Pair of Aces: five favorites for the World Cup of Pool
The Spanish duo come in as the top favorites for the event, but there’s four others right on their heels. I rank the five best teams in the competition.
As one of just two team events on Matchroom Pool’s calendar, the World Cup of Pool holds a different sort of prestige. Pool, and cuesports in general, is largely an individual endeavor at the pro level. The World Cup, however, demands team-play and a chemistry between partners to win.
This competition also carries the weight of the flags, especially for those ineligible for the Mosconi Cup (i.e. any player who isn’t American or European). To a certain extent, players do continually represent and take pride in winning for their countries, as evidenced by Shane Van Boening yelling out “U-S-A” after winning the World Pool Championship this year. But no other event has players literally playing for their nations.
The tournament kicks off on Tuesday with 32 teams in the draw and no second chances. It’s a straight elimination bracket which will be played out over six days. The whole event will be broadcast on DAZN in the US and Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland.
There’s 31 different nations officially represented because Great Britain received two pairings. However, one of the pairings, Jayson Shaw and Elliott Sanderson, is Scottish (fact check me on that) and the other, Chris Melling and Imran Majid, is English, so it’s essentially 32 different nations once Scotland figures out its whole referendum stuff.
Here’s my top-five favorites for the event, in order.
Spain: Francisco Sánchez Ruíz and David Alcaide
Plays Australia (James Georgiadis and Ivan Meng Li) in Round of 32
I won’t go against common consensus. This is the duo to beat given their form, their friendship and how historically good both of these players are. Sánchez Ruíz broke out this year with a win in the Derby City Classic 9-Ball division. More recently, he reached the semis at the Predator Bucharest Open and final at the UK Open.
Alcaide seems to be finding his form now after a tough start to the year. He’s still 33rd on the AZBilliards money list, but he reached the semifinals of the UK Open, only losing to eventual winner Joshua Filler. His career resume also shows that the start of the year was just a blip in form. He’s played in Mosconi Cups, won the World Pool Masters twice and won multiple titles in past European Pool Championships.
Chinese Taipei: Pin-Yi Ko and Ping-Chung Ko
Plays Argentina (Ariel Casto and Sebastian Rodriguez) in Round of 32
I put this pair at No. 2 because there’s no other team that knows each other quite as well as these two. Being brothers and training partners, each will know exactly what the other wants, and stylistically, the two are somewhat similar just as a result of having trained in similar ways. In a team event, that can go a long way.
What worries me is Ping-Chung’s poor form in the brothers’ comeback to the pro circuit after not playing for almost two years during the pandemic. The younger of the two brothers hasn’t finished higher than 17th in any event this year and failed to cash at a few tournaments early in the year as well.
Pin-Yi, though, looked solid in a run to the round of 16 at the World Pool Championship, and then he won the Bucharest Open and reached the semis of the World Pool Masters. Pin-Yi also won the World Cup back in 2015 with Chang Yu Lung. He’ll need to guide his younger sibling through a tough draw to win a second World Cup for Chinese Taipei.
Germany: Joshua Filler and Thorsten Hohmann
Plays New Zealand (Matthew Edwards and Simon Singleton) in Round of 32
The defending champions are third on my list. Filler paired with Christoph Reintjes last year to grab the crown. This year, he’s with Hohmann, who tasted glory at this same event exactly a decade before his younger compatriot. Hohmann won Germany’s first World Cup along with Ralf Souquet in 2011.
Filler’s season needs no more harping from me. Simply put, he’s the best in the world at the moment. Here’s a breakdown of his World Pool Masters run. And here you can find a recap of his UK Open triumph. He’s one of two players this year with more than $100,000 in prize money and he’s won the last three events he’s entered in. If this tournament took bets, I’d be pretty comfortable putting my money on this guy regardless of who his partner is.
Fortunately for Filler, he’ll be joined by one of Germany’s best pool players ever in Hohmann. The 42-year-old’s career waned in the last few years, but he’s struck a good run of form once more. Hohmann reached the round of 16 at the Alfa Las Vegas Open and World Pool Championship. He’s also placed 17th in the last three competitions he’s entered, a string of consistency for a player well out of his prime. If he maintains that level, Germany have a strong shot of winning a third World Cup.
United States of America: Shane Van Boening and Skyler Woodward
Plays Canada (Alex Pagulayan and John Morra) in Round of 32
A pairing Americans will be well used to seeing in a Mosconi Cup setting. These have been America’s two most consistent players in the last half-decade and will attempt to return World Cup glory to the nation for the first time since 2008. That year, Van Boening paired with Rodney Morris to win. SVB has already returned one world championship to the US this year. Can he now do another?
Woodward’s form will be the main question for this duo. He turned around a rough start to the year and won the Buffalo’s Pro Classic in late-May. He reached the quarterfinals of the UK Open before that. He also typically adds a gear when playing for his country as seen in his back-to-back Mosconi Cup MVP’s in 2018 and 2019.
Austria: Albin Ouschan and Max Lechner
Plays Finland (Mika Immonen and Jani Uski) in Round of 32
There’s no one other than Ouschan in the field of 32 teams this year who has won this event twice. Ouschan did it in 2017 and 2019, though both times he partnered Mario He. It’s a slightly older face that’ll play alongside Ouschan this year. Lechner, at 32-years-old, finally broke out in the last three years. He was on an impressive run of quarterfinals appearances at the World Pool Championship, Treviso Open and World Pool Masters before bowing out in 33rd place at the most recent Matchroom event, the UK Open.
Ouschan has been hit-or-miss the entire year. He lost early at the Derby City Classic but won the Premier League Pool and reached the final of the World Pool Championship. But then he was upset in his first match at the World Pool Masters and placed 25th at the UK Open. Both these players have exceptional fundamentals, though, so even with a bit of poor form, this duo is always a threat.