The WPA 10-Ball World Championship 2008 was a ten-ball pool tournament held from September 29 to October 5, 2008, at the

Philippine International Convention Center The Philippine International Convention Center ( fil, Sentrong Pangkumbensyong Pandaigdig ng Pilipinas, or PICC) is a convention center located in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. The facility ha ...

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, i ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

, Philippines. The first edition of the

WPA World Ten-ball Championship The WPA World Ten-ball Championship is a professional ten-ball pool tournament sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). The event was first held in 2008 in the Philippines, followed by playings there in 2009 and 2011. After not bei ...

, it featured a field of 128 players competing in a

double-elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

and then

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. The total prize fund for the event was $400,000 with $100,000 being awarded to the winner. The event was won by England's

Darren Appleton Darren Appleton (born 8 February 1976) is an English pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.

, winning his first world championship, defeating nineteen year old Taiwanese Wu Chia-ching in the final 13–11. The event was

boycotted A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

by many top Filipino players, such as

Efren Reyes Efren Manalang Reyes (born August 26, 1954), popularly known by the nickname "Bata" (English: "Kid"), is a Filipino professional pool player. Reyes is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. A winner of over 100 inte ...

, due to an issue with sponsors ''Raya Sports''.

Format

The 128 participating players were divided into 16 groups, in which they competed in a

double elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

tournament against each other. The remaining 64 players in each group qualified for the final round played in the knockout system. The event was played under the alternating format.

Prize money

Below was the advertised prize fund for the event. The event saw the largest amount of prize money for the event, with $400,000 being paid, and the winner's share of $100,000 won by

Darren Appleton Darren Appleton (born 8 February 1976) is an English pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.

. The event was boycotted by some players due to not receiving payment from organiser's ''Raya sports''. The event's prize money payments were delayed, with winner Appleton not receiving payment for over a month after the event. All prize money was eventually paid to players, including Appleton.

Tournament summary

Other results: 5th through 8th:

Nick Van Den Berg Nick van den Berg (born 24 May 1980) is a Dutch professional pool player. He was the runner up at the 2005 WPA World Eight-ball Championship, where he lost to Wu Chia-ching 11–5 in the final. He is a multiple time winner of events on the Eu ...

, Charlie Williams, Liu Haitao,

Mika Immonen Mika Immonen (born 17 December 1972) is a Finnish professional Hall of Fame pool player, nicknamed "The Iceman." Career Immonen won the 2001 WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales. That same year, he was the runner-up to Corey Deue ...

; 9th through 16th:

Shane Van Boening Shane Van Boening (; born July 14, 1983) is an American professional pool player from Rapid City, South Dakota. As of 2022, Van Boening is the number 1 ranked player in the "World Rankings" published by the Matchroom Pool and the "WPA Rankings ...

, Mark Gray,

Ralf Souquet Ralf Souquet ( ; born 29 November 1968) is a German professional pool player. His nickname is "The Kaiser". Since 1988, he has won more than 200 tournament titles, including 23 Euro Tour titles, 20 European Pool Championship and 12 German Pool C ...

Yang Ching-shun Yang Ching-shun (Chinese: 楊清順; born 3 April 1978) is a Taiwanese professional pool player, nicknamed "the Son of Pool". Yang won the nine-ball event of the 1998 Asian Games against then World Pool champion Kunihiko Takahashi. He defe ...

, Jerico Banares,

Marlon Manalo Marlon Manalo (born November 27, 1975, in Mandaluyong, Philippines) is a former Filipino professional pool player from Mandaluyong, Philippines. He became the League of Barangays of the Philippines Press Relation Officer and ABC president. Caree ...

Fu Che-wei Fu Che-wei born December 21, 1973 (Traditional Chinese: ; Tongyong Pinyin: Fù Ché-Wěi) is a Chinese Taipei professional pool player, nicknamed "the Draw Shot Prince." Career Fu made his first notable appearance when he finished among the t ...

, and Satoshi Kawabata. Nineteen-year-old Wu Chia-ching defeated Filipino

Demosthenes Pulpul Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowe ...

11–8 in the semi-finals, October 4. Using a borrowed

cue stick A cue stick (or simply cue, more specifically billiards cue, pool cue, or snooker cue) is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the . Cues are tapered stick ...

, Wu reached the title match of the event. Pulpul, meanwhile, would go on to compete against Niels "the Terminator" Feijen of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

for 3rd place ''(see below for details)''. Earlier, Pulpul had defeated Liu Haitao (11–8) of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in the quarter-finals, while Feijen lost to

Darren Appleton Darren Appleton (born 8 February 1976) is an English pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, 9–11. Appleton squared off with Wu for the $100,000 (₱4,715,000 or UK£56,000) 1st prize on October 5, and claimed an upset victory over Wu, 13–11. He said of his win: "I've waited 16 years for this and have to enjoy the moment. I had mixed feelings and I was looking back at my disappointments in the past. I was ranked first in the world arlier in the decadebut I have never won a world championship. I saved my best game for the finals. I really wanted to dictate the tempo of the game, but the breaks just didn’t go my way. It was a good game. I played well this time. He was a tough player but I made fewer mistakes than him. It was a dream come true for me and I'm happy to win the title here in the Philippines. I would love to be back here." Appleton was also quoted as saying: "Pool is an easy choice for me as a sport as I have to choose among boxing, football and pool among others. But this victory is sweeter for me and I have to dedicate this to my parents, whose relationship is in the rocks. With the $100,000 grand prize, first, I have to give some to my parents, because we had a difficult way of living." Wu, nicknamed ''Taisun'' ("Little Genius") settled for the runner-up prize of $40,000, and remarked, "I didn't have a good break in the last game and that was crucial to me." In the third-place battle, Feijen defeated Pulpul, 11–8, and received $25,000 (₱1,178,000) to Pulpul's $15,000. WPA president Ian Anderson announced: "This early, there's a strong clamor for the WTBC and it will definitely be back next year in Manila. It will be staged October of next year and there's also the Philippine Open to be held June 2009. I think Manila is the best place to go in hosting pool and it is living up to its billing as the pool Mecca in Asia." The event would later return in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Knockout round

Below is the results from the knockout round. Players in bold denote match winners.

References

External links

{{World championships in year, 2008

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

International sports competitions hosted by the Philippines