Arizona Open 2026, Yuma, August 13-16

GideonF said:
Crazy match. I was watching Table 1 so I’m not sure how many chances Januarta had in the Aleksa comeback.
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When Januarta was up 9-1 I switched off the match. Pecelj said he was thinking about dinner. I turn back and I see it's 9-6. Finished the match, then rewound to see what happened.

I don't think Januarta made any big mistakes. Pecelj got control of the table, broke well, and locked up Januarta with good safeties when he didn't have a shot. Januarta just needed to get one good roll - and he never did.

Pecelj got three bigtime lucky rolls, including fluking in the 2 ball down 9-7 and fluking in the 9 to bring the match to 9-9.

Heartbreaker for Januarta. Other than not breaking clean when he was up 9-1, he was spectacular.
 
High drama in the final two matches of the night. SVB looked tired when he let Alcaide back into the game. And the Januarta-Pecelj match was nuts. Both SVB and Pecelj got lucky.

A rested SVB should beat Pecelj, but he's played so much pool that last two weeks by advancing, I question if he can go the distance. He has to be dog tired with play and travel.

Grabe brought his A game, including a powerful break. He needs to be sharp vs Roda because Roda does not beat himself. He's the kind of player that always gives Grabe trouble.
 
I was not at all surprised by Roda beating Filler. I wrote in a post before the match that Filler had to be sharper than he was in his prior two matches. He actually was, but Roda was superb. I've seen him do that before. He's gotten to the semis and two quarterfinals of big Matchroom majors in the past two years.

Roda is the third best player from the Philippines on the international scene, in my view, behind Biado and Chua. He's unlike most Pinoy players. Tactically smart, a simple game, fundamentally impeccable, steady pace. He's a former snooker player.

He lacks some of the brilliance Biado and Chua can bring to bear, but there's no mistaking how good he is. Top 40 Fargo at 816 and it shows.

If he beats Grabe, I think he has a very good chance to take down SVB given his younger age.

The one big question I have is, will he get the yips again. The three times he made deep runs in big Matchroom events, he clearly showed nerves.
 
jbart65 said:
I was not at all surprised by Roda beating Filler. I wrote in a post before the match that Filler had to be sharper than he was in his prior two matches. He actually was, but Roda was superb. I've seen him do that before. He's gotten to the semis and two quarterfinals of big Matchroom majors in the past two years.

Roda is the third best player from the Philippines on the international scene, in my view, behind Biado and Chua. He's unlike most Pinoy players. Tactically smart, a simple game, fundamentally impeccable, steady pace. He's a former snooker player.

He lacks some of the brilliance Biado and Chua can bring to bear, but there's no mistaking how good he is. Top 40 Fargo at 816 and it shows.

If he beats Grabe, I think he has a very good chance to take down SVB given his younger age.

The one big question I have is, will he get the yips again. The three times he made deep runs in big Matchroom events, he clearly showed nerves.
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I like roda still don't why he's "Deathstroke" instead of "master roda".
I almost died watching svb v alcaide on the East Coast. Match was on past 2am. I'm gonna miss Shane playing 9ball, we'll probably never see that style again with all these robot players
 
jasonlaus said:
Filler kills all of them, not sure what that has to do with being Chinese. You can get a bet down anytime. As a matter of fact, if you wanna play races to 120 you can get it all. PUNK
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He's talking about Chinese8ball or did you skip that post?? ;) SVB, Filler, gorst might win a match or two but they can't beat the top Chin. Heyball players on any regular basis. Why u get so mad bro?
 
trob said:
Really? Because filler has been getting his a$$ handed to him lately in the late rounds. He did again yesterday lol svb is the goat because all careers like filler have ups and down. Where they play at an elite level and then they struggle. Right now filler is struggling but he’s young and I would assume he will be at the top again. Fedor is doing the same. He went through a divorce and he started his business and it seems like he’s lost a bit of focus but I’ll bet he’s young and will be back some time. At 43 every time people say svb is getting old and is done he comes back and wins big tournaments and looks like the best rotation player in the world again. That’s why he’s the goat.

correct ..hey ball is a completely different animal. It’s like expecting a pool player to just start playing snooker and immediately be dominating. It’s not going to happen

no lol they’ve all tried to play hey ball because of the money involved and they don’t even come close to dominating.

Because that’s how you make money in pool. He just talked about in a stream finishing in the top 16 in the last tournament and he still lost money on the trip. You can’t rely on just tournament wins as a pro pool player. He’s a smart business man capitalizing on the big wins he’s had and popularity. That’s smart. Him and svb have to be on the mosconi cup. You act like we have this long long of American players that can compete against their best.. lol we don’t and it’s why we have been getting our ass kicked.
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Agree 1000%. Pro player like FG have a VERY small time window to make money. Fedor would have to be a moron not to take advantage of his 'time slot' whether it be playing pool or doing outside business. He's no dummie, he's buying property, trying to invest and just be JoeAmerican yet some nimrod on a fkn forum hammers the guy every chance he gets because he doesn't like his MC record.
 
Say what you want about Matchroom's events but they generate more interest on this forum than Predator's events.

