RP hosts world-ranking Ten Ball event

MANILA, Philippines – Pool players can earn precious world-ranking points in the 1st Philippine Ten Ball Open Championship slated May 26-31 in Manila. The event, expected to draw 64 of the world’s finest cuemasters, is the latest addition to the world tour sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) after the three world championships (World 8-Ball, World 9-Ball and World Ten Ball), the China Open, the Qatar Open and the US Open. The tournament offers a total prize of $84,000 with the champion taking home $20,000. Prizes will be broken down up to the 32nd place. According to JP Fenix, executive director of the tournament’s organizer, Raya Sports, the Philippine Ten Ball Open will become a regular part of the world pool calendar from hereon with plans to stage the WPA-sanctioned event annually every April or May in a strategic city in the Philippines. The Philippine Ten Ball Open follows up the country’s hosting of the inaugural World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) held last year at the Philippine International Convention Center. This year’s WTBC will be held in Cebu, the nation’s second biggest metropolis. Like in the previous WPA world championships, players will have to earn their spots through an allocation system by the pool’s governing body. The WPA gives specified allocations or quotas for the continental federations to fill with ranking players in their respective regions. The Philippines, being the host country, will be given four automatic slots to the event. Raya says that this will be distributed in consultation with the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP), which maintains a ranking system of Filipino players. At least eight spots have been earmarked for women players in America, Europe and Asia. A player who gets an outright seat to the main 64 draw will not pay the entry fee in the event. A number of spots will be offered for competitions in several qualifiers organized by Raya Sports at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City. Players can register for the qualifiers on the official website: www.rayasports.com. There is a one-time entry fee of $200 in the double-elimination qualifying round. The main tournament will follow a double-elimination format up to the Final Four, when it then becomes a cross-over semifinals to determine the finalists. –GMANews.TV