| Alias | El Ferrari |
| Country | Spain |
| Hometown | Murcia |
| Age | 34 |
| Height | 5ft 9in |
| Highest Rank | 7 |
| Majors Won | 2 |
| Invitationals Won | 5 |
| Ranking Events Won | 3 |
| Prize Money | $217,625 |
Francisco Sánchez Ruiz is a Spanish world champion and two-time US Open winner from Murcia. Known as “El Ferrari”, he won his first US Open in 2022 and returned to take the title in 2026, finishing ahead of Robbie Capito in Texas.
His rise to the top of international nineball included the 2023 World Pool Championship in Poland and Premier League Pool later that season. Those victories followed his 2022 World Cup of Pool success alongside David Alcaide, giving him major individual and national-team honours in successive years.
He made his Mosconi Cup debut in 2022 and was part of Team Europe’s winning sides in 2022, 2023 and 2024, adding three consecutive team titles to his individual achievements.
Sánchez Ruiz, also referred to as ‘FSR’, has also won on the wider WNT ranking circuit, taking the FSR91 Nineball Open and Peri Open titles in 2024. He reached the Premier League Pool final again in both 2025 and 2026 before securing his second US Open crown. His career combines world-championship success with wins in large open fields, invitational competition and international doubles.
Selected honours and results
Major titles: World Pool Championship — 2023; US Open — 2022, 2026.
Invitational title: Premier League Pool — 2023.
Other WNT ranking titles: FSR91 Nineball Open and Peri Open — 2024.
Team titles: World Cup of Pool with David Alcaide — 2022; Mosconi Cup, Team Europe — 2022, 2023, 2024.
See Francisco Sánchez Ruíz at
The Mosconi Cup is nineball’s transatlantic team contest, bringing Europe and the USA together in a rivalry that began in 1994. Across its history, it has turned an individual sport into a collective challenge, with players competing for their team in an arena shaped by vocal support from both sides.
The established format features five players per team competing in singles, doubles and team matches. Each match is raced to five racks and earns one point, with the first team to reach 11 points winning the Cup. The short races make every visit to the table significant, while doubles demand close understanding between partners.
The 2026 edition takes place from 27–30 November at Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, returning the competition to the United States. Europe arrives as defending champion, with the hosts looking to reclaim the trophy on home soil.
The World Pool Masters is one of nineball’s longest-running invitational tournaments. First staged in Plymouth, England in 1993, it has been won by players including Francisco Bustamante, Shane Van Boening and Joshua Filler, giving each new field a place to pursue among the sport’s established champions.
The event’s recent editions have used a straight-knockout format, placing immediate pressure on a select field: one defeat ends a player’s challenge. The 2027 tournament brings together 20 players at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei City from 12–14 January, following the Chinese Taipei Open at the same venue.
For the first time, the Masters will feature a two-table arena, with matches from both tables available live on WNT TV. The move to Chinese Taipei opens a new chapter for a competition with more than three decades of history.
