Bosnia and Herzegovina hosts the European Open Pool Championship for the first time as the fourth staging of the World Nineball Tour major takes place from March 11-16 at the Hotel Hills in Sarajevo.
With an increased first prize of $40,000 up for grabs as well as crucial ranking points towards the Masters, Mosconi Cup and Reyes Cup, a mixture of seasoned professionals and budding amateurs head to the Bosnian capital for the season-opening major tournament.
Everyone will attempting to follow in the footsteps of Albin Ouschan, David Alcaide and Mickey Krause, the latter of who beat Johann Chua 13-8 in last year’s final and now competes in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the defending champion.
Top seed Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Shane van Boening, Jayson Shaw, Eklent Kaci and the Ko brothers headline the field in world number one Fedor Gorst’s absence, while Hanoi Open winner Chua, Aloysius Yapp and Alcaide are also amongst the top 10 stars in action.
Joshua Filler, Wojciech Szewczyk, Albin Ouschan and other players who have previously feared being banned by the sport’s governing body, the WPA, have entered, sparking speculation that tensions have dampened between them and Matchroom.
Bosnia’s own Sanjin Pehlivanovic will compete on home soil and has been the tournament’s poster boy, while other Balkan players involved include Albanian brothers Eklent and Kledio Kaci, Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj and Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev.
Other notable entries include UK Open champion Robbie Capito, Carlo Biado, Pijus Labutis, Wiktor Zielinski and Moritz Neuhausen, as well as Vietnam’s Duong Quoc Hoang, former World Championship runner-up Mohammad Soufi and snooker star Gary Wilson.
Tyler Styer, Billy Thorpe, Oscar Dominguez, Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Scott Frost and Sam Henderson are the Americans involved, while the legendary Niels Feijen, Ralf Souquet, Thorsten Hohmann and Tony Drago are also set to compete.
The double elimination phase will take place from March 11-13, with 64 players then progressing to the single elimination phase which begins on March 14.
It will be race-to-nine racks on the winners’ side and race-to-eight racks on the one-loss side during double elimination, before the format increases to race-to-10 racks for the last 64 through to the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals and final will take place on Sunday, March 16 across two sessions, with the format being race-to-11 racks for the semi-finals and race-to-13 racks for the title decider.
Coverage will be broadcast via WNT TV for subscribers in most territories across the world, including the USA, Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as the UK and Ireland for the first four days before Sky Sports show the weekend’s action.
Other international broadcasters will provide coverage depending on the location, including Sportklub in host country Bosnia and Herzegovina and Viaplay in Scandinavia, Poland and the Netherlands.
EUROPEAN OPEN POOL CHAMPIONSHIP 2025
