Saturday midday roundup — Reggie Rutherford
Afternoon all. Ho Chi Minh City went to straight knockout overnight and the last 64 knocked out some big names. James Aranas had the best day of anyone. Also here: a bad night in Warsaw for Daniel Luton, the IPA professional quarter-finals and a snooker title in Karachi.
Ho Chi Minh City: Aranas does it the hard way again
Aranas came through the one-loss side on Friday and has now won four matches in two days. This morning he beat Wu Kun Lin 10–9 in a hill-hill decider on the TV table. The Taiwanese was one of five featured players who hadn't lost a match all week. In the last 32 he beat Nien Rong Chih 10–6, the player who knocked Dennis Orcollo out on Friday. Next for Aranas is world No.1 Aloysius Yapp, who beat Marcel Price 10–7 and then Dinh Chan Kiet 10–3. They meet in the last 16 (all scores from the official DigitalPool bracket).
Carlo Biado beat Chang Sheng Yi 10–3. When I last checked at 12:27 GMT, Biado led Hsieh Chia Chen 6–5 in the last 32.
Last-64 results:
- All-Filipino ties: Johann Chua 10–5 Julian Serradilla, Jaycee Garcia 10–3 Aivhan Maluto, Michael Feliciano 10–5 Genesis Quano
- Alexis Ferrer 10–1 Hoang Thai Duy. Hoang had beaten Orcollo and Feliciano on Thursday
- Duong Quoc Hoang 10–8 Marvin Asis, a win for the home favourite
- Liu Ri Teng 10–7 Jefrey Roda; Edward Koyongian 10–5 Oliver Szolnoki
- Japan's Kouki Sugiyama 10–7 Chang Yu Lung (Japanese coverage from On the Hill)
No Brits left: Britain had three players in the last 64 and all three lost. Yapp beat Price, Indonesia's Jefry Zen beat Fraser Patrick 10–9, and Damian John Massey, unbeaten until today, lost 10–6 to home player Nguyen Phuong Thao.
Last 32 so far: Luong Duc Thien beat Chu Viet Hoang 10–6, Jerson Cumayas beat Ronel Nalaunan 10–7 and Mickey Krause beat Jefry Zen 10–2. Cumayas plays Luong next. The rest were still going at 12:27 GMT. Feliciano and Nguyen Anh Tuan were at 9–8, Liu Ri Teng led Chua 5–4 and Jonas Magpantay led Duong Quoc Hoang 6–3. Sunday's final is a race to 13 for $15,000.
Warsaw: Brajkovič gets his revenge
On Thursday Daniel Luton beat Matej Brajkovič 5–4 in the wheelchair 10-ball semi-finals. On Friday night the Slovenian beat him 5–1 in the 8-ball quarter-finals, so Luton won't get a second medal in that event. The wheelchair 8-ball semi-finals are Jouni Tähti v Stefano Di Blasio and Brajkovič v Peter Macho, who beat Henrik Larsson 5–4.
In the standing 8-ball, Adam Wilk plays Vladimir Gjorgjieski and Georgios Malekkidis plays Tomasz Rogóz in the semi-finals. Both sets of semi-finals start at 4.30pm UK time and the finals at 7pm (official EPBF results).
The 9-ball started this morning. Luton began with a 6–1 win over Piero Pantano, Marcin Kubalski beat Cvetko Vegan 6–3, and Wilk led Britain's Stephen Cartwright 4–3 at the time of writing.
Isle of Man: eight left in the IPA professionals
In Friday's late last-16 matches at the Comis Hotel, Dean Shields beat Liam Dunster 8–5, hours after Dunster's 8–0 win over Gerard Boyle. Kristian Phillips beat David Addinall 8–7, and Scott Gillespie, Zack Wilkinson and Gareth Hibbott all won 8–4 (per CueScore).
Quarter-finals, 1pm UK time: Shields v Wilkinson, Gillespie v Cory Rees, Eddie Roberts v Dan Davy, Phillips v Hibbott. The semi-finals are at 2.30pm and 4pm, and the final is at 8.30pm tonight. Round one of the IPA Open is also under way.
Around the tables
Karachi: Top seed Abdul Sattar beat Khizar Aziz 4–0 in Friday's Sindh Snooker Cup final at Legends Snooker Club. The third frame was the only close one, and Sattar won it 60–59. He gets Rs100,000, Mohammad Ashfaq took the high-break prize with a 108, and the top eight all qualify for the 2027 National Championship (Dawn).
Indore: Forty IBSF Stage 1 matches are on today (Dainik Bhaskar). Former Indian junior champion Ranveer Duggal beat Oman's Sami Al Hamrashdi 4–2 and plays Firas Kamil Shaba next (The Tribune).
Leicester: Kyren Wilson v Shaun Murphy is at 7pm tonight on ITV, and the winner plays Chris Wakelin in Sunday's final. Murphy, ten frames from ten this week, told Metro that skipping last week's International Championship was "for my own sanity, for my own mental health".
Still to come today
- Las Vegas: The Women's U.S. Amateur Championship finishes today at the Westgate, and the men's event runs to Sunday.
- Ho Chi Minh City: The rest of the last 32, then Yapp v Aranas in the last 16, live on WNT TV.
Sources: DigitalPool official bracket, On the Hill, EPBF official results, CueScore, Dawn, Dainik Bhaskar, The Tribune, Metro, SnookerHQ. Feature image: “DFC 0923 A focused player lines up a shot on a glowing pool table leaning in to strike the cue ball” by PattayaPatrol, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.