The Morningside Arena in Leicester stages the World Cup of Pool this week.
There are 32 two-man teams taking part with Great Britain, as hosts, allowed to field two teams. The World Cup is one of the stand-out tournaments in the nine-ball calendar. China were worthy winners last year but no team has ever been able to successfully defended a World Cup title. Since its inception in 2006, however, China have won it three times and the Phillipines twice. England won it in 2014 and have twice been beaten finalists, an identical record to that of the USA.
US Open and World Champion Joshua Filler teams up with Ralf Souquet to represents Germany.
Scotland’s Jayson Shaw and Yorkshireman Chris Melling are the Great Britain A team and 9/1 with Betfred, who have Great Britain B (Mark Gray and Imran Majid) at 33/1. The Ko brothers Pin-Yi and Ping-Chung will be bidding to give Chinese Taipei’s a second World Cup title in four years and are a best 7/1 with William Hill.
Other Asian nations taking part include Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines who are a best 18/1. Defending champions China are also in Leicester, of course, and Wu Jiaqing and Liu Haitao are narriow favourites at 13/2 to become the first nation to win back-to-back World cup of Pool tournaments. Shane van Boening, a World Cup winner in 2008, returns for the USA and is partnered by Mosconi Cup MVP Skyler Woodward for a third time. They reached the World Cup final two years ago before losing out to Austria, represented this time by Albin Ouschan and Mario He.
There is a $60,000 first prize this year out of a total prize fund of $250,000. Matches are the first to 7 in the first two rounds and best-of-17 in the quarter and semi-finals. The final this year will be played over a possible 21 frames.
WORLD CUP OF POOL FULL DRAW
World Cup of Pool 2019 Current Best Odds – can China become the first to defend their title?
China 13/2
Chine Taipei and USA 7/1
Great Britain A 9/1
Germany 11/1
Austria 12/1
Phillipines and Russia 18/1
Netherlands 20/1
Finland and Greece 25/1
Spain 28/1
Japan, Poland Great Britain B 33/1
Canada and Albania 40/1
Hong Kong 80/1
Singapore 90/1
Estonia and Czech Republic 100/1
Italy 125/1
Australia 175/1
New Zealand 200/1
Sweden, Chile, France and Croatia 250/1
South Africa 300/1
Brazil, Malta and Saudi Arabia 750/1
(Odds correct at 9.45am June 24)
