Kelly Fisher
Choosing the winners of the AzBilliards “Player of the Year” is never an easy task. While the Women’s award is usually a pretty easy choice, the Men’s award is a lot more difficult.
The 2022 AzBilliards Women’s Player of the Year award goes to Kelly Fisher. Fisher appears to be back in the form that she showed in early 2010’s with a dominating year in 2022. Fisher has over $120,000 in winnings and seven major title wins in 2022. Most of her success came on the WPBA Tour, but she also had a win at the Predator Germany Women’s Open in June and possibly her biggest title of the year with her gold medal at the 2022 World Games in July. This is Fisher’s third AzBilliards Player of the Year award.
As usual, the Men’s Player of the Year was a much tougher decision. Joshua Filler had to be a part of any Player of the Year conversation, with major wins at the World Pool Masters, UK Open, Derby City, EuroTour and European Championships.
Filler looked to be in a Player of the Year race with Fedor Gorst for much of the year, with Fedor literally winning everywhere he was allowed to play. After his dominating performance at the Derby City Classic (wins in the Banks, One Pocket and Master of the Table) and defending his title at the Arizona Open, the WPA ban of Russian players went into affect and Gorst was forced to limit himself to competing in the US. Gorst made the most of those limitations and led the AzBilliards Money List for most of the year. Gorst has wins in nearly 20 US events (that we have record of) and over $250,000 in recorded prize money.
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz
While Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz’s year started with a win in the 9-ball event at Derby City, it looked for a couple of months as if Sanchez-Ruiz might have peaked at Derby and he would be off of the Player of the Year radar after that. He continued to play strong throughout the year though with a runner-up finish at the UK Open and then a win at World Cup of Pool (along with teammate David Alcaide). Late in the year, the talented Spaniard really hit his stride with a win on home soil at the PRP Nineball Open and then a win at the prestigious US Open 9-Ball Championship in mid October. Those wins moved Sanchez-Ruiz back into the Player of the Year conversation and in our opinion, his win a month later at the World 8-Ball Championship was enough to tilt the scales in his direction for the final award. All told, at year’s end, Sanchez-Ruiz had over $260,000 in prize money and a World Championship to display in his trophy case. He will also have the 2022 Men’s Player of the Year trophy in that case.
Congratulations to both Sanchez-Ruiz and Fisher, and we wish them all of the best rolls in their 2023 quests to defend those titles.
Filler's campaign would have been enough in many a year, but in 2022, FSR outperformed him.
Kelly Fisher was the clear choice among the women, although Chou might just be the one to beat in 2023 after winning the Women's World 9-ball Championship in Atlantic City in January.
The year Fedor spent in America endeared him to American pool fans, including this one. He is one of the giants of the game right now and will surely remain as much.