Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource

2018 WPA World 9-Ball Championships
Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation
Al-Arabi Sports Club
Al Shaab Street
Doha
Qatar
www.qbsf.qa
www.wpa-pool.com - Twitter - facebook
www.esnooker.pl - livescore - livestream

Friday 14 - Thursday 20 December 2018

Carlo Biado of the Philippines
Click the image to view the full size photograph (use "back" to return here)
It’s Anyone’s Game In Doha

One of the toughest fields in years is set to do battle as the 2018 World 9-ball Championship kicks off in Doha, Qatar, Friday.

By Ted Lerner
WPA Press Officer
Photos Courtesy of Bo Bader

After the raucous excitement of the Mosconi Cup last week in London, the pool world is now braced for a completely different kind of intense and nervy action, as the 2018 WPA World 9-ball Championship gets underway Friday at the Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

If past years are any measure, there won’t be huge crowds in Doha. But, still, fans will be treated to an incredibly explosive field of the world’s very best pool players doing battle to see who will be crowned king of the 9-ball universe.

This will be the 9th straight year that the tiny Gulf country, through the government sanctioned Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation(QBSF), has put its full backing behind the sport of pool’s most important event.

As is standard, the tournament will be run in two brutally difficult parts. The group stages will run from Dec. 14-17. The players will be broken up into 16 groups of 8 playing a race-to-9, alternate break, double elimination format. Four players from each group will make up the final 64, which marks the start of the always tense and dramatic single elimination phase of the tournament. Matches will then become race to 11, alternate break. The final, which takes place on December 20, will be a race to 13.

The defending champion is the Philippines' Carlo Biado, who became the first Filipino since Francisco Bustamante in 2010, and the fourth Filipino ever, to win the World 9-ball Championship. Biado won his first world title with a convincing win over fellow Filipino Roland Garcia in the final.

Only eight Filipinos make up a somewhat smallish contingent this year but we can rightfully expect one or more to go far in the event. Besides Biado, Pinoy cue fans should look out for Garcia. Just a few days ago the Pampanga native stormed through a stacked field of great Pinoy cueists to win the Manny Pacquiao Open in General Santos, Philippines. With a second place finish last year, and a hot hand this year, Garcia certainly looks like he has the goods to go all the way.

It seems most fans have their eye on the USA’s Shane Van Boening, and for very good reason. After Van Boening pocketed the winning 9-ball in last week’s Mosconi Cup in London, he has admitted that he has arrived in Doha literally brimming with confidence, and is playing under absolutely no pressure. And don’t forget, while Van Boening skipped last year’s event, in both 2015 and 2016 he lost in the finals. It’s no wonder that odds makers have made the American star their betting favorite.

Share this article on FaceBook

"Read More..." for the details.