In what is dubbed as the most star-studded pool championships ever, the 2014 World Cup of Pool breaks the action on Tuesday featuring six matches on opening day of the tournament held at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, England.

Other first round or Round of 32 matches are scheduled in the next two days of competition running from Sept. 23 to 28, 2014.

A knockout match is set for each round starting with the race-to-7 matches in the opening round. The teams are represented by two players from their respective countries and all are vying for a lion’s share of the prize pool of $250,000 with $60,000 going to the winner.

Seeded teams and favourites that will see action on opening day are the defending champions Philippines, which will be led by the same pair-- Dennis Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza-- that won the title in 2013. Finland represented by the duo of Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen, who both won the title for their country in 2012 will also see action on opening day.

The Philippines seeded first in the UK tilt take on South American qualifiers, Chile (Alejandro Carvajal and Enrique Rojas) while Finland, the eighth seed, faces Korea (Jeong Yung Hwa and Ha Minuk)

Here’s the rest of the fixture and teams for the opening day of competition:

World Cup of Pool Schedule - Day 1 (Round of 32)

Sept. 23 (Tuesday) at 12 noon (9pm in Australia)

Greece (Nikos Ekonomopoulos/Alexander Kazakis) vs. Indonesia (Irsal Nasution/Muhammad Zulfikri)

Italy (Fabio Petroni/Daniele Corrieri) vs. France (Stephan Cohen/Alex Montpelier)

Austria (Albin Ouschan/Mario He) vs. Portugal (Manuel Gama and Guilherme Sousa)

Sept. 23 (Tuesday) at 6pm (3am Wednesday in Australia)

Japan (Hayato Hijikata/Masaaki Tanaka) vs. Russia (Konstantin Stepanov/Ruslan Chinakhov)

Finland vs. Korea

Philippines vs. Chile

For Australian pool fans, Australia will be opening their World Cup against ninth seed Poland on Wednesday starting at 9pm (Australia).

Where to Watch the 2014 World Cup of Pool

The 2014 World Cup of Pool will be aired live over Sky Sports (United Kingdom and Ireland), ESPN 3 (United States of America) and CCTV (China). Elsewhere, check live streaming of the pool world championships at www.pool.livesport.tv.

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