Who have been the best 9 ball players in the last 20 years?

skogstokig said:
big ko has won both, hohmann has too (and WC twice). immonen surely must be included even though his WC preceded the timespan with one year, because he won just about everything else in the decade that followed.
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Yes. Your post inspired me to do a little research. I had thought out my last post off of the top of my head, and that proved a bad idea.

It turns out that there are ten players in the last 20 or so years have won two of the three jewels in the crown of nine ball pool (World 9-ball, China Open, US Open), with Filler the only one to have won all three.

Albin Ouschan
Josh Filler
Wu Jiaqing
Shane Van Boening
Darren Appleton
Thorsten Hohmann
Mika Immonen
Ko Pin Yi
Alex Pagulayan
Carlo Biado

These ten, who have shined brightest when the stakes were highest, cannot possibly be left off the list of the most elite players of the last twenty years. I'm still keeping Ralf Souquet, Dennis Orcullo, JL Chang, and Niels Feijen on my list, so those are my top fourteen.

Note: Post revised from original content to reflect omission of Carlo Biado.
 
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sjm said:
It turns out that nine players in the last 20 or so years have won two of the three jewels in the crown of nine ball pool (World 9-ball, China Open, US Open), with Filler the only one to have won all three.
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Where does the derby city 9 ball fall under top 9 ball titles to win?
 
sjm said:
Yes. Your post inspired me to do a little research. I had thought out my last post off of the top of my head, and that proved a bad idea.

It turns out that nine players in the last 20 or so years have won two of the three jewels in the crown of nine ball pool (World 9-ball, China Open, US Open), with Filler the only one to have won all three.

Albin Ouschan
Josh Filler
Wu Jiaqing
Shane Van Boening
Darren Appleton
Thorsten Hohmann
Mika Immonen
Ko Pin Yi
Alex Pagulayan

These nine, who have shined brightest when the stakes were highest, cannot possibly be left off the list of the most elite players of the last twenty years. I'm still keeping Ralf Souquet, Dennis Orcullo, JL Chang, and Niels Feijen on my list, so those are my top thirteen.

I stand corrected.
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carlo biado too. so recent that he's easy to forget. but besides the US open and WC he also won the all japan open (which was 10-ball at the time). i definitely think biado should be in there, so we have 5 players left to make 20.
 
Positively Ralf said:
Where does the derby city 9 ball fall under top 9 ball titles to win?
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It's a nice title to win, but never had the kind of field found in a major like a WPC, China Open or US Open.

It has traditionally been an event that the majority of the top European-based players skipped, although European players who lived in America like Shaw, Hohmann, Immonen and Appleton have always come to the Derby ... but things are beginning to change.

In 2022, each of Ouschan, Lechner, He, Kazakis, Sanchez-Ruiz, Alcaide, Zielinski and Grabe were in the field, along with Filler, Fortunski, Gorst, and Konrad J, who come every year. When we get back Ko Pin Yi, Ko Ping Chung, JL Chang, and Kevin Cheng, all of whom were regulars at the Derby before the pandemic, the profile of the event will rise yet again, and if the stars of China like Wu, Haitao and Zheng start showing up, wow! Finally, we'll get Orcullo back at some point and maybe even Anton Raga will try his hand at the Derby one day.

Actually, there's a very good reason that the Derby City 9-ball event is suddenly bringing so many more players in from overseas. In 2022, for the first time ever, the Derby City 9-ball carried Matchroom Ranking points and, for this reason, I'm very bullish that the Derby City 9-ball will continue rising in prestige and it may come to be viewed as a major somewhere down the road. We shall see.
 
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Positively Ralf said:
Where does the derby city 9 ball fall under top 9 ball titles to win?
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tough as any in my book. i say that partly(mostly?) due to the stamina required. Most entrants play multiple events over a 9day stretch. 9ball is last so those that play all the disciplines have to have some serious stamina imo. Pretty good list of winners too.
 
skogstokig said:
carlo biado too. so recent that he's easy to forget. but besides the US open and WC he also won the all japan open (which was 10-ball at the time). i definitely think biado should be in there, so we have 5 players left to make 20.
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Actually, the All Japan was 9-ball when Souquet, a US Open 9-ball and World 9-ball Champ (more than twenty years, ago), won it, so he, too, has to be on anyone's list. I consciously omitted the All-Japan 10-ball as the thread title says we are talking nine-ball. Biado, for me, is borderline top 20 over the last 20 years, and I'm not sure his title count merits his inclusion.
 
sjm said:
Actually, the All Japan was 9-ball when Souquet, a US Open 9-ball and World 9-ball Champ (more than twenty years, ago), won it, so he, too, has to be on anyone's list. I consciously omitted the All-Japan 10-ball as the thread title says we are talking nine-ball. Biado, for me, is borderline top 20 over the last 20 years, and I'm not sure his title count merits his inclusion.
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i mean there's ten players that's won two or more of the majors, biado is the tenth.

WC 2017
US open 2021

bustie would be another candidate, going back 20 years. he won the WC 2010, challenge of champions, and a hell lot of tourneys in japan, etc.
 
skogstokig said:
i mean there's ten players that's won two or more of the majors, biado is the tenth.

