Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Joshua Filler, Fedor Gorst and Ko Ping-Chung are amongst those to have signed up to the World Nineball Tour for 2024, but what does signing that contract entail for professional players?
Players have been putting pen to paper in their numbers after the top 128 on the world nineball rankings at the beginning of this year received a contract which confirms their status as a tour professional for this season.
Becoming a tour professional and signing that World Professional Nineball Pool Corporation (WPNPC) contract ensures that players will receive spots at all major open championships and be in contention for invitational events such as the Mosconi Cup, the World Pool Masters and the incoming Reyes Cup.
Anyone who doesn’t sign the contract will be permitted to enter a maximum of just two open championships and they will not be eligible when it comes to qualifying for Matchroom’s invitational tournaments.
In addition, the contract states that players must not attend any 9-ball events nor major tournaments in another discipline that clash with a nineball major, such as the World Pool Championship, US Open, Hanoi Open and World Cup of Pool.
WNT professionals will be given freedom to enter any competition that doesn’t clash with a major tournament, although the WPA’s plans to ban anyone competing in WNT events from March onwards will stop them from doing so should they come into force.
Banning threats from the WPA and their federations have been circulating since their general assembly in October, but the vast majority of the 128 players who received contracts are expected to sign up despite those warnings.
It is currently unknown whether or not the players who turn down contractual negotiations will maintain their position in the world nineball rankings, despite it being clear that they will not be considered for invitational events.
Further information is expected to be released in due course as the World Nineball Tour continue to unveil contracted tour professionals via social media.