12 pages for the Arizona open is kind of crazy.

The US Open thread is going to hit 100 pages.
 
shane train keeps going. i didn't watch pecelj vs januarta match but they said in comms that januarta made a 4-pack and then obviously pecelj won from being 1-9 down. incredible. anyone know total BNR count in that match?
 
datnodude said:
I like roda still don't why he's "Deathstroke" instead of "master roda".
I almost died watching svb v alcaide on the East Coast. Match was on past 2am. I'm gonna miss Shane playing 9ball, we'll probably never see that style again with all these robot players
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is his nickname "deathstroke"? 🫣
 
SA96 said:
Say what you want about Matchroom's events but they generate more interest on this forum than Predator's events.

12 pages for the Arizona open is kind of crazy.

The US Open thread is going to hit 100 pages.
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Well, the fact that Shane is playing well in this tournament probably helps. Shane moves the needle like few others.
 
jay helfert said:
Missing these important tournaments will not help his preparation for the MC. Mother Emily is watching.
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The evidence suggests otherwise. SVB skipped each of the first two WNT events of 2026, (European Open, UK Open) but he won the third (Florida Open) and has every chance to win the fourth (Arizona Open) later today.

Last month, SVB played a long race against Fedor and was beaten convincingly. Despite a slow start at the majors this year, there's little evidence that Fedor has slipped much at all. Fedor may work as hard at his craft as anyone we've ever seen, and you can be sure he's not letting a brief hiatus in competition interrupt his always ambitious practice routine.

Emily knows that for the Mosconi to be competitive at all, Fedor must be on Team USA. I'm sure Fedor realizes it, too.
 
SA96 said:
Say what you want about Matchroom's events but they generate more interest on this forum than Predator's events.

12 pages for the Arizona open is kind of crazy.

The US Open thread is going to hit 100 pages.
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That doesn't mean the Matchroom events are better necessarily, they're just more popular with the people who browse this forum.

I would love to talk about the Predator events but I don't think many on here besides myself care about stuff like women's pool and mixed doubles matches. They should though, women's pool these days is great.

I'm just happy we get lots of pro pool tournaments between the two.
 
GideonF said:
Crazy match. I was watching Table 1 so I’m not sure how many chances Januarta had in the Aleksa comeback.
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That was just Aleksa controlling it and putting pressure on Albert whenever he let him to the table and that wassn't more than maybe 2 or 3 times and he wasn't liking where he was when he did come to the table. I was watching both. The benefit of multiple screens.
 
sjm said:
Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?
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jay helfert said:
Missing these important tournaments will not help his preparation for the MC. Mother Emily is Fedor played in the UK and European opens. SVB played in neither.
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Fedor played in the UK and European opens. SVB played in neither.

Styer and Woodward also skipped the UK and European opens.

The only American to play in all four big Matchroom events this year is … Nathan Childress!

The Arizona event was announced late, so who knows if Gorst already had commitments. Whatever the case, he’s played as many events as the other Americans who’ve played on the Mosconi. He is going to the Phoenix Open and U.S. Open and probably the Philippines Open.

Remember, players expected the WPC to be played as well as the WPC lead-in event. They probably expected a Hanoi Open too.

Just get points. That’s all a player has to do. Matchroom appears to have done away with excluding players anymore, as they did with Josh and Shane. Backfired on them badly.
 
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SA96 said:
The Chinese Heyball players are lucky that SVB doesn't play the game.

If SVB played the game, the Chinese players would be going hungry.
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I want some of what you're smoking. I love Shane to death, but Wu would DESTROY him at Duya 9 ball, and there are 20+ chinese guys that would destroy him at Heyball. If Shane was 20 years old again, and went to live in China and play snooker and chinese 8 ball, then, yeah, he would have been a top player over there. I don't know if there is a universe where he would be better than Wu.
 
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sjm said:
Fedor remains a superstar of the highest order, one of the best all-around players we've ever seen. In a chat he and I had in November, I told him that if he exceeds Efren's total of five Derby City Classic Master of the Tables awards, I will deem him to be the best all-around player in pool history. Admittedly, getting three more is a very tall order, but it could happen.

Fedor's absence from the last two WNT majors is unfortunate, but what's wrong with him opting to focus on building his brand as an entrepreneur in pool instead?
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What about all the DCC all-arounds that Efren would have won if the DCC had existed during Efren's prime?
 
Jaden said:
That was just Aleksa controlling it and putting pressure on Albert whenever he let him to the table and that wassn't more than maybe 2 or 3 times and he wasn't liking where he was when he did come to the table. I was watching both. The benefit of multiple screens.
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did aleksa break and run or was it more safety oriented? 9 rack comeback is crazy
 
We all know how great Filler is, but before he enters GOAT talk, I want to see what he is doing at age 43 like SVB.

Really seems like a lot of players slow down at ages 30-35, then a smaller number get a second wind later in their career. Looking at all the quarterfinalists of Matchroom majors since 2022, a quick count shows players in their 20s, along with vets in their late 30s or early 40s, make the most waves on the tour.
 
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