippine Balita Today – July 26, 1999
  4. Admiral WPA World Pool Championship 2001 Archived July 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  5. WPA World Pool Championship 2005 Archived September 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Economy Scratches Pool in the Side Archived September 30, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Francisco Bustamante Wins World Crown Archived September 30, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  8. Pin-Yi makes it a World title double in Doha Archived September 30, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.