Evening all, Reggie here. There's a British player in a European final tonight, and it's not in Leicester. Daniel Luton knocked out the 16-time European champion Henrik Larsson on his way to the wheelchair 10-ball final at the para-pool Euros in Warsaw. In Leicester, Zhao Xintong and Kyren Wilson set up a rematch of last year's quarter-final. Plus a home-crowd scalp in Ho Chi Minh City, a title defence in Korea and bar billiards in Jersey.
WARSAW — LUTON INTO THE WHEELCHAIR 10-BALL FINAL
The 10-ball finals at the EPBF Parasport European Championships were scheduled for 8pm local time (7pm UK), so the results will be in the morning roundup. The podiums are already settled, per the official EPBF brackets.
Great Britain's Daniel Luton has done it the hard way. Finland's Jouni Tähti beat him 5–2 on Wednesday, so he had to come through the one-loss side. In the quarter-finals he beat Sweden's Henrik Larsson 5–4, the man who won this title in Tallinn last year for his 16th European crown. Luton then beat Slovenia's Matej Brajkovič 5–4 in tonight's semi-final, so he gets another go at Tähti for gold. Tähti, who won the 8-ball and 9-ball in Tallinn, beat Slovakia's Peter Macho 5–1 in his semi.
In the standing 10-ball, the hosts have gold and silver locked up. Adam Wilk, the defending champion, plays fellow Pole Marcin Kubalski. Both semi-finals went the distance: Wilk beat Cyprus's Georgios Malekkidis 5–4, and Kubalski beat Slovenia's Blaž Rus 5–4.
The 10-ball podiums
- Wheelchair final: Daniel Luton (GB) v Jouni Tähti (Finland). Bronze: Matej Brajkovič (Slovenia) and Peter Macho (Slovakia)
- Standing final: Adam Wilk v Marcin Kubalski (both Poland). Bronze: Blaž Rus (Slovenia) and Georgios Malekkidis (Cyprus)
LEICESTER — ZHAO AND WILSON GO AGAIN
Zhao Xintong gave Thepchaiya Un-Nooh nothing in the first Group Two semi-final at the Champion of Champions, winning 4–0. After a 70–60 opener, Un-Nooh scored only 23 points in the last three frames, per CueTracker.
Kyren Wilson beat Ali Carter 4–2, with breaks of 73 and 72. Carter made a 57 to get back to 3–2, but Wilson won the last frame 87–1. Wilson arrived with back-to-back ranking titles from Belfast and Nanjing.
That puts last year's quarter-final back on. Twelve months ago Zhao beat Wilson 6–5 in this same round. Tonight's best-of-11 started at 7pm, so the result is owed in the morning. The winner plays Shaun Murphy on Saturday.
HO CHI MINH CITY — BIADO DROPS TO THE ONE-LOSS SIDE
World number two Carlo Biado lost 9–6 to home player Trinh Van Binh in round two at the Universal Open, according to the DigitalPool bracket. Chu Viet Hoang beat Oliver Szolnoki 9–8, and Jerson Cumayas sent Mickey Krause over 9–5. Hoang Thai Duy followed his win over Dennis Orcollo by beating Michael Feliciano, another hill-hill finish.
- Still unbeaten: Aloysius Yapp, Johann Chua, Jonas Magpantay, Robbie Capito, Wu Kun Lin and Anthony Raga, along with eight home players including Duong Quoc Hoang, per Sportshorts
- First featured player out: Jeffrey Ignacio, beaten by Indonesia's Billy Robiansyah on the one-loss side. The bracket records it without a score
- Orcollo, James Aranas and Bernie Regalario haven't played their one-loss matches yet
YANGGU — CHO MYUNG-WOO DEFENDS HIS TITLE
World number one Cho Myung-woo beat Park Su-young 50–36 in 26 innings to win the men's three-cushion at the Korea Sports Council President's Cup for the second year in a row, per MK Billiards News. He also won Monday's doubles with Kim Hoe-seung, the same double he did last year. In the women's final, Park Se-jeong beat teenager Jeon Jeong-bin 25–12, her sixth title of the season.
JERSEY — BAR BILLIARDS WORLDS
The Bar Billiards World Championship starts on Friday at 7pm at the Merton Hotel with the pairs, according to the Jersey Evening Post. There are 125 singles entries, the final is on Sunday night, and Matthew Jones defends against a field including seven-time champion Kevin Tunstall.
Coming up
- Friday: Stage 1 qualifying starts at the IBSF World Snooker Championships in Indore. There's a $40,000 purse, and it's India's third time hosting, after Kolkata in 1964 and Bengaluru in 2014 (Times of India)
- Friday, 7pm: Champion of Champions semi-final, Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson
- Saturday, 7pm: Shaun Murphy v Zhao or Wilson
- 17–21 November: the Universal Bangkok Open
That's me for tonight. Reggie.
Sources: EPBF, CueTracker, WST, The Stats Zone, DigitalPool, Ncue Media, Sportshorts, MK Billiards News, Jersey Evening Post, Times of India. Feature image: Belgian wheelchair cueist Kurt Deklerck, 2019. “Kurt Deklerck snooker” by Kurt Deklerck, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.