Alex played alot of snooker in Toronto in his younger years due to that city having probably the most powerful snooker scene in America. Nevertheless he is and has always been a 9-ball player who played snooker, not the other way around. He was never a snooker player solely, at 18 years old he was already known as a feared 9-ball player in Canada and likely a future world champ. That was a good 10 years ago.
Canada has a ton of players that are old snooker players, take a look at any of our top players over 40 years old and they are likely on time century running snooker players. Horsefall, snooker pro. Potier, snooker pro. Alain Martel, snooker. John Jorgenson, snooker. Brady Gollan, snooker. Those guys are all way more former snooker specialists then Alex ever was. Alot of these guys are definately playing more 9-ball now, Gollan is strong, Potier is obvious, so is Horsefall. Jorgenson is no slouch as anyone on the East Coast knows. Bernie Mikkelsen was a phenomenal snooker player who became the top player in Western Canada for a few years in 9-ball.
None of these guys were world champion snooker players, and they never became that calibre of 9-ball players either. That is basically how it works, if you have the natural aptitude to stroke a cue and pot balls and play shape you will be great at either game you choose to pick up. If Efren had been grabbed at 3 or 4 years old, given a snooker coach at that age which is standard in the UK for the top potential, and then lived and breathed snooker as the top pro's of that game did would he be a champion level snooker player? Damn straight. Rempe starting when he did never had a hope, trying to become a world class snooker player at that age after playing 9-ball for as long as he did was a waste of time, aint gonna happen. The top players of that game are born and bred into it.
Could all the top snooker players go the other way and become top 9-ball players? Not really, style kills alot of them. 9-ball takes quite a different approach and stroking style then snooker and the snooker players who have a restricted style top out and cannot progress without changing their game in a major way. Allison is probably the pinnicle of ability with a pure snooker stance and approach to the game for men or women, to extend beyond that and get better and closer to the top men Allison would have to lose alot of the rigid style she uses for a more powerful pool approach. She wont, she does not need to beat anyone that can handle the level she plays at in that snooker style. If she needed to beat Efren and Archers of the world she would need to change her style because she can not get any further with it. Alot of the top male snooker players are no different, they would need to change their style. Hendry would not dominate the 9-ball world.
Ronnie O'Sullivan though, there is a guy who would tear the 9-ball world a new one. And why? Style, the guy has a far looser stroke then normal snooker players, he practically plays snooker like it is 9-ball. It would take him a year or two but he would be a top echelon 9-ball player and likely the best. Dominating the sport as said is tough due to the easy condintions and the ability for any of the top 20 players in the world to run a set, even a guy with Ronnie's skills could not stop a guy who wins a coin toss from running out a set. That is the problem with our game.
