World Pool Championships 2025, July 21-26, Jeddah

Badpenguin said:
The rowdy is fueled by alcohol, which you are not going to find in SA.
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My experience is different. I've attended both the UK Open and the Mosconi in London. Although much alcohol was consumed by attendees at both events, the crowd was super-rowdy at the Mosconi but quite tame at the UK Open. I think the difference is that the fans care much more about a Europe vs USA match than they do about who wins between two of the game's biggest stars. This needs to change.
Badpenguin said:
I found it interesting that half of them were finger-snapping instead of clapping, then you would hear clapping in the background for some other match.
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Bottom line is that the Saudi fans did not show up. How they cheered and/or jeered is beside the point.
 
Mic up the players, bring the heart monitors back. I want trash talk, I want beef, theatrics. Im not saying make it wwe, but eklent seems to have a lot of disdain about stuff, mic him up during the match. Filler can definitely be a villain, shaw can be entertaining. Players should be allowed to talk a little, to a certain point without "sharking". I agree with the tournaments feeling the same. What's different other then the tables, highlight that. Maybe the US open has tighter pockets or the Florida open has 10 ft table. I don't know, just throwing stuff out there
 
sjm said:
If you took a look at the fields that were produced in Cardiff, you would not say this. Earl's win in 2002 was against a field of absolute beasts. The fields were internationally diverse by then.
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Turns out I wrote a BD article about that 2002 Cardiff event ;-). Here are the blast-from-the-past names

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mikepage said:
Turns out I wrote a BD article about that 2002 Cardiff event ;-). Here are the blast-from-the-past names

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Thanks for sharing.

That's a serious gathering of Interntional champions that shows that the biggest stars of America, Asia and Europe were coming to the World 9ball by then.

As we know, today's fields are even tougher.
 
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sjm said:
Wake up. Josh is having a great year. At rotation games in 2025, he has won the Derby City 9ball, the Estonian Open, the Longoni Open, and the European Open. Gorst is still without a 9ball or 10ball title in 2025.

Josh, Fedor, and Shane all have two WPA sanctioned World Championships. Carlo has three, including his World 10 ball title. All of them have also won at the US Open. Josh has three China Open titles, while none of the others have managed even one. Josh has a World Games gold medal, a UK Open title and a European Open title, while none of the others have any of them.

Unless we are talking Earl's eight "major" majors (3 World 9ball, 5 US Open), there's no catching up to be done. Shane's got 7, (1 Word 9ball, 1 World 8ball, 5 US Open), Josh has 6 (1 World 9ball, 1 World 8ball, 1 US Open, 3 China Open), Fedor has three (2 World 9ball, 1 US Open), Biado has 4 (2 world 9ball, 1 World 10ball, 1 US Open). It might be too late for Carlo and Shane to pass Earl, but Josh and Fedor are young and may well pass him one day. Yes, they are that good.
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If this is the bench mark, in rotation, for the modern era (WPA Worlds-8,9,10, U.S Open, China Open, All Japan)-
Earl- 8
Shane- 7 *
Filler- 6 *
Pin-yi- 6 *
Wu- 5 *
Efren - 5
Biado- 4 *
Thorsten- 4 *
Immonen- 4 *
Souquet- 4 *
Darren- 4
Okumura- 4
Chang- 4

*Currently Active
 
Raph Cleary said:
If this is the bench mark, in rotation, for the modern era (WPA Worlds-8,9,10, U.S Open, China Open, All Japan)-
Earl- 8
Shane- 7 *
Filler- 6 *
Pin-yi- 6 *
Wu- 5 *
Efren - 5
Biado- 4 *
Thorsten- 4 *
Immonen- 4 *
Souquet- 4 *
Darren- 4
Okumura- 4
Chang- 4

*Currently Active
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Nice list. That's some real pool royalty right there, and Earl deserves that spot at the top. We'll see if anyone can get to nine. I think Josh and Fedor may both have what it takes.
 
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