Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with twenty-two balls, comprising a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls—a yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black—collectively called the colours. Using a cue stick, the individual players or teams take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each time the opposing player or team commits a foul. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player reaches a predetermined number of frames.
Tony Drago is a Maltese former professional snooker and pool player.
Kelly Fisher is an English professional pool, snooker and English billiards player.
Corey Deuel is an American professional pool player from West Jefferson, Ohio. Nicknamed "Prince of Pool", he won the US Open Nine-ball Championship in 2001, and has won many other major titles. In January 2008, he was ranked the second highest US pool player by the United States Professional Poolplayers Association. He regularly represents the US in the Mosconi Cup. In 2010, he again was selected for the US team in the Mosconi Cup and was responsible for winning 2 of the US team's 8 points in the event. His tournament walk-on music is “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps.
Dennis Orcollo, is a Filipino professional pool player, nicknamed "RoboCop" and has been called "The Money-Game King" throughout the Philippines and the United States.
David Alcaide Bermúdez is a Spanish pool player. He is a two-time winner of the World Pool Masters, winning the 2017 event, defeating Jayson Shaw 8–7 in the final, and again in 2019 defeating Alexander Kazakis 9–8. Alcaide is a three-time world championship semi-finalist having reached the stage at the WPA World 10-ball Championship, in 2009 and 2015, and the WPA World Eight-ball Championship in 2011.
Oliver Ortmann is a German professional pool player from Gelsenkirchen. Ortmann is a three-time world champion, winning the 1995 WPA World Nine-ball Championship and the 2007 and 2010 World Straight Pool Championship. Ortmann became the second player to win three WPA world championships. With fourteen wins, he the second most successful player at the European Pool Championships. Ortmann is also the second most successful player on the Euro Tour, winning fourteen events. Ortmann was the first non-American player to win the BCA U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, in 1989.
Daryl Peach is an English professional pool player, from Lancashire, who resides in Blackpool, England. He won the 2007 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, where he defeated the Philippines' Roberto Gomez 17–15 in the final to become the first British player to win the WPA World Nine-ball Championship.
Christopher Melling is an English professional pool and snooker player and former world number 1 at World Rules British Eight-Ball. He won the WEPF World Rules World Championship twice, in 2001 and 2003. He was ranked #1 in 2003 by the World Eightball Pool Federation. Melling has also twice won the International Pool Masters and the European Professional title (2002). He was the first player to win two International Tour events back to back. His entrance by walk-on music is from the song “Wannabe” by Spice Girls. Melling is also the only cue sports player to hold professional status in English 8 ball, American pool and snooker.
Mark Gray is an English professional pool player and former professional snooker player.
Vidya Viswanathan Pillai is an Indian professional player of snooker. Vidya Pillai grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In recognition of her achievements, the Government of Karnataka bestowed her with the Ekalavya award in 2016 for outstanding performance in Sports. She has won several International medals for India and in 2013 won the gold medal in the IBSF World Team Snooker Championship, Gold in the IBSF Australian Women's Ranking Snooker Championship in 2016 and was the first Indian woman to reach the finals of the WLBSA World Women's Snooker Championship in 2017. She is also a 9-time winner of the National Championship Title.
Fan Zhengyi is a Chinese professional snooker player. He won the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship in 2017, and turned professional in 2018. He had a breakthrough season in 2021–22 when he reached his first ranking quarter-final at the 2022 German Masters and then won his first ranking title at the 2022 European Masters, defeating then six-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in the final. He became the fifth Chinese player to win a ranking title, following Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo, Yan Bingtao, and Zhao Xintong.
The 2012 WPA World Nine-ball Championship was a professional nine-ball pocket billiards (pool) championship, sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and organised by Matchroom Sport. It was held from June 22 to 29 in Doha, Qatar, hosted by the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation. Qualifying tournaments were held from June 20 to 22, with the Al Sadd Sports Club hosting both qualifying and final tournaments.
The 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship was a professional pool tournament for the discipline of ten-ball organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and CueSports International. It was the fifth WPA World Ten-ball Championship; the previous championship was held in 2015. After plans for an event in both 2016 and 2018 to be held in Manila fell through, a 2019 event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as part of a three-year deal for the event to be played in the United States was agreed. The event was held concurrently with the Billiard Congress of America's National Ten-ball event from July 22 to 26. The event was sponsored by cue manufacturer Predator Group.
Eklent Kaçi, also known as Klenti Kaçi is an Albanian pool and snooker player. Kaçi won the 2021 WPA World Ten-ball Championship and reached the semi-finals of the 2017 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. He has been the top-ranked played in the world of 9-ball pool.
Joshua Filler is a German pool player from Bönen, Germany. In 2018 Filler defeated Carlo Biado 13–10 to win the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. The same year he was the youngest player to win the China Open and 2018 10-ball European Pool Championships. Filler became WPA and Euro Tour world number 1 in 2019, and later reached the final of the 2019 WPA World Ten-ball Championship before losing 10–7 to Ko Ping-chung.
Ruslan Yuryevich Chinakhov is a Russian professional primarily nine-ball pool player. Ruslan was the world nine-ball Juniors champion in 2009. Chinakhov has won several events, including the Euro Tour Dutch Open 2017, defeating Christoph Reintjes in the final.
The year of 2019 included professional tournaments surrounding table-top cue sports. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and tournaments are held as doubles, or team events. The snooker season runs between May and April, whilst the pool and billiards seasons run in the calendar year.
In 2018, championships were held across three continents to determine the best players in major cue sports, including snooker, pool, and English billiards. While these are mostly single player sports, some matches and tournaments are held as either doubles or as team events. The snooker season runs between May and April; the pool and billiards seasons run through the calendar year.
Professional tournaments in table-top cue sports took place in 2020. These events include snooker, pool disciplines and billiards. Whilst these are traditionally singles sports, some matches and tournaments are held as doubles or as teams. The snooker season runs between May and April, whilst the pool and billiards seasons is listed over the calendar year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was disrupted with many events being cancelled or postponed. Cue sports events were played in January and February, before tournaments were discontinued for all disciplines due to the pandemic, returning in June without an audience.
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