Ronnie O'Sullivan's return to Belfast lasted seven frames. The world number 110 beat him this afternoon, and the Northern Ireland Open has now lost eight of the nine top-16 players who have played. In Goyang the LPBA favourites mostly came through, though Kim Ga-young only just made it.
Belfast — Cheung comes back from 3–1 down
Cheung Ka Wai beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 in the first round at the Waterfront Hall (per BBC Sport NI and snooker.org). The 27-year-old from Hong Kong only joined the tour in 2024, and for an hour this looked like a routine afternoon for the seven-time world champion.
- The start: Cheung took the opening frame. O'Sullivan answered with 56, a 138 and 72 to lead 3–1.
- The turn: O'Sullivan missed a red in the fifth and Cheung cleared with 88. A 77 forced the decider.
- The finish: another O'Sullivan miss, and Cheung closed it out with 61. Eurosport Germany counted just 24 points for O'Sullivan after he went 3–1 up.
"To play the legend of the game and to win, this is very satisfying for me," Cheung told BBC Sport NI. He admitted he was "scared a little bit" before the match because of the crowd behind O'Sullivan. He plays Stuart Bingham or Yao Pengcheng for a place in the last 16.
This was O'Sullivan's first match in the UK since he lost to John Higgins at the Crucible in April. It was also his first Northern Ireland Open appearance since 2022, and it follows a first-round exit to Jiang Jun in Shenzhen last month.
The rest of Monday afternoon (scores per snooker.org and BBC Sport):
- Daniel Wells 4–2 Barry Hawkins: another seed out
- Kyren Wilson 4–0 Ben Mertens: the 2024 champion is the only top-16 player through so far, per the World Snooker Tour
- Luca Brecel 4–1 Lei Peifan
- David Gilbert 4–1 Oliver Sykes
- Pang Junxu 4–2 Alfie Burden
Hawkins, Wakelin and O'Sullivan went out today. Selby, Robertson, Xiao Guodong, Murphy and Carter went on Sunday. Judd Trump v Martin O'Donnell, Bingham v Yao and Jak Jones v Tom Ford started at 7pm. John Higgins v Liam Highfield and Zhang Anda v Liam Pullen follow at 9pm.
Goyang — Kim Ga-young squeaks through
The LPBA last 64 at KINTEX finished today (per MK Billiards). Kim Ga-young is chasing a 20th career title, and she nearly didn't get past Yun Kyung-nam. She won 25–23 in 20 innings.
- Han Seul-gi 25–7 Park Su-hyang: 11 innings, and her 2.273 average was the best of the round
- Jung Su-bin 25–11 Kim Do-kyung: 12 innings. The fourth-event champion was level 10–10 after five, then finished with a run of five
- Lee Mi-rae 25–12 Jung Da-hye: 22 innings for last week's runner-up
- Park Jung-hyun 25–10 Lee Seung-hee: the 16-year-old's run ends after 20 innings
- Kim Jin-a 25–9 Ha Yun-jeong (high run 9) and Kim Da-hee 25–7 Woo Hwi-in
Lim Jung-sook, Hida Orie, Han Ji-eun, Kang Ji-eun and Kim Bo-mi are also in the last 32. Srong Pheavy went out on Sunday. The PBA men start their last 128 tomorrow.
Landywood — Causier starts big
There are no official World Billiards Championship results online yet. Matthew Lowson reported on X that David Causier opened his defence with a 1,167–45 win. Causier is going for a third straight long-format world title. Table one is streamed on the World Billiards YouTube channel, and the final is on Thursday.
Doha — the qualifiers are under way
Day one of the Qatar World Cup 10-Ball qualifiers is done at the Ezdan Palace Hotel. We couldn't find any published results yet; the Qatar federation has only put out highlights. Jonas Magpantay of the Philippines defends the title (per News of Bahrain). Bahrain have entered Haider Maroom and Ibrahim Al Qaed. Iraq's Issa Qasim told the Qatar federation he is aiming for the podium.
Elsewhere
- New York State: Bucky Souvanthong won stop five of the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour at Brick House Billiards in North Syracuse. Ron Casanzio was second, Kiet Mieu third and Damon Sobers fourth, per the tour's results table.
- Manila: Jose "Amang" Parica, 77, will be at Tuesday's Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum with former Asian snooker champion Marlon Manalo (per BusinessMirror). Parica was inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame in 2014 and was the first Filipino to break into the rich US pool circuit, long before Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante. He is in town to prepare a tournament in his name next year.
Coming up / where to watch
- Australian Women's Open: semi-finals at midnight UK time, Mink Nutcharut v Anupama Ramachandran and Reanne Evans v Ng On Yee. The final is at around 4am. Scores on WPBSA SnookerScores.
- Philippines Open: breaks off at 5am UK time at Gateway Mall, live on WNT TV.
- WPA Blackball World Championships: the British Pool Federation hosts them at the Thistle Hotel Heathrow, 20–28 October. The event pages are up on CueScore.
- Northern Ireland Open: continues at the Waterfront Hall through Sunday, on TNT Sports, Eurosport, HBO Max and WST Play.
Feature image: “Cheung Ka Wai 2026” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication).
