WPA World Nine-ball Championship

Template:Short description Template:Infobox Sports league The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual professional nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1990. The championship is sanctioned by the World Pool Association (WPA) and principally sponsored and organized by Matchroom Sport, who promote he event as the World Pool Championship. The championship is divided into men's, women's and wheelchair divisions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

File:Albin Ouschan.JPG

Two-time champion Albin Ouschan

The 2004 and 2005 events were held in Taiwan, with a men's division first prize of $75,000 as of 2004. The 2005 tournament saw two rules changes: last 64 and last 32 matches were extended to Template:Glossary link format, and the Template:Glossary link on the tables were narrowed, to make the game more difficult.

In the 2006 event, the Philippines became the host country for two years. All matches became alternating-Template:Glossary link 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.

After a 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. The event was then held annually in Doha through 2019. After not being contested in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the championship resumed in 2021 in Milton Keynes, England. The 2022 edition was April 6–10 in Milton Keynes.

Winners

Year	Dates	Location	Winner	Runner-up	Final score
1990	March 3-7	Bergheim, Germany	Template:Flagicon Earl Strickland	Template:Flagicon Jeff Carter	3–1 (sets)
1991	May 29 – June 5	Las Vegas, United States	Template:Flagicon Earl Strickland (2)	Template:Flagicon Nick Varner	9–7
1992	April 1-5	Taipei, Taiwan	Template:Flagicon Johnny Archer	Template:Flagicon Bobby Hunter	13–12
1993	December 7-12	Königswinter, Germany	Template:Flagicon Chao Fong-pang	Template:Flagicon Thomas Hasch	2–0 (sets)
1994	November 2-6	Chicago, United States	Template:Flagicon Takeshi Okumura	Template:Flagicon Yasunari Itsuzaki	9–6
1995	November 15-19	Taipei, Taiwan	Template:Flagicon Oliver Ortmann	Template:Flagicon Dallas West	11–9
1996	October 23-27	Borlänge, Sweden	Template:Flagicon Ralf Souquet	Template:Flagicon Tom Storm	11–1
1997	October 1–5	Chicago, United States	Template:Flagicon Johnny Archer (2)	Template:Flagicon Lee Kun-fang	9–3
1998	November 11–15	Taipei, Taiwan	Template:Flagicon Kunihiko Takahashi	Template:Flagicon Johnny Archer	13–3
1999	July 18–26	Cardiff, Wales	Template:Flagicon Efren Reyes	Template:Flagicon Chang Hao-ping	17–8
1999	December 5–12	Alicante, Spain	Template:Flagicon Nick Varner	Template:Flagicon Jeremy Jones	13–8
2000	July 1–9	Cardiff, Wales	Template:Flagicon Chao Fong-pang (2)	Template:Flagicon Ismael Paez	17–6
2001	July 14–22		Template:Flagicon Mika Immonen	Template:Flagicon Ralf Souquet	17–10
2002	July 13–21		Template:Flagicon Earl Strickland (3)	Template:Flagicon Francisco Bustamante	17–15
2003	July 12–20		Template:Flagicon Thorsten Hohmann	Template:Flagicon Alex Pagulayan	17–10
2004	July 10–18	Taipei, Taiwan	Template:Flagicon Alex Pagulayan	Template:Flagicon Chang Pei-wei	17–13
2005	July 2–10	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Template:Flagicon Wu Jiaqing	Template:Flagicon Kuo Po-cheng	17–16
2006	November 4–12	Pasay, Philippines	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Alcano	Template:Flagicon Ralf Souquet	17–11
2007	November 3–11	Quezon City, Philippines	Template:Flagicon Daryl Peach	Template:Flagicon Roberto Gomez	17–15
2008	Not held due to the 2008 financial crisis
2009
2010	June 29 – July 5	Doha, Qatar	Template:Flagicon Francisco Bustamante	Template:Flagicon Kuo Po-cheng	13–7
2011	June 25 – July 1		Template:Flagicon Yukio Akakariyama	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Alcano	13–11
2012	June 22–29		Template:Flagicon Darren Appleton	Template:Flagicon Li Hewen	13–12
2013	September 2–13		Template:Flagicon Thorsten Hohmann (2)	Template:Flagicon Antonio Gabica	13–7
2014	June 16–27		Template:Flagicon Niels Feijen	Template:Flagicon Albin Ouschan	13–10
2015	September 7–18		Template:Flagicon Ko Pin-yi	Template:Flagicon Shane Van Boening	13–11
2016	August 1–4		Template:Flagicon Albin Ouschan	Template:Flagicon Shane Van Boening	13–6
2017	December 5–14		Template:Flagicon Carlo Biado	Template:Flagicon Roland Garcia	13–5
2018	December 10–20		Template:Flagicon Joshua Filler	Template:Flagicon Carlo Biado	13–10
2019	December 13–17		Template:Flagicon Fedor Gorst	Template:Flagicon Chang Jung-lin	13–11
2020	Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	June 6–10	Milton Keynes, England	Template:Flagicon Albin Ouschan (2)	Template:Flagicon Omar Al-Shaheen	13–9
2022	April 6–10		Template:Flagicon Shane Van Boening	Template:Flagicon Albin Ouschan	13–6
2023	February 1–5	Kielce, Poland	Template:Flagicon Francisco Sanchez Ruiz	Template:Flagicon Mohammad Soufi	13–10
2024	June 3–8	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	Template:Flagicon Fedor Gorst (2)	Template:Flagicon Eklent Kaçi	15–14

