The draw for the 30th Anniversary of World Pool Masters has been made with defending champion Ko Pin Yi set to meet David Alcaide in the opening match of the tournament from April 25-28 2024 at Halle39, in Hildesheim, Germany in partnership with local organiser Moltke Sports and host broadcaster Sky Sports.
World Pool Masters will maintain last year’s most challenging format, with 16 players competing to take home a $40,000 share from an enticing $125,000 prize pool. Opening round ties will be Race to 9 with the Matchroom break box, magic-racking, and winner breaks in action with the tournament stretching going to race to 10 for the quarter finals, 11 for the semi-finals, and 13 for the final.
The top 14 players from the World Nineball Tour Rankings following the FSR91 Open received invitations, plus two wildcard entries. The players ranked 1-8 were seeded and paired against the remaining players in the draw, which was conducted two weeks prior to the opening matches.
Defending champion Ko Pin Yi will meet ‘El Matador’ David Alcaide in the first round, while World Champion and WNT No.1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz faces wild card James Aranas once again in the tournament after last year’s opening round encounter. Shane Van Boening, the only player to ever win the title back-to-back, seeks redemption as he faces Duong Quoc Hoang, who knocked out the ‘South Dakota Kid’ in last year’s World Champions. Whichever of the two secures the win will be expected to face the victor of Jayson ‘Eagle Eye’ Shaw vs Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp.
Adding to the excitement, Albin Ouschan will face former World Cup of Pool teammate Max Lechner in a battle of the Austrians. The winner of that tie will then have to take on either WNT No.2 Fedor Gorst or ‘The Panda’ Mario He. The winner between Joshua Filler and Eklent Kaçi, who will reunite following their clash in last year’s UK Open final, will either compete against Wiktor Zielinski or defending US Open champion Ko Ping Chung, to complete the opening round match-ups.
Tickets are available for all four days from €15 a day with the link here. Buy here.
Round 1 Draw
- Francis Sanchez Ruiz v James Aranas
- David Alcaide v Ko Pin Yi
- Joshua Filler v Eklent Kaçi
- Ko Ping Chung v Wiktor Zielinski
- Shane Van Boening v Duong Quoc Hoang
- Jayson Shaw v Aloysius Yapp
- Albin Ouschan v Max Lechner
- Fedor Gorst v Mario He
WATCH
In partnership with local organiser Moltke Sports, the 2024 World Pool Masters is live globally wherever fans are in the world including Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in the USA, Brazil, Spain and Italy as well as on Viaplay in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Netherlands, Poland, and Matchroom.Live in selected territories.
Broadcaster List
- AMC Network – Hungary
- Dazn – USA, Brazil, Spain, Italy
- Foxtel – Australia
- Nova – Czech Republic & Slovakia
- Sky Network – New Zealand
- Sportklub – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia
- Sportscast – Indonesia & Chinese Taipei
- Supersport – South Africa & Africa
- Tap – Philippines
- Viaplay – Baltics, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Poland, and Iceland
- VTM – Belgium
- VCT – Vietnam
