Evening all. Reggie here with the Monday night round-up. I owed you a result from Goyang and it was worth the wait. Doha has also lost three more big names. All times GMT.
GOYANG: CHO SPOILS THE PARTY
David Martínez came into tonight's final needing one more title to hold the PBA record on his own. He didn't get it. Cho Geon-hwi beat him 4–3 to win the NH NongHyup Card PBA Championship, and it went to the seventh set.
- Set scores (Cho first): 7–15, 15–14, 15–6, 4–15, 15–4, 7–15, 11–6
- The turning point: Cho was 1–0 down in sets and 13–14 behind in the second when he played a bank shot. Banks count double in the PBA, so it won him the set and levelled the match. He took the third 15–6 to go in front.
- The decider: Martínez had come back twice, winning the fourth 15–4 and the sixth 15–7. In the seventh Cho scored five in his third inning to lead 6–0. Martínez came back at him, but Cho stayed in front and won it 11–6.
What it means: It's Cho's fourth PBA title and his second of the season, after he won the opening event. Sports Hankook report that he's the only player, man or woman, to win twice this season. The ₩100 million first prize takes his season earnings to ₩216 million, so he's still clear at the top of the money list. Martínez stays level with Frédéric Caudron on eight titles. He was also runner-up at the last event, so that's two finals in a row he's lost.
My take: Martínez averaged 2.607 in this morning's semi, so you'd have backed him to pull away. Cho didn't let him. He lost the first set, lost the fourth 15–4, and still came back each time. He's 2–1 up on Martínez now in their three meetings this year, and two of those came in the last fortnight. If Cho keeps this up, he's going to be very hard to catch this season.
DOHA: THE ONE-LIFE CULL
The losers' qualification round in the Qatar 10-Ball World Cup has finished, and three well-known names went out this afternoon. Scores are from the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring, via Rack 9.
Out:
- Thorsten Hohmann lost 9–6 to Hsu Jui-an. That comes days after he turned down his automatic Team USA Mosconi Cup place, saying he had to be honest about his game.
- Aleksa Pecelj lost 9–2 to Juan Carlos Expósito, which was flagged as an upset. Earlier in the day Pecelj had beaten Abdulaziz Al Amoudi 9–6. Europe's Mosconi debutant goes home early.
- Jayson Shaw lost 9–7 to Wisam Dakkak. He had already lost 9–7 to Mohammed Baabad in the winners' qualification.
- Ralf Souquet didn't get as far as this round. He lost 9–5 to Abdelrahman Salama Nasr in losers' round one.
Survived:
- Joshua Filler beat Jan Van Lierop 9–2. That's 18–3 in racks across his two must-win matches since Alnar beat him on Sunday.
- Wojciech Szewczyk, the world 10-ball champion, beat Mi Le 9–5.
- Carlo Biado beat Mark Estiola 9–6, David Alcaide beat Lazar Kostić 9–7 and Niels Feijen beat Zein Eddin 9–1.
- Also through: Alex Pagulayan (9–1 against Abdulla Juma), Bernie Regalario (9–3), Jefrey Roda (9–6 against Raymund Faraon), Wiktor Zieliński (9–4) and Naoyuki Oi (9–5).
Last 64, Tuesday: It's single elimination from here, in races to 11. The first batch starts at 08:00 and the second at 11:00. Ties to watch:
- Filler v Ameer Ali
- Szewczyk v Juri Pisklov
- Kledio Kaci v Zieliński, with two seeds meeting this early
- Robbie Capito v Alcaide
- Fedor Gorst v Marco Teutscher
- Biado v Mateusz Śniegocki
- Feijen v Olivér Szolnoki
- Mustafa Alnar v Regalario. Alnar has already beaten Filler and Feijen this week.
HEATHROW: BLACKBALL QUARTERS TONIGHT
The WPA Blackball World Championships reach the men's singles quarter-finals tonight, from 19:00. Malta Sport report that Miguel Amato got there by beating Morocco's Bouchaib Farhat 6–3. Johan Attard, beaten in the World Grand Prix final, then went out of the singles in the last 16, losing 6–3 to England's Clint I'Anson. Malta also have three pairs in the men's doubles quarter-finals, and a pair in the Under-18 doubles quarters. Results go up on CueScore through the British Pool Federation, and the finals are on Wednesday from 15:00.
KUALA LUMPUR: OVERNIGHT
Nothing new from the Niche Cues Women's Open since lunchtime. The semi-finals are at 04:00 on Tuesday: Mink Nutcharut v Narantuya Bayarsaikhan and Reanne Evans v Bai Yulu. The best-of-nine final follows at 08:30. If you're up early, the matches are on the tour's YouTube channel.
ROUND THE CLUBS
- Texas: Lazaro Martinez III won Stop 7 of the CenTex Pool Tour at Skinny Bob's in Round Rock at the weekend. There were 82 players in the 9-ball field, and Aro Majumder (Fargo 618) was runner-up. It's his second Open title at that venue, and the tour has one stop left this season.
- Leicester: The Ultimate Pool League National Final between Rail Huggers and Breaking Bad was still going on TNT Sports when I filed this, with £10,000 for the winners. The result will be in the morning post.
- Gandia: The European Seniors Pool Championships finish with the 9-ball medal matches on Tuesday.
Talking point: Cho has won two of the five PBA events so far this season and leads the money list. Is he the man to beat now, or will Martínez be too good for him next time? Tell me below.
— Reggie Rutherford
Sources: Sports Hankook, MK Billiards, Billiards & Sports; Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring via Rack 9; Malta Sport; snooker.org; CenTex Pool Tour; Ultimate Pool Group; EPBF.
Feature image: “3-Cushion World Cup 2017-7-David Martinez (ESP)-1” by Roger Schaewe, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