Records

• Earl Strickland holds the record for winning the WPA World Nine-ball Championship the most times with three. (1990, 1991, 2002).
• Earl Strickland holds the record for the most consecutive wins with two. (1990, 1991).
• Albin Ouschan holds the record for the most final appearances with four. (2014, 2016, 2021, 2022).
• The oldest pool player to ever win the tournament to date is Nick Varner of the United States, at 51 years old at the time of his victory, The youngest is Wu Jiaqing of Chinese Taipei, aged 16 years old at the time of his victory.

Top performers

Name	Nationality	Winner	Runner-up	Finals	Semi-final or better	Final stage appearances
Earl Strickland		3	0	3	5	6
Albin Ouschan		2	2	4	4	8
Johnny Archer			1	3	5	10
Chao Fong-pang			0	2	3	5
Thorsten Hohmann					2	6
Fedor Gorst						2
Ralf Souquet		1	2	3	6	11
Shane Van Boening					4	9
Alex Pagulayan			1	2	3	7
Francisco Bustamante
Carlo Biado						6
Nick Varner						3
Ronnie Alcano					2
Efren Reyes			0	1		7
Takeshi Okumura						5
Wu Jiaqing
Ko Pin-yi					1	9
Mika Immonen
Oliver Ortmann						6
Kunihiko Takahashi						5
Niels Feijen
Darren Appleton						4
Joshua Filler
Daryl Peach						3
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
Yukio Akakariyama						1
Kuo Po-cheng		0	2	2	3	5
Lee Kun-fang			1	1	2	4
Eklent Kaci						2
Tom Storm						4
Chang Jung-lin					1
Dallas West
Jeremy Jones
Antonio Gabica						3
Omar Al-Shaheen
Chang Hao-ping						2
Mohammad Soufi
Li Hewen
Roberto Gomez
Bobby Hunter						1
Chang Pei-wei
Ismael Paez
Jeff Carter
Roland Garcia
Thomas Hasch
Yasunari Itsuzaki

• Active participants are shown in bold.
• Only players who reached the final are included.
• Final stage appearances relates to players who reach the last 16 players of the event.
• In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by first name.

See also

• Template:Portal-inline

External links

• World Pool-Billiard Association