WPA World Ten-ball Championship

WPA World Ten-ball Championship
Current season, competition or edition:; 2024 WPA World Ten-ball Championship
Sport	Pool
Founded	2008
Founder	World Pool-Billiard Association
Most recent; champion(s)	Carlo Biado ; (2024)
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

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	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Semifinalists
Year	Host	Final			Semifinalists
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
2024		Carlo Biado	3–1^{[note 1]}	Naoyuki Ōi	Denis Grabe	Fedor Gorst

Top performers

Name	Nationality	Winner	Runner-up	Semi-final or better
Eklent Kaçi	Albania	2	0	3
Carlo Biado	Philippines	1	1	3
Ko Ping-chung	Chinese Taipei		0	2
Ko Pin-yi	Chinese Taipei			2
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	Winner	Runner-up	Semifinalists
Year	Host	Final		Semifinalists
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	Austria	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	Winners	Runner-up	Semifinalists
Year	Host	Final		Semifinalists
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

Notes

^ Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, this score is based on sets, not racks. In this case, each set is played in race to four racks. Biado won 3 sets (4-1, 4-2, and 4-1) while Oi won 1 (4-3).