THE top 32 players in the rankings of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) became the first batch of players to be given guaranteed seats in the main draw of the second World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) slated at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, Metro Manila from November 25-30.
WPA president Ian Anderson has explained that with the new ranking system introduced this year, the world’s governing body for pool ushered in a new system of awarding spots in the world championship. Besides the top 32 ranking players, spots are mainly allocated to the continental federations which then award the spots to deserving players.
The Top 32 are led by current world No. 1 Darren Appleton of
Two Filipinos, Jeffrey de Luna (8) and Demosthenes Pulpul (9), made it to the top 10. Other notable Asians in the elite list are Ko Pin Yi (13) and Yang Ching-Shun (25) of Chinese Taipei, Ricky Yang of
The distribution of the 32 players by continents is: 15 Europeans, 13 Asians, four North Americans.
The other North American players besides Van Boening are Americans Corey Deuel (12) and Charlie Williams (15), and Canadian Tyler Edey (29).
No. 3 Mika Immonen ruled the Qatar Open after beating two-time World Junior champion Ko Pin Yi in the finals. He is the current money leader among men players in the world circuit.
The complete list of the WPA’s Top 32 follows:
1. Darren Appleton, GBR
2. Ralf Souquet, GER
3. Mika Immonen, FIN
4. Niels Feijen, NED
5.
6. Marcus Chamat, SWE
7. Daryl Peach, GBR
8. Jeffrey De Luna, PHI
9. Demosthenes Pulpul, PHI
10. Thorsten Hohmann, GER
11. Radoslaw Babica, POL
12.
13. Ko Pin-Yi, TPE
14. Ricky Wang, INA
15.
16. Lu Hui Chan, TPE
17. Fu Che-wei, TPE
18. Satoshi Kawabata, JPN
19. Liu Haitao, CHN
20. Chris Melling, GBR
21. Marlon Manalo, PHI
22. Dimitri Jungo, SUI
23. Antonio Gabica, PHI
24. Bruno Muratore, ITA
25. Yang Ching-Shun, TPE
26. Wang Hung-Hsiang, TPE
27. Mark Gray, GBR
28. Ruslan Chinakhov, RUS
29.
30. Imran Majid, GBR
31. Allan Cuartero, PHI
