scratchnsniff said:

That’s the exact shaft I have. You will not be disappointed. I would highly recommend a Zan tip if you haven’t tried one yet.

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Shaft is scheduled to arrive today. The previous owner had a Zan Medium installed. I do like the Kamui Soft Black that comes on the V4's from Jacoby but it will be good to experiment with the Zan.

jbart65 said:

One assumes a new generation of talent is coming to the fore. Some of these names will drop out of the top 20 in the next five years.

David Alcaide won’t be on the list. Yet as he has shown, players can still be among the world’s best, even in today’s game, into their late 40s if they stay committed. Oi, Biado and SVB are all in their early 40s. I am not about to write them off.

Looking ahead, I wonder if there is another FSR ready to emerge. A really good player in his late 20s who suddenly breaks through to become one of the game’s elite.

You could argue such a player did come along: Aloysius Yapp. He had won a few International opens before 2025, but last year was when he snapped off three Matchroom majors.

Other candidates?

Pijus Labutis and Daniel Maciol come to mind. What about Eklent Kaci? He was briefly a superstar. Can he return to his pre-injury form and take down a bunch of majors?

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Another promising player in that age range starting to show top form is Wu Kun Lin. Robbie Capito, to me, has the talent to be a superstar, but his game has largely stopped developing and his tactical weaknesses may limit him. Mickey Krause might have what it takes, but he looks like he has plateaud.

Younger candidates to be the next Josh or Fedor include Kural, Van Berkel, Vogel, Pongers, Kledio, and Januarta. They are all developing nicely.

Another one is Busty. I doubt he was at the top of any "tour" list. But he was probably the best 1-3 player in the world for 10 years.

PickeringRC said:

Not including the new steel subframe which came courtesy of a friend who owed me a favour, the total cost including labour, the new CPBA cloth and rails was 800€ (roughly 900 USD)

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Worth it in the long run.

Good thread read!

Jaden said:

I think it's foolish to judge best player on wins alone. I would give more weight to wins but how deep they go and who they lose to are also important factors.

I mean who would argue that jose parica wasnt one of the best players in the 90s? If you go by majors won he might not crack top 20.

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I've seen people run away from a game with Jose in his prime. That says a lot when there is a room full of champions and no one steps up getting offered weight.

jbart65 said:

I watched Filler's run, sjm, and it was very impressive. No disputing that.

I still think the sets format favors Filler more than a race to 11, relative to other players. He's hard enough to beat in one set, never mind two or three. There is a bit more margin for error. Not so in a single race, as we saw again in Sarajevo.

As I said, I do not sense the same pressure at a big Predator event as I do at a legit MR major. Yes, the pressure in still very intense. But I have seen players at big Matchroom events shake like a leaf, wilt even, in ways I seldom see at a Predator event. Yapp and SVB in the Florida final last year both had the shakes in the final racks.

Why, I don't know. The setup? The cameras? The crowds?

Splitting hairs? Maybe. That's just how I see it.

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Let's face it, this is a matter of opinion. Tough to say for sure. I attended the last two Las Vegas Opens, and felt the intensity was ramped up.

Per Mike Page at Fargo, the best two out of three races to four with possible shootout is, in terms of probability of winning, the same as a race to eight. I think the favorites are a bit ore vulnerable than in a race to 11.

By every reckoning, Filler played an awful match in the European Open semis. Did you think he'd win every rotation match he played in 2026? He won, if memory serves, the only 14 matches in which he played at the Derby City 9ball, all 8 matches he played at the Las Vegas Open 10ball and his first 6 matches at the European Open. To be fair, 28 in a row really isn't too shabby, yet you seem to be questioning his pedigree and readiness to win right now. In fact, Josh has not lost in 2026 to a single player that made your Top 20 list in Post #3. The biggest stars are falling to him time and time again, and often by lopsided scores. Nobody knows what's next for Josh, but I think sounding an alarm here is premature.

jburkm002 said:

Isn't it getting a little harder to get maple shafts these days? S

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I believe McDermott has one type of only wood pool shaft. It's CF and combination of wood and CF shafts are the i-series, G-core, and Defy. Anything over $350 comes standard with a non-wood shaft.