The European Open Pool Championship returns to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina for its fifth edition from March 10-15, as the opening World Nineball Tour ranking major of the year takes place.
A mixture of seasoned professionals and budding amateurs will compete for an increased $225,000 prize fund, kick-starting Matchroom’s 2026 open series which includes events such as the US Open, the Hanoi Open and the Florida Open.
All 256 players involved will be vying to follow in the footsteps of Albin Ouschan, David Alcaide, Mickey Krause and Joshua Filler, the latter of who emphatically beat Naoyuki Oi 13-1 in last year’s final and returns to the Bosnian capital as defending champion.
Nobody from outside of Europe has reigned victorious in the event’s short history, and the chances of that changing this year may appear slim due to reigning world champion Carlo Biado, US Open winner Aloysius Yapp, Johann Chua and Shane van Boening not being involved.
World number one Fedor Gorst and defending champion Filler will headline a field which also involves the likes of Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Eklent Kaci, Albin Ouschan and David Alcaide, the latter being the most recent open championship winner in the Philippines.
Pijus Labutis and Moritz Neuhausen are also amongst the elite names who will be involved, as are newly-crowned Premier League champion Duong Quoc Hoang and Robbie Capito, who will both compete despite limited Asian entries due to travel problems.
Bosnian poster boy Sanjin Pehlivanovic will compete on home soil alongside the likes of Adjin Piknjac and Faruk Terzic, while a strong Balkan lineup also includes Greece’s Alex Kazakis and Dimitris Loukatos, Albania’s Kledio Kaci, Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj and Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev.
Other notable entrants include 2025 runner-up and Japanese number one Naoyuki Oi, Jonas Souto Comino, Max Lechner, Wiktor Zielinski, Marco Teutscher and Peru’s Gerson Martinez, as well as ex-world champions Niels Feijen, Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet.
The double elimination phase will take place from March 10-12, with 64 players then progressing to the single elimination phase which begins on March 13.
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 15 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 TalkSport 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 and the Netherlands.
European Open Pool Championship 2026
Draw Bracket
Click here for the full draw bracket via the WNT Live Scores website
Last 64
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Last 32
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Last 16
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Quarter-Finals
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Semi-Finals
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Final
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Prize Fund
Champion – $40,000
Runner-up – $16,000
Semi-finalists – $10,000
Quarter-finalists – $7,000
Last 16 – $3,125
Last 32 – $2,000
Last 64 – $1,000
Losers Qualification – $500
Total – $225,000
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
2025 – Joshua Filler 13-1 Naoyuki Oi
