The 2026 World 8-Ball Championship will take place from April 2-8 at the Hyatt Regency in St Louis, Missouri, as the lucrative tournament is held in the United States for the first time in its history.
The $300,000 tournament will be held in a fifth different country in as many years, heading stateside following Albin Ouschan’s 10-5 victory over Alex Kazakis in last year’s final in Indonesia.
Austrian ace Ouschan returns as defending champion and WPA world number one, headlining a stellar lineup alongside the likes of 2024 winner Joshua Filler and 2023 champion Shane van Boening.
Fedor Gorst and Carlo Biado will be amongst those chasing a prestigious title initially won by Efren Reyes in 2004, as will second seed Wojciech Szewczyk, US Open champion Aloysius Yapp and Moritz Neuhausen.
Spanish amigos Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide and Jonas Souto Comino have also travelled to the Gateway City, eyeing the increased $90,000 champion’s cheque alongside Jayson Shaw, Eklent Kaci and Pijus Labutis.
Other notable players involved include Vietnamese number one Duong Quoc Hoang, Japan’s Naoyuki Oi and Denis Grabe, as well as 2008 winner Ralf Souquet, Peru’s Gerson Martinez and Cristopher Tevez, Wu Kun-Lin, Lee Van Corteza, Marco Teutscher, Mario He, Max Lechner, Robbie Capito and 2025 semi-finalist Hayato Hijikata.
Poland will once again be strongly represented by the likes of 2023 semi-finalist Szewczyk, Daniel Maciol, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Mieszko Fortunski and Szymon Kural, while 2022 runner-up Wiktor Zielinski returns under a neutral flag.
Justin Bergman will compete in his first WPA world championships in six years, while other players representing the USA on home turf include Skyler Woodward, Tyler Styer, Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Billy Thorpe and teenage sensation Hayden Ernst.
The tournament will feature 96 players in the double elimination phase which will be race-to-eight, with 32 players qualifying for the single elimination phase as the format increases to race-to-ten racks.
Free coverage will be broadcast throughout the duration of the tournament via the Billiard TV website and Pro Billiard TV on YouTube.
World 8-Ball Championship 2026
Draw Bracket
Click here for the full draw bracket via the Predator Pro Billiard Series website
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 – $90,000
Runner-up – $42,000
Semi-finalists – $21,000
Quarter-finalists – $10,500
Last 16 – $5,250
Last 32 – $2,625
Total – $300,000
Roll of Honour
2004 – Efren Reyes 11-4 Marlon Manalo
2005 – Wu Jiaqing 11-5 Nick van den Berg
2007 – Ronnie Alcano 11-8 Dennis Orcollo
2008 – Ralf Souquet 11-9 Ronnie Alcano
2010 – Karl Boyes 13-12 Niels Feijen
2011 – Dennis Orcollo 10-3 Niels Feijen
2012 – Chang Jung-Lin 11-6 Fu Che-Wei
2022 – Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 10-6 Wiktor Zielinski
2023 – Shane van Boening 10-7 Sanjin Pehlivanovic
2024 – Joshua Filler 10-8 Hsu Jui-An
2025 – Albin Ouschan 10-5 Alex Kazakis
