Break Stats -- 2026 UK Open Pool Championship (9-Ball), May 2026

AtLarge

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Here are some aggregate break statistics from the 2026 UK Open Pool Championship played May 26-31, 2026 at The Brentwood Centre in Brentwood, England. Pay-per-view streaming was provided in the USA on wnttv.com. This was a 256-player 9-Ball event produced by Matchroom Sport, with double elimination down to 128 players (64 on the winners' side and 64 on the one-loss side) and then single-elimination to the end. Joshua Filler won the tournament, defeating Wojciech Szewczyk in the final match.

The commentators were Phil Yates, Michael McMullan, Karl Boyes, and Rico Diks. The announcer/interviewer was Abigail Davies, and the MC (weekend only) was Tahir Hajat.

Conditions -- The conditions for the streamed matches I watched included:
• Diamond 9-foot table with 4" corner pockets;​
• CPBA Royal Apex Series grey cloth;​
• Dynaspheres Titan Series balls with a black-rotor-shaped-spots cue ball;​
• Magic Ball Rack racking template;​
• referee racks with the 9-ball on the foot spot and the 2-ball on one of the wings or in the back location;​
• winner breaks from behind the head string in a box approximately 8" to either side of the long string;​
• no illegal-break rule, but referees are to enforce a forceful-break requirement;​
• a 30-second shot clock (60 sec. after the break), with one 30-sec. extension per player per rack;​
• foul on all balls;​
• 3-foul rule in effect (no violations);​
• jump cues allowed;​
• all slop counts; and​
• lag for the break in each match.​

These stats are for all 13 matches (195 games) played on Table 1 beginning with the Stage 2, single-elimination round of the last 64 players. These matches were races to 10 except for the semifinals to 11 and the final to 13. These 13 matches are listed here in the order in which they were played.

Friday, May 29
1. Stuart Bingham defeated Michael Baoanan 10-7 (Last 64)​
2. Duong Quoc Hoang d. Maks Benko 10-1 (Last 64)​
3. Joshua Filler d. Niklas Dohr 10-8 (Last 64)​
4. David Alcaide d. Lukas Fracasso-Verner 10-3 (Last 32)​
5. Jayson Shaw d. Duong 10-8 (Last 32)​
6. Filler d. Gary Wilson 10-1 (Last 32)​

Saturday, May 30
7. Shaw d. Dean Shields 10-6 (Last 16)​
8. Jonas Souto d. P:ijus Labutis 10-4 (Last 16)​
9. Souto d. Aloysius Yapp 10-8 (Quarterfinal)​
10. Shaw d. Alcaide 10-8 (Quarterfinal)​

Sunday, May 31
11. Wojciech Szewczyk d. Souto 11-3 (Semifinal)​
12. Filler d. Shaw 11-2 (Semifinal)​
13. Filler d. Szewczyk 13-1 (Final)​

Overall results

Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Match winners -- 86% (110 of 128)​
Match losers -- 70% (47 of 67)​
Total -- 81% (157 of 195)

Breaker won the game:
Match winners -- 74% (95 of 128)​
Match losers -- 40% (27 of 67)​
Total -- 63% (122 of 195)

Break-and-run games on all breaks:
Match winners -- 28% (36 of 128)​
Match losers -- 18% (12 of 67)​
Total -- 25% (48 of 195)

Break-and-run games on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Match winners -- 33% (36 of 110)​
Match losers -- 26% (12 of 47)​
Total -- 31% (48 of 157)

Here's a breakdown of the 195 games (for match winners and losers combined).

Breaker made at least one ball and did not foul:​
Breaker won the game: 107 (55% of the 195 games)​
Breaker lost the game: 50 (26%)​
Breaker fouled on the break:​
Breaker won the game: 3 (2%)​
Breaker lost the game: 8 (4%)​
Breaker broke dry (without fouling):​
Breaker won the game: 12 (6%)​
Breaker lost the game: 15 (8%)​
Therefore, whereas the breaker won 63% (122 of 195) of all games,​
He won 68% (107 of 157) of the games in which the break was successful (made at least one ball and did not foul).​
He won 39% (15 of 38) of the games in which the break was unsuccessful (fouled or dry).​

Break-and-run games -- The 48 break-and-run games represented 25% of all 195 games, 39% of the 122 games won by the breaker, and 31% of the 157 games in which the break was successful (made a ball and didn't foul).

The 48 break-and-run games consisted of one 5-pack (by Filler in the Final), two 3-packs (one each by Duong and Yapp), seven 2-packs (3 by Duong and 1 each by Dohr, Filler, Souto, and Alcaide), and 23 singles.

