WPA World Ten-ball Championship

Current season, competition or edition: 2023 WPA World Ten-ball Championship
Sport	Pool
Founded	2008
Founder	World Pool-Billiard Association
Most recent champion(s)	Eklent Kaçi (2023)
Related competitions	Eight-ball, Nine-ball
Official website	wpapool.com

The WPA World Ten-ball Championship is a professional ten-ball pool tournament sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). The event was first held in 2008 in the Philippines, followed by playings there in 2009 and 2011. After not being contested for several years, it was resurrected in 2015 by boxer Manny Pacquiao, who successfully campaigned to the WPA for the championship to be moved from Metro Manila to General Santos. An event was announced in June 2018, but was postponed until relocating to the Las Vegas Valley in 2019. The scheduled 2020 championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent playings have been held in the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022.

History

2009 champion Mika Immonen

In 2008 the World Ten-ball Championship was held, with prizes totaling US$400,000 (₱18,860,000), was held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Manila, September 29 through October 5, 2008. There were 128 players competing, representing 44 countries. Vice-President of the Philippines Noli de Castro made the ceremonial opening break shot, witnessed by officials of the WPA, International Olympic Committee, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines, and tournament organizer Raya Sports.^[1]

In the final, England's Darren Appleton defeated Nineteen-year-old Wu Jia-qing, who was using a borrowed cue stick, winning $100,000.^[2][3] Appleton was also quoted as saying: "Pool is an easy choice for me as a sport as I have to choose among boxing, football and pool among others. But this victory is sweeter for me and I have to dedicate this to my parents, whose relationship is in the rocks. With the $100,000 grand prize, first, I have to give some to my parents, because we had a difficult way of living."^[4][5]

WPA president Ian Anderson would later announce: "This early, there's a strong clamor for the WTBC and it will definitely be back next year in Manila. It will be staged October of next year and there's also the Philippine Open to be held June 2009. I think Manila is the best place to go in hosting pool and it is living up to its billing as the pool Mecca in Asia."^[6] The event would later take place in 2009, being won by Finn Mika Immonen, and then again in 2011 by Dutchman Huidji See. A later event was reimagined by boxer Manny Pacquiao in 2015, with the event being won by Taipei's Ko Pin-yi.

On July 30, 2018, the WPA announced the return of the World Ten-ball Championship.^[7] The event was set to take place in the Philippines,^[7] but was later postponed. Taipei's Ko Ping-chung won the 2019 event, which took place in Las Vegas.^[8] The 2020 edition of the championship was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition was won by Albanian Eklent Kaçi,^[9] and the 2022 edition was won by Pole Wojciech Szewczyk.^[10]

Winners

The following is a list of Men's WPA World Ten-Ball Champions.

Year	Host		Final				Semifinalists
			Winner	Score	Runner-up
2008	Philippines		Darren Appleton	13–11	Wu Jiaqing		Demosthenes Pulpul	Niels Feijen
2009			Mika Immonen	11–6	Lee Vann Corteza		Antonio Lining	David Alcaide
2011			Huidji See	11–8	Fu Jianbo		Carlo Biado	Yukio Akakariyama
2015			Ko Pin-yi	11–9	Carlo Biado		Ko Ping-chung	David Alcaide
2019	United States		Ko Ping-chung	10–7	Joshua Filler		Ko Pin-yi	Masato Yoshioka
2021			Eklent Kaçi	10–6	Naoyuki Ōi		Johann Chua	Aloysius Yapp
2022			Wojciech Szewczyk	10–8	Christopher Tévez		Eklent Kaçi	Jayson Shaw
2023			Eklent Kaçi	10–7	Francisco Sánchez Ruíz		Fedor Gorst	Joshua Filler

Top performers

Name	Nationality	Winner	Runner-up	Semi-final or better
Eklent Kaçi	Albania	2	0	3
Ko Ping-chung	Chinese Taipei	1		2
Ko Pin-yi	Chinese Taipei
Darren Appleton	England			1
Huidji See	Netherlands
Mika Immonen	Finland
Wojciech Szewczyk	Poland

• Active participants are shown in bold.
• In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by first name.

Women

The following is a list of Women's WPA World Ten-Ball Champions.

Year	Host		Final			Semifinalists
			Winner	Runner-up
2009	Philippines		Rubilen Amit	Liu Hsin-mei		Akimi Kajitani	Jasmin Ouschan
2010			Jasmin Ouschan	Kim Ga-young		Kelly Fisher	Rubilen Amit
2011			Kelly Fisher	Tsai Pei-Chen		Kim Ga-young	Han Yu
2012			Kim Ga-young	Chen Siming		Fu Xiaofang	Cha Yu-ram
2013			Rubilen Amit	Kelly Fisher		Han Yu	Tsai Pei-Chen
2022	Austria		Chou Chieh-yu	Wei Tzu-chien		Jasmin Ouschan	Kelly Fisher
2023			Chezka Centeno	Han Yu		Allison Fisher	Kelly Fisher

Mixed teams

The following is a list of Men's & Women's WPA World Mixed Teams Ten-Ball Champions.

Year	Host		Final			Semifinalists
			Winners	Runner-up
2022[11]	Austria		Rubilen Amit Carlo Biado Johann Chua	Kelly Fisher Jayson Shaw Darren Appleton		Pia Filler Joshua Filler Thorsten Hohmann	Chou Chieh-yu Wu Kun-lin Chang Jung-lin
2023[12]	San Juan		Pia Filler Joshua Filler Moritz Neuhausen	Chou Chieh-yu Chang Jung-lin Wu Kun-lin		Jasmin Ouschan Albin Ouschan Mario He	Sara Rocha João Grilo Miguel Silva

References