Chris Dobey captured his second ProTour title of 2026 by winning Players Championship 9 in Wigan on Monday, April 13, defeating Justin Hood 8-4 in the final with a 105 average. Dobey, described as one of the forerunners in the Players Championship Order of Merit, delivered a standout performance befitting his 'Hollywood' moniker to seal the victory.
The final saw Hood race into a 2-0 lead with finishes of 121 and 167, but Dobey hit back with checkouts of 81 and 32 to level at 2-2. After a series of missed doubles from both, Dobey edged ahead 4-2. Hood broke back with an 81 checkout when trailing 5-3, but Dobey responded with a 74 finish to go 6-3 up. A 68 checkout put Dobey one leg away at 7-3, and though Hood held with a 90 finish, Dobey eventually sealed the title on double two after Hood missed a 156 checkout.
En route to the final, Dobey produced a series of commanding displays. He thrashed Rhys Griffin 6-1 with a near 110 average, defeated Andrew Gilding 7-1 in the semi-finals with a 103 average, and also saw off Dennie Olde Kalter (6-4), Jim Long (6-2), Luke Woodhouse (6-1), and Richard Veenstra (6-3). Dobey's run came as Luke Humphries won three games before exiting to Andrew Gilding, who then fell to Dobey in the last four.
Justin Hood enjoyed one of his best runs in some time, beating Ryan Meikle 6-2, Robert Owen 6-4, Niall Culleton 6-3, Mensur Suljovic 6-3, Tom Sykes 6-0, and Connor Scutt 7-3 in the semi-finals. Other notable performances included Beau Greaves reaching the quarter-finals, Tom Bissell seeing off Wessel Nijman, Kim Huybrechts, and Krzysztof Ratajski before losing to Scutt, and Tom Sykes and Richard Veenstra also making quarter-final runs.
