Francisco Sanchez Ruiz has become the new Nineball World Number One after clinching the 2022 US Open Pool Championship title beating Max Lechner in the final at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City to take home the $50,000 first-place prize.
The Spaniard’s week in New Jersey couldn’t have gone much better finding out earlier on that he would be an automatic pick for the 2022 Mosconi Cup Team Europe side as one of the three players to come from the Live Nineball World Rankings and it ended with a memorable victory in front of a sell-out crowd over Lechner to break the $100,000 mark and overtake World Champion Shane Van Boening at the top.
Sanchez Ruiz was elated with his week’s work: “It is unbelievable how it feels. I feel so happy. Congratulations to Max. Thank you to everyone for the support, I love you guys. It’s the biggest win in my career. There are too many good feelings right now. I received the news of making the Mosconi Cup and it gave me so much. I want to say thank you to my team David Alcaide and Jose Alberto Delgado. It’s an unbelievable feeling, it really is.”
Joshua Filler was eyeing a second US Open this week, but it wasn’t to be as Eklent Kaçi abruptly ended the UK Open winner’s run in the Last 16. Despite that, Filler has opened u a $17,870 gap over Albin Ouschan at world number four.
Three Austrians now sit inside the top ten in the world with Lechner’s $25,000 winnings taking him from 15th to sixth just behind Mario He and Ouschan. Kaçi’s run in AC to the quarter-finals sees the Albanian break into the top ten whilst Alexander Kazakis, Wiktor Zielinski, and Abdullah Alyousef all had strong weeks to maintain their position inside the top ten.
The Ko brothers have been back in force in recent months after Pin Yi snapped off the APF Asian 9-Ball Open, Ping Chung reached the semi-finals to climb from 73rd in the world to 24th as one of the biggest movers. Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn steady year continued as he moved up to 15th and Sanjin Pehlivanovic moved inside the top 20.
2023 promises to be bigger and better for Nineball with the Matchroom provisional schedule revealed for the first time during the US Open. Matchroom’s calendar will begin with the World Pool Championship from February 1-5 before the World Pool Masters from May 6-9 ahead of the second-ever UK Open Pool Championship set to take place in London once again from May 30 to June 4. Both the World Cup of Pool and Premier League Pool will take place in June ahead of the European Open Pool Championship in Fulda, Germany from August 8-13.
The 46th US Open Pool Championship gets underway from September 25-30 before the Mosconi Cup caps off 2023 in December. See more on the 2023 Matchroom provisional schedule here.
The full Nineball World Ranking Schedule will be revealed in the coming weeks as it promises to offer more opportunities for players to earn their right into the biggest events on the calendar.
All eyes will now turn to the 2022 Mosconi Cup where both Team USA and Team Europe know three of their five-player rosters after Sanchez Ruiz and Ouschan were confirmed for Europe to join Filler. On Jeremy Jones’ American side Skyler Woodward and Oscar Dominguez were confirmed to be joining Van Boening ahead of both Jones and Alex Lely confirming their two wild card picks.
Fans can expect to hear more soon from both skippers as they confirm their two wild card picks each to complete their sides ahead of the battle commencing in pool’s biggest battle.
西班牙好手 “FSR” Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 在大西洋城 Harrah’s 渡假村舉辦的2022年美國公開賽的決賽中擊敗 Max Lechner (奧地利) ，在奪得冠軍的同時也一躍而成為新的9號球世界排名第一。
Sanchez Ruiz 在新澤西州的大西洋城度過了非常美好的一周，在本月早些時候，FSR 作為現9號球世界排名前三的選手自動入選了2022年莫斯考尼盃歐洲隊。在 Harrah’s 渡假村全場爆滿的觀眾面前，FSR 戰勝了 Lechner，賽季總獎金突破了10萬美元大關，超越了世界冠軍 Shane Van Boening，位列榜首。
Sanchez Ruiz 對自己一周的比賽成績感到欣慰，他說：“奪冠的感覺真是令人難以言喻。我感到非常高興。祝賀 Max，感謝大家的支持，我愛你們。這是我職業生涯中最大的勝利，我現在的心情非常激動。我收到了入選莫斯考尼盃的消息，這對我來說意味良多。我想對我的夥伴 David Alcaide 和 Jose Alberto Delgado 說聲謝謝。說真的，這種感覺無比美妙。”
Joshua Filler 早在開賽前就對美國公開賽的冠軍虎視眈眈，但由於 Eklent Kaçi 在16強比賽中的上佳表現，Filler 止步於此未能如願。儘管如此，Filler 還是領先世界排名第四的 Albin Ouschan $17,870美元。
現世界排名前十的選手中有三位奧地利球員，美國公開賽亞軍獎金 $25,000美元使得 Lechner 世界排名由第十五位躥升到第六位，僅次於 Mario He 及 Ouschan 。Eklent Kaçi (阿爾巴尼亞) 憑藉美國公開賽八強的成績使他得以一舉闖入世界前十。而 Alexander Kazakis、Wiktor Zielinski 和 Abdullah Alyousef 仍然保持前十的位置。
©Taka G. Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
柯氏兄弟在最近幾個月裡頻頻發力，在柯秉逸贏得APF亞洲9號球公開賽冠軍後，柯秉中又在美國公開賽上闖入半決賽並從世界第73位攀升至第24位，成為本屆賽事的最有突破的球員之一。波蘭選手 Konrad Juszczyszyn 本賽季繼續保持穩定，他的排名升至第15位， Sanjin Pehlivanovic 則首次進入前20名。
隨著 Matchroom 公司在美國公開賽期間公佈 2023年賽曆 (暫定)，由賽曆可看到9號球賽事的規模和數量都有著穩步的上升。根據賽曆可知，新賽季 Matchroom 主辦的比賽將從2月1日至5日的9號球世錦賽 (World Pool Championship) 開始，然後是5月6日至9日的世界花式撞球大師賽 (World Pool Masters)，5月30日至6月4日再次於倫敦舉行的第二屆英國公開賽 (UK Open Pool Championship)。在8月8日至13日德國富爾達舉行的歐洲公開賽 (European Open Pool Championship) 之前，雙打世界盃 (World Cup of Pool) 和超級聯賽 (Premier League Pool) 都將定檔於6月舉辦。
下一屆，第46屆美國公開賽 (US Open Pool Championship) 將於2023年9月25至30日舉辦，而後莫斯考尼盃將作為賽季收官戰於12月舉辦。
完整的9號球排名賽賽曆將在未來幾周內揭曉，可以預見的是，Matchroom公 司必然會如之早先承諾的一般，為球員提供更多的比賽機會。
隨著賽季末的臨近，現在所有的目光都將轉向2022年莫斯考尼盃。在 Filler、Sanchez Ruiz 和 Ouschan 確定入選歐洲隊之後，美國隊和歐洲隊的五人名單中分別有三名人選得以確認。在 Jeremy Jones 帶領的美國隊方面，Van Boening、Skyler Woodward 和 Oscar Dominguez 確認入選。Jones 和 Alex Lely 分別作為美國隊和歐洲隊的領隊都各有兩個發放外卡的機會。