9-Balls on the break -- The 48 break-and-run games included 4 game-winning 9-balls on the break (2.1% of all 195 breaks).
 
Miscellany from the data for the 2026 UK Open Pool Championship (9-Ball):
[This relates only to the 13 streamed Stage 2 matches I watched, not to all matches in the event.]

■ The most balls made on a single break was 3, done just twice -- once by Duong in a game loss and once by Shaw with a 9-ball on the break.

■ The average number of balls made on the break was 1.0 (this includes dry and fouled breaks). On successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul), the average was 1.2, and the distribution was 78% 1 ball, 21% 2 balls, and 1% 3 balls.

■ Number of innings:
• 38% (74 of 195) of the games ended in one inning – 48 games on the breaker's first inning (B&Rs) and 26 games on the non-breaker's first inning.​
• 26% (51 of 195) of the games ended in the second inning.​
• 36% (70 of 195) of the games went beyond the non-breaker's second visit to the table. The game with the most visits to the table ended on the non-breaker's 10th visit.​

■ 31% (61 of 195) of the games were run out by the player who was at the table following the break. These run-outs were:
• By the breaker after successful breaks (B&R games) – 31% (48 of 157)​
• By the non-breaker after fouls on the break – 55% (6 of 11)​
• By the non-breaker after dry breaks – 26% (7 of 27)​

■ The player who made the first ball after the break:
• Won the game in that same inning 58% of the time (111 of 191)​
• Won the game in a later inning 19% of the time (37 of 191)​
• Lost the game 23% of the time (43 of 191)​
[Note -- total games used here are 191 rather than 195 to eliminate the 4 games in which no ball was made after the break.​

■ The loser won an average of 5.4 games in the 10 races to 10 (excludes the longer semifinals and final). The closest matches were 4 that ended at 10-8; the most lopsided matches were 3 in which the loser won just 1 game, including the race to 13 Final.

■ The average elapsed time for the 10 races to 10 was about 95 minutes. The average minutes per game for all 13 matches was 6.1. The elapsed time was measured from the lag until the winning ball was made (or conceded), so it includes time for racking and timeouts.

■ The race to 10 that was longest in elapsed time, at about 123 minutes, was Shaw d. Alcaide 10-8. The match highest in average minutes per game, at 7.6, was Szewczyk d. Souto 11-3.

■ The match that was shortest in elapsed time, at about 54 minutes, was Filler d. Wilson 10-1. The two matches that were lowest in average minutes per game, at 4.9, were Filler d. Wilson 10-1 and Filter d. Szewczyk 13-1.

■ Breaking fouls averaged 1 for every 17.7 games, other fouls 1 for every 5.1 games, and missed shots about 1 for every 1.7 games.

■ One or more safeties were played in about 52% of all games and in 69% of games that were not B&Rs.
 
Last edited:
2023 vs 2024 vs. 2025 vs. 2026

How do the stats compare for this year's UK Open versus those for the last three years? For all 4 years, my stats are for all matches played on Table 1 beginning with the Stage 2, single-elimination round of the last 64 players. This was 13 matches this year and 12 matches each of the other 3 years -- 180 games in 2023, 195 games in 2024, 187 games in 2025, and 195 games in 2026. I'm aware of only three differences between the years in rules and equipment -- different brands of cloth and balls in 2026 than in the other 3 years and possibly slightly tighter pockets in 2024 than in the other 3 years.

These stats are for 2023 first, then 2024, then 2025, then 2026.

• Successful breaks -- 74%, 71%, 74%, 81%​
• Breaker won game -- 60%, 58%, 58%, 63%​
• B&R games on all breaks -- 32%, 19%, 26%, 25%​
• B&R games on successful breaks -- 43%, 28%, 35%, 31%​
• Games ending in 1 inning -- 49%, 35%, 47%, 38%​
• Games going beyond the 2nd inning -- 27%, 45%, 24%, 36%​
• Runouts by the player at the table following the break -- 41%, 28%, 35%, 31%​
• Games won by first player to make a ball after the break -- 75%, 69%, 80%, 77%​
• Games per missed shot (approx.) -- 2.4, 1.3, 2.4, 1.7​
• Games per foul -- 4.4, 2.9, 4.5, 4.0​
• Matches won by winner of lag -- 33%, 25%, 50%, 46%​
• Minutes per game (including commercial breaks) -- 6.4, 7.7, 6.4, 6.1​
• Winning 9-balls on the break (% of all breaks) -- 3 (1.7%), 5 (2.6%), 4 (2.1%), 4 (2.1%)​
 
Back
Top