WC 2017
US open 2021

bustie would be another candidate, going back 20 years. he won the WC 2010, challenge of champions, and a hell lot of tourneys in japan, etc.
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Sorry, I misinterpreted you. I'll correct my list.
 
Yang Ching Shun should be in the discussion somewhere. The only big win he had was an All Japan in the 90's, but he killed the guiness tour for a few years and remember when he BBQ'd Dennis in his prime for the cash in the Philippines and then did it again?
 
sjm said:
Actually, the All Japan was 9-ball when Souquet, a US Open 9-ball and World 9-ball Champ (more than twenty years, ago), won it, so he, too, has to be on anyone's list. I consciously omitted the All-Japan 10-ball as the thread title says we are talking nine-ball. Biado, for me, is borderline top 20 over the last 20 years, and I'm not sure his title count merits his inclusion.
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Yea i wrote the wiki page for the All Japan Championship, took ages! the event dates back all the way to 1967, i believe it's the oldest pool event in the world right now if you discredit the dragon promotions "world 14.1 tournament" thing, I still need to do edits on the All Japan Championship page due to it only being 9-Ball (from 1976-1990 the champion was decided on the best overall results of all three events Nine-Ball, Rotation and Straight Pool) Rempe and Hopkins both won it twice! If you go the the page you will notice efren won in 79 before he even went to the US.

All Japan Championship (pool) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Positively Ralf said:
See topic title
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Positively Ralf said:
See topic title.
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The way I’m interpreting the topic title is the top 9-ball players over the entirety of the last 20 year period, and by that definition it would be extremely hard to say anyone other than SBV.

Alex, Niels and Mika come to mind as three other world top 5/10 players 20 years ago that are still arguably among the world top 10/15 players today, although I just checked and it looks like Mika has now fallen out of the top 50 Fargo world ratings.
 
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sjm said:
The China Open 9-ball is just as difficult to win as the US Open, but the thought process here is good. Anyone who has won at least two of the World 9-ball, US Open 9-ball, and China Open should be a slam dunk for the list. The ones I can think of who've done so are SVB, Wu, Filler and Ouschan. Of those, only Filler has won all three, but I think any list should start with these four players.

The World 10-ball, an event that has taken place in some years but not others, is a notch below these three titles to date and was not even a WPA sanctioned world championship for many years. In fact, in most years, it would have been more difficult to win the All-Japan 10-ball than the World 10-ball. This year, however, the World 10-ball reached a new and unprecedented level and will surely be reckoned an elite title of the 2020s. Finally, the thread title specifically asks for the best nine-ball players.

Still, as I noted, I like your post. Superior performance in the majors is, indeed, the stuff of which greatness is made.
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Yes, I like adding the China Open and All Japan Championship as well. They capture a lot of Asian players that otherwise don't travel as much to the Western world.

The WPA did not have the World 9 ball Championship in 2008 and 2009, but did have the World 10 ball Championships in those years. I would think the best players at the time would have entered the 10 ball events. I think we all thought at that time that 10 ball would replace 9 ball? Its been a while. I also recall some of those events were boycotted by the top Filipino players because the promoter was not trustworthy. The economy was also generally very bad in those years and that affected the pool scene both locally and professionally. I do agree the 10 ball in general may have been a slightly weaker field, but I think with it being WPA sanctioned, which all the ones listed on the WPA page would have been, their fields would have been far reaching.

Here is the WPA sanctioned World Champions list for 8/9/10/etc:

World Champions

wpapool.com wpapool.com

I personally think the best 9 ball player is the best 10 ball player, and vice versa.
 
raphcleary said:
Yea i wrote the wiki page for the All Japan Championship, took ages! the event dates back all the way to 1967, i believe it's the oldest pool event in the world right now if you discredit the dragon promotions "world 14.1 tournament" thing, I still need to do edits on the All Japan Championship page due to it only being 9-Ball (from 1976-1990 the champion was decided on the best overall results of all three events Nine-Ball, Rotation and Straight Pool) Rempe and Hopkins both won it twice! If you go the the page you will notice efren won in 79 before he even went to the US.

All Japan Championship (pool) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Very nice work!

I see Wu is listed in 2007 and 2011 as representing China. I think he was still representing Taiwan in 2007? I may be wrong.
 
raphcleary said:
Yea i wrote the wiki page for the All Japan Championship, took ages! the event dates back all the way to 1967, i believe it's the oldest pool event in the world right now if you discredit the dragon promotions "world 14.1 tournament" thing, I still need to do edits on the All Japan Championship page due to it only being 9-Ball (from 1976-1990 the champion was decided on the best overall results of all three events Nine-Ball, Rotation and Straight Pool) Rempe and Hopkins both won it twice! If you go the the page you will notice efren won in 79 before he even went to the US.

All Japan Championship (pool) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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It looks like Corey really had Mika's number in 2001. ha ha ha.
 
sjm said:
For the previous twenty, 1982-2002, both make the list for sure, but I'm not so sure about the last twenty.
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Corey Deuel, in the early 2000's. He was amazing back then. Still a great player today though.

Alex Pagulayan. The Ko Brothers. James Aranas, Dennis Orcollo, Fransisco Bustamante, Josh Filler, Jayson Shaw, Fedor Gorst, Albin Ouchan. I know I am missing a ton of others.
 
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