It's actually ridiculous how many great players there are. This may end up being a problem for Matchroom if they really want to develop known commodities. There's just too many players that can play + .900 level TPA even on tough equipment.
I don't entirely agree. I think there’s a lot of very good players, but great ones? I'd count fewer than 10 truly elite players at the moment. Filler, Gorst, Yapp, Biado, SVB, Chua, one of both of the Ko brothers and perhaps Shaw.
Next up are the near-great category. I'd put FSR, Alcaide and Eklent Kaci (post injury) into that category, but a case can be made they are still elite.
Albin Ouschan has really fallen off in the past year, but I am not ready to punt him into just “very good” status.
In any case, the winners of the 19 Big Matchroom majors since 2022 - really the start of the WNT touring era - come almost entirely from the small group of players listed above.
The only exceptions were Dang Jin Hu, Robbie Capito and Mickey Krause.
Lots of new players, of course, are aiming for elite status. More than ever, it seems.But it takes tremendous effort to get there – and stay there.
Capito and Krause, for instance, have yet to break into elite status despite winning MR majors.
Krause is the more likely of the two to get there, but he’s been up and down since winning the European Open in 2024.
Beyond those two, there are plenty of potentially great players. They have yet to arrive, though.