Draw Bracket
Double Elimination
Click here for the full draw bracket via the WNT Live Scores website
Single Elimination
Last 64
🇪🇸 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 10-6 Roberto Bartol 🇭🇷
🇺🇸 Shane Wolford 4-10 Radoslaw Babica 🇵🇱
🇵🇭 Carlo Biado 9-10 Tobias Bongers 🇩🇪
🇳🇱 Niels Feijen 7-10 Yannick Pongers 🇳🇱
🇹🇼 Ko Pin-Yi 10-3 Lukas Fracasso-Verner 🇺🇸
🇷🇸 Aleksa Pecelj 3-10 Petri Makkonen 🇫🇮
🇵🇱 Daniel Maciol 10-3 Chang Yu-Lung 🇹🇼
🇺🇸 Shane van Boening 10-3 Marcel Price 🇬🇧
🇹🇼 Ko Ping-Chung 10-2 Ermal Dyli 🇦🇱
🇦🇹 Max Lechner 10-4 Abdullah Alenzi 🇰🇼
🇪🇸 Jonas Souto Comino 0-10 Naoyuki Oi 🇯🇵
🇳🇴 Emil-Andre Gangflot 10-8 Phuong Nam Pham 🇻🇳
🇵🇱 Wiktor Zielinski 9-10 Lo Ho-Sum 🇭🇰
🇭🇰 Robbie Capito 10-9 Georgi Georgiev 🇧🇬
🇳🇱 Marc Bijsterbosch 10-7 Hubert Lopotko 🇵🇱
🇵🇭 Johann Chua 6-10 Edward Koyongian 🇮🇩
🇸🇬 Aloysius Yapp 10-2 Fitim Haradinaj 🇽🇰
🇬🇷 Alex Kazakis 10-4 Alvin Anggito 🇮🇩
🇦🇱 Kledio Kaci 9-10 Luong Duc Thien 🇻🇳
🇱🇹 Pijus Labutis 10-5 Kostas Koukiadakis 🇬🇷
🇩🇪 Moritz Neuhausen 10-6 Mateusz Sniegocki 🇵🇱
🇦🇹 Mario He 7-10 Jose Alberto Delgado 🇪🇸
🇻🇳 Duong Quoc Hoang 10-6 Thorsten Hohmann 🇩🇪
🇪🇸 David Alcaide 5-10 Elliott Sanderson 🇬🇧
🇩🇪 Joshua Filler 10-2 Dimitris Loukatos 🇬🇷
🇵🇹 Joao Grilo 10-2 Tang Ching-Ting 🇹🇼
🇸🇾 Mohammad Soufi 10-3 Gary Wilson 🇬🇧
🇬🇧 Jayson Shaw 10-4 Riku Rompannen 🇫🇮
🇵🇱 Wojciech Szewczyk 10-3 Andri Januarta 🇮🇩
🇦🇹 Albin Ouschan 10-6 Nguyen Anh Tuan 🇻🇳
🇧🇦 Sanjin Pehlivanovic 10-6 Besar Spahiu 🇦🇱
🇦🇱 Eklent Kaci 10-7 Liu Ri-Teng 🇹🇼
Last 32
🇪🇸 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 10-6 Radoslaw Babica 🇵🇱
🇩🇪 Tobias Bongers 10-9 Yannick Pongers 🇳🇱
🇹🇼 Ko Pin-Yi 10-3 Petri Makkonen 🇫🇮
🇵🇱 Daniel Maciol 10-8 Shane van Boening 🇺🇸
🇹🇼 Ko Ping-Chung 6-10 Max Lechner 🇦🇹
🇯🇵 Naoyuki Oi 10-4 Emil-Andre Gangflot 🇳🇴
🇭🇰 Lo Ho-Sum 10-7 Robbie Capito 🇭🇰
🇳🇱 Marc Bijsterbosch 10-6 Edward Koyongian 🇮🇩
🇸🇬 Aloysius Yapp 10-7 Alex Kazakis 🇬🇷
🇻🇳 Luong Duc Thien 6-10 Pijus Labutis 🇱🇹
🇩🇪 Moritz Neuhausen 10-5 Jose Alberto Delgado 🇪🇸
🇻🇳 Duong Quoc Hoang 10-8 Elliott Sanderson 🇬🇧
🇩🇪 Joshua Filler 10-3 Joao Grilo 🇵🇹
🇸🇾 Mohammad Soufi 4-10 Jayson Shaw 🇬🇧
🇵🇱 Wojciech Szewczyk 10-5 Albin Ouschan 🇦🇹
🇧🇦 Sanjin Pehlivanovic 10-7 Eklent Kaci 🇦🇱
Last 16
🇪🇸 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 8-10 Tobias Bongers 🇩🇪
🇹🇼 Ko Pin-Yi 4-10 Daniel Maciol 🇵🇱
🇦🇹 Max Lechner 1-10 Naoyuki Oi 🇯🇵
🇭🇰 Lo Ho-Sum 6-10 Marc Bijsterbosch 🇳🇱
🇸🇬 Aloysius Yapp 5-10 Pijus Labutis 🇱🇹
🇩🇪 Moritz Neuhausen 4-10 Duong Quoc Hoang 🇻🇳
🇩🇪 Joshua Filler 10-4 Jayson Shaw 🇬🇧
🇵🇱 Wojciech Szewczyk 10-2 Sanjin Pehlivanovic 🇧🇦
Quarter-Finals
🇩🇪 Tobias Bongers 6-10 Daniel Maciol 🇵🇱
🇯🇵 Naoyuki Oi 10-7 Lo Ho-Sum 🇭🇰
🇱🇹 Pijus Labutis 10-6 Duong Quoc Hong 🇻🇳
🇩🇪 Joshua Filler 10-6 Wojciech Szewczyk 🇵🇱
Semi-Finals
🇵🇱 Daniel Maciol 1-11 Naoyuki Oi 🇯🇵
🇱🇹 Pijus Labutis 6-11 Joshua Filler 🇩🇪
Final
🇯🇵 Naoyuki Oi 1-13 Joshua Filler 🇩🇪
Prize Fund
Champion – $40,000
Runner-up – $16,000
Semi-finalists – $10,000
Quarter-finalists – $7,000
Last 16 – $4,000
Last 32 – $2,000
Last 64 – $1,000
Roll of Honour
2022 – Albin Ouschan 13-11 Shane van Boening
2023 – David Alcaide 13-12 Anton Raga
2024 – Mickey Krause 13-8 Johann Chua
