Dutchman Niels Feijen celebrates after hitting the winning shot against Albin Ouschan in the WPA World 9-Ball Championship final in Doha on June 27, 2014. Right: Waleed Majed became the first Qatar player to reach round of 16 at a world championship last year.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

For the sixth straight year, stars of the 9-ball world will descend upon Doha starting today to contest for bragging rights at the WPA World 9-Ball Championship and a USD 30,000 winner’s prize money.
The tournament, which has a total prize money of USD200,000, will conclude with a race-to-13 final on September 18 at Al Arabi Sports Club.
Last time when the event was hosted in the Qatari capital, Dutchman Niels Feijen had brushed aside failures in two earlier World 9-ball finals to win the sport’s most prestigious prize with a 13-10 win over Austria’s Albin Ouschan.
With a win in a Euro Tour event recently under the belt, the 38-year-old certainly has the form to back him up for a double that has only been achieved by Earl Strickland (1990, 1991).
Ouschan is ranked number one in the world at the moment and is hot off a victory in China Open in Shanghai.
England’s Darren Appleton, the 2012 champion and the current world number two, will also be in the mix, and so will be the 2013 champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany.
Appleton’s conqueror at the last year’s event, Qatar’s Waleed Majed is high on confidence and at 24 is the hosts’ highest ranked player. Majed’s win over Appleton last year in the round of 32, made him the first Qatar player to reach the round of 16 at a world championship.
With massive support in Qatar, Filipino players, including world No.4 Carlo Biado, world No.5 Warren Kiamco and world No.7 Dennis Orcollo, will also fancy their chances.
The tournament will begin with a 128-player qualification stage, which will run from September 7-10, to fill up the one dozen open slots.
Stage 2, which begins on September 12 and also features 128 players, will see players divided into 16 groups of 8 playing a race-to-9, alternate break, double elimination format.
Four players from each group will make up the final 64. Matches will then become race-to-11, alternate break. The final, which takes place on September 18, will be a race to 13.