WITH all three WPA world championships currently in its possession – 8-ball, 9-ball and straight pool -- Europe is bidding to add the ten ball discipline to its trophy room by sending 46 players to the World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) in Manila on September 29 to October 5.
Gre Leenders, secretary-general of the European Pocket Billiards Federation, submitted its roster this Tuesday following the completion of qualifiers in Europe during the weekend.
The three reigning world champions – Ralf Souquet for 8-ball, Daryl Peach for 9-ball and Neils Feijen for straight pool – head the cast of players who will be coming from 21 European countries.
The 41 other European players selected by EPBU for the WTBC are:
Germany – Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Christian Reimering, Sascha Tege, Christian Weigoni and Daniel Merbitz
Great Britain – Mark Gray, Imran Majid, Darren Appleton, Jonni Fulcher and Karl Boyes
Italy – Bruno Muratore, Fabio Petroni and Patrick Menillo
Spain – David Alcaide and Carlos Cabello
Netherlands – Nick Van Den Berg and Huidji See
Poland – Radoslaw Babica, Tomasz Kaplan and Mateusz Sniegocki
Switzerland – Marco Tschudi and Dimitri Jungo
Serbia – Zoran Zvillar and Sandor Tot
Austria – Martin Kempter and Albin Ouschan
Finland – Marcus Juva
Sweden – Marcus Chamat
Hungary – Vilmos Foldes
Malta – Tony Drago
Denmark – Martin Larsen
Turkey –Murat Ayas
France – Stephan Cohen and Vincent Facquet
Russia – Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinahov
Czech Republic – Roman Hybler
Croatia – Ivica Putnik
Slovenia – Matjaz Erculj
Iran – Farhad Shaverdi
Although from Iran , Shaverdi is in the list because he resides and plays in Europe .
Two other European players will be seeing action in the WTBC. European women's champion Jasmin Ouschan of Austria earlier got a spot from the WPA allocation system for the tournament, while Mika Immonen of Finland got a spot courtesy of the Billiards Congress of America.
Souquet won the Damas World 8-Ball Championship in Fujairah , United Arab Emirates last April. Turning 40 this November, he heads this year's money list.
Peach, on the other hand, won the World 9-Ball Championship in the Philippines last year.
Feijen qualified four days ago after capturing the World Straight Ball Championship in New Jersey.
As of Wednesday, over 100 players are now entered in the main draw of the championship.
The WTBC is sanctioned and will be run by the WPA in Manila . The event is being organized by Raya Sports of the Philippines . It will take place at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), site of the historic 2006 WPC.
