Joshua Filler (Taka Wu – Matchroom Multi Sport)
Matchroom unveiled a star-studded field for the upcoming Premier League Pool earlier this week, although Joshua Filler’s omission sparked questions amongst the nineball pool fraternity.
Filler began his nineball season with a fifth-place finish at the Derby City Classic before enduring an early World Pool Championship exit, with Alex Pagulayan beating him three times in the space of a week.
The world number three and his wife Pia will soon travel stateside for the lucrative World 10-Ball Championship and the Las Vegas Open later this month, having opted against the Euro Tour opener in Estonia.
“Dates came in on short notice and we’ve had everything booked for our trip to Las Vegas,” Pia said on their shared Facebook page. “We arrive back home from Vegas on March 6 – the start of the Premier League.
“We couldn’t change flights anymore and coming straight out of a plane and playing with jet lag from the eight-hour time difference doesn’t make sense.
“It’s heartbreaking because PLP is a super exciting event what he loves to play but we had to make a decision. Good luck to everyone playing in it.”
Newly-crowned world champion Fransisco Sanchez Ruiz, defending champion Albin Ouschan and Shane van Boening headline the Premier League lineup, with the legendary Earl Strickland also receiving an invite to Leicester.
Germany’s Filler will return to the nineball arena for the World Pool Masters from May 10-13 at the Brentwood Centre in England.
On the bright side, there have never been more great events with substantial prize money in which to compete. Given that some high-profile events are close to each other in the schedule, those hoping to compete on multiple continents will have to make some tough choices. As we saw a few weeks ago, defending Derby City 9-ball champ Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz chose to skip that event to make sure he'd be fresh for the World Pool Championship, which he'd ultimately win.
I think it would be short-sighted to expect an easing of the scheduling stress that is now a major component of the pool calendar in the short-term, although the day could possibly come when rival producers accommodate each other for the benefit of the players.
The job of event producers in managing pool events and schedules has never been more difficult.