EUROPEAN OPEN 2026, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, March 10-15

jay helfert said:
In case you haven't noticed it's not life as normal on this planet anymore. We are in chaos mode! Far better to stay close to home until we get through this. That's my advice.
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Come now, Jay, life is never normal. You've been around long enough to know that!

We had a brief "holiday from history" after the USSR imploded, to use the words of a famous political pundit. But the world is always chaotic.

I think of my father when I hear people complain about the state of the world. He grew up in the Great Depression. One of his parents died young as was common. He fought in WW2 against the Nazi and Japanese menace. Lived through the Korean War, Vietnam, the Cold War, political assassinations, the end of the Bretton Woods global financial system, Watergate and a world of mutually assured destruction.

Tumult indeed!

***
As for the European Open, I don't think it was realistic to cancel. Weaker field than usual, but life has to go on, especially outside any immediate war zone.
 
jbart65 said:
We don’t call every WNT event a major. Neither does Matchroom.

Matchroom has lots of events. Some it calls majors, or Gold events. Others are deemed ranking or Silver or Bronze events. The Pattaya Open fit into that category. So did the Caraboa in February, or the upcoming Diamond Expo event in Philadelphia.

***

I generally consider the UK Open, European Open, WPC, US Open, Florida Open and Hanoi Open as Matchroom majors.

The WPC has the biggest prize fund, toughest field and a history. The U.S. Open is next for similar reasons.

The UK, European, Florida and Hanoi opens are newer, but all have the same fairly large prize funds and 256-player fields that usually attract most of the best players.

Matchroom is calling the Philippines and Arizona opens Majors, but I don’t think they are. Smaller prize funds, 128 players and single elimination.

By the definitions I use, Qatar would qualify as a major pool tournament.
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Well said. Agree with pretty much all of this. The no-longer played Spanish Open was a major, too.

Another factor in whether an event is considered a major by Matchroom is the producer. Other than the invitationals, the events produced by Matchroom themselves are the ones they view as majors. Such events are never played in poolrooms and have large production budgets.
 
New format this year for all the 256-player WNT Open events (European, UK, U.S., Florida and Hanoi opens).

Single-elimination round begins at 128 instead of 64 as in the past.

A Matchroom event manager said the Philippines Open taught them that earlier single elimination got rid of some "dead" matches under the prior format. Matches will count a lot more, starting earlier in the tourney.

At the same time, the top-seed players all got a first-round bye - that's pretty much any player you ever heard of. I counted 53 players as getting a first-round bye. Nathan Childress of the US (Fargo 744) even got a bye.

The unseeded players will have to play more matches against each other for a chance to go up against a top pro.

All the top players with first-round byes, however, will play their first matches today. Some already are playing.
 
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The only player whose name I knew who did not get a first-round bye was Quinten Pongers, older brother of the more talented Yannick Pongers. Fargo 744, same as Childress.

I was starting to feel bad for him ... until I noticed he lost his first-round match to Estonian Revo Maimre (Fargo 660).

Maimre is probably better than that, though. He won the 2024 Predator Junior Championship for U17s.
 
SA96 said:
Single elimination from 128 is a good move.

Makes it more exciting.

But day 1 looks pretty boring as all of the top players have been given byes.
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Not sure why it is more exciting. In a field with this much dead money, I think it just ensures that round one of single elimination will be filled lots of dead money and lots of unwatchable pool.

On the other hand, if it means that we'll get to shot clock matches sooner, I'm all for it.
 
jbart65 said:
New format this year for all the 256-player WNT Open events (European, UK, U.S., Florida and Hanoi opens).

Single-elimination round begins at 128 instead of 64 as in the past.

A Matchroom event manager said the Philippines Open taught them that earlier single elimination got rid of some "dead" matches under the prior format. Matches will count a lot more, starting earlier in the tourney.
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Thanks for the info. We'll see how it goes. It means fewer dead money matches in Stage 1 but more of them in Stage 2. I'm sure it will be entertaining. It should be quite a WNT season.
 
There are, to me, a surprising number of European players, mostly Eastern Europeans, with 700 Fargoes or better in the event. I expect a few notable upsets.
 
