WPA Rankings
- Thread starter joelpope
- Start date
Those rankings mean nothing. No one from a foreign country has ever beaten me in my basement pool room. I'm still number one. :yeah:
uttahere:
I'm commenting on men's pool only here.
Contrary to what fans of American pool would like to believe, non-participation in WPA events is an effect more than a cause of a decline in the pedigree of the American player.
Americans have virtually nothing to show for their performance in WPA events of the last five years. By comparison, over the same period, Darren Appleton has a WPA World nine-ball championship and a WPA World ten Ball championship, Karl Boyes and Ralf Souquet won the World 8-ball championship, and Thorsten Hohmann has won both the Philippines Open and the China Open. Obviously, the WPA events have been dominated by the Asians, whose accomplishments on the world stage are too numerous to list here.
... and it's nearly as bad for the American pros on American soil in rotation pool events. In the 2012 US Open 10-ball, the medals were swept by Dennis Orcullo, Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan. At the 2012 US Open 9-ball, although Van Boening bested the field to end four years of European domination of the event, he was the only American that finished in the top eight. That very same week, Appleton beat him out of $25,000 at the Challenge of Champions at Mohegan Sun. In the two rotational pool events at the 2013 Derby City Classic, the nine ball was won by Alex Pagulayan and the ten ball event was won by Dennis Orcullo.
As often noted on this forum, Americans aren't bothering to attend WPA events because, given the decline in their competitive pedigree, they can't justify the cost. Europeans, most of whom have to pay their own way to play in WPA events, take a different view and have some big titles and big paychecks to show for their efforts.
Without question, Shane Van Boening is a Top 5 in the world player. Johnny Archer, Mike Dechaine, and Corey Deuel may be the only other Americans who might be in the Top 25.
America shall rise again, but one must be delusional to see American pool players as the cream of the crop in 2013.
SVB is not top ten?