Thorsten Hohmann's victory in the World 9-Ball Championship has propelled him to the number one ranking in the world. He has a fairly handsome 213 point lead over Carlo Biado whose performance in Qatar also allowed him to leapfrog many others in the WPA Rankings. Both Hohmann and Biado moved up by ten spots in the rankings this past week. Lee Van Cortezza remains in third while Dennis Orcollo and Darren Appleton have fallen to the 4th and 6th positions.
America's Shane Van Boening has moved up to 7th from 13th and now is certain of automatic invitations to the Majors. Alex Pagulayan improved his positioning from 14th to 8th and Nick Ekonomopoulos has moved up from 15th to 9th. Mika Immonen dipped slightly to 9th from his former spot in 6th. The moves are a result of the World 9-Ball being a major points event and one which most international players attend. Indeed, out of the top 50 players in the world, 48 of them played in the 2013 World 9-Ball Championship.
There are five WPA International Ranking Events. These are The U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship, the All Japan Championship, The China Open, The Ultimate Ten Ball Championship, and the World 9-Ball Championship. But the World 9-Ball carries the most points. The winner of the World 9-Ball gets 1150 points. The next biggest event, the China Open, awards the winner 600 points while the Ultimate Ten Ball winner receives 580, the U.S. Open winner earns 417 points and the All-Japan Champion is awarded 330 points.
The difference in points is based on prize funds and whether or not it is a World Championship, etc.
So to players seeking international stardom it is very important to attend all of the points events. Consistency counts to the max when there are only 5 events making up the calendar. Missing one of them means missing a points opportunity that will lower their ranking and value as a player. Even the events that do not carry maximum points are tremendously important. Look at Alex Pagulayan. It was his high finishes at the U.S. Open and the Ultimate 10-Ball that earned him over half of his point total. Darren Appleton, Mika Immonen, Lee Van Cortezza and Shane Van Boening all owe their top-ten positions to points earned at the smaller World Ranking Events.
However, doing poorly in the World Championships can be extremely costly. The poor showings in Doha by Ralf Souquet and Li Hewen devastated them in the Rankings. Li fell from 4th to 33rd while Souquet fared only slightly better in his drop from 5th to 22nd. By dropping out of the top 16 these two will not be receiving the automatic invitations until they move back up in the points. Souquet will soon have the opportunity he needs at the U.S. Open as a good showing there would do a lot for his points total. Li has a tougher road, however, as he scored 187 points in the Open last year and must better his 8th-place performance from 2012 to improve rather than degrade his standings.
The Points is a game of strategy. It is very interesting to note how various players choose to play their cards.
Check out the full rankings report at http://www.wpapool.com/web/rankings.
(The number in red represents their former position in the Rankings.)