I have not subscribed to WNTtv.com this month due to a heavy work schedule. Would somebody know who is subscribed and watching who the commentators are for this event in Sarajevo? TIA
 
JAM said:
I have not subscribed to WNTtv.com this month due to a heavy work schedule. Would somebody know who is subscribed and watching who the commentators are for this event in Sarajevo? TIA
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The Josh Filler vs Jani Siekenen match was commentated by Jeremy Jones and Phil Yates.
 
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jbart65 said:
Nathan Childress of the US (Fargo 744) even got a bye
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He had some very solid cashes in Matchroom events last year and it doesn't take much to get a bye in a weak field since only Matchroom results count for rankings. Great players, e.g. Chang Yu Lung in US Open a few years back, often don't get seeded because they haven't played many Matchroom events. Last year, I got a favorable initial seed in a ranking event because I had cashed for a few hundred bucks previously and less than half the field had done more than that 😂
 
Another contributor to the weak 2026 European Open field were the EPBF European championships sponsored by Predator. Eight-ball, 9-ball and other events took place in Turkey from Feb. 28 to March 10.

The prize money in these events is not big. Less than $60,000 total prize fund for each men's tournament.

The EPBF European Pool Championships did offer a sweetener. Paid accommodations (double rooms) for the top men's players.

I imagine a lot of players took part to earn WPA ranking points for the WPC or future Predator/WPA events.

In any case, most of the top pros who played in the EPBF event did not make it to Sarajevo.

Only a few did - Jonas Souto, Georgi Georgiev and Aleksa Pecelj.

Souto probably made an accommodation with Matchroom. He played in a 9-ball final today in Turkey (lost to Maciol), but is not scheduled to play his first WNT European Open match until tomorrow. Almost every other top player is playing today in Sarajevo.

Another 14 players who played in Turkey are skipping Sarajevo. Nine of these 14 played in last year's European Open.

*Wojciech Szewczyk
*Szymon Kural
*Daniel Maciol
Konrad Juszczyszyn
*Mateusz Sniegocki
Felix Vogel
*Petri Makkonen
*Casper Matikainen
Stefan Kasper
*Joao Grilo
Juan Carlos Exposito
Roman Hybler
*Alnar Mustafa
*Tobias Bongers
 
Looks like the top seeded players who got a bye only have to win one match to get to the 128-player knockout stage.

So far only one seeded player who got a bye has lost - Francisco Candela (754 Fargo). He lost 9-7 to Haris Trtovac (Fargo 709), and was sent to the loser's side.
 
jbart65 said:
Another contributor to the weak 2026 European Open field were the EPBF European championships sponsored by Predator. Eight-ball, 9-ball and other events took place in Turkey from Feb. 28 to March 10.

The prize money in these events is not big. Less than $60,000 total prize fund for each men's tournament.

The EPBF European Pool Championships did offer a sweetener. Paid accommodations (double rooms) for the top men's players.

I imagine a lot of players took part to earn WPA ranking points for the WPC or future Predator/WPA events.

In any case, most of the top pros who played in the EPBF event did not make it to Sarajevo.

Only a few did - Jonas Souto, Georgi Georgiev and Aleksa Pecelj.

Souto probably made an accommodation with Matchroom. He played in a 9-ball final today in Turkey (lost to Maciol), but is not scheduled to play his first WNT European Open match until tomorrow. Almost every other top player is playing today in Sarajevo.

Another 14 players who played in Turkey are skipping Sarajevo. Nine of these 14 played in last year's European Open.

*Wojciech Szewczyk
*Szymon Kural
*Daniel Maciol
Konrad Juszczyszyn
*Mateusz Sniegocki
Felix Vogel
*Petri Makkonen
*Casper Matikainen
Stefan Kasper
*Joao Grilo
Juan Carlos Exposito
Roman Hybler
*Alnar Mustafa
*Tobias Bongers
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I've discussed this with several pros over the years. In many cases, these players would have had little or no choice. In some cases, a player taking national federation money is, at least to some extent, expected to represent his country at the EPBF European Championships. Yes, there are exceptions and no, I'm not going to go into it.
 
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