Saturday evening roundup — Reggie Rutherford
Evening all. The last 32 in Ho Chi Minh City is done and the draw has a very Filipino look to it. Plus finals tonight on the Isle of Man and in Warsaw.
Ho Chi Minh City: half the field flies the same flag
Eight of the last 16 at the Universal Open are from the Philippines. Taiwan sent twelve players into the last 64 and none are left, with the last three all beaten this afternoon. Vietnam had sixteen in the last 64 and is down to one, Luong Duc Thien.
Carlo Biado led Hsieh Chia Chen 6–5 when I signed off at midday and won 10–6. Johann Chua beat Liu Ri Teng 10–7, and Indonesia's Albert Januarta beat Wang Hung Hsiang 10–6. The comeback of the session belonged to Hong Kong's Lo Ho Sum. He was 6–1 down to Michael Baoanan at 12:27 GMT and won 10–8 (all scores from the official DigitalPool bracket).
The rest of the last 32:
- Anthony Raga 10–2 Nguyen Phuong Thao, the home player who knocked out Damian John Massey
- Jonas Magpantay 10–4 Duong Quoc Hoang
- Michael Feliciano 10–8 Nguyen Anh Tuan
- Jaycee Garcia 10–5 John Vincent Vicedo
- Edward Koyongian 10–5 Robbie Capito; Punguan Hasiholan Sihombing 10–8 Andri Januarta
- Japan's Kouki Sugiyama 10–6 Alexis Ferrer
Last 16: Aloysius Yapp v James Aranas, Luong Duc Thien v Jerson Cumayas, Koyongian v Garcia, Sihombing v Lo Ho Sum, Biado v Mickey Krause, Magpantay v Albert Januarta, Chua v Raga and Feliciano v Sugiyama. Chua v Raga guarantees the Philippines a quarter-finalist, and Indonesia still has three players. The final on Sunday is a race to 13, live on WNT TV.
Isle of Man: Rees and Hibbott for the professional title
Cory Rees and Gareth Hibbott meet in the IPA Grand Final professional final at the Comis Hotel tonight. It's a race to 10 and starts at 8.30pm.
Rees beat Scott Gillespie 9–6 in the quarter-finals and then thrashed Dean Shields 9–2 in the semis. Hibbott beat Kristian Phillips 9–5 and Dan Davy 9–4 (all per CueScore). The last 16 of the IPA Open and the Ladies Open is on Sunday, with both finals at 6pm.
Warsaw: two 8-ball finals tonight
Adam Wilk has lost another 5–4 heartbreaker at the EPBF Parasport European Championships. After losing Thursday's standing 10-ball final to Marcin Kubalski, he went out of the 8-ball semi-finals this afternoon to North Macedonia's Vladimir Gjorgjieski. Gjorgjieski plays Greece's Georgios Malekkidis for gold at 7pm UK time, after Malekkidis beat Tomasz Rogóz 5–2. Malekkidis beat Gjorgjieski 5–0 in the first round on Thursday.
The wheelchair 8-ball final is Jouni Tähti v Matej Brajkovič. Both won their semis 5–4, Tähti against Stefano Di Blasio and Brajkovič against Peter Macho. The Finn already has 10-ball gold, though Harald Fink beat him 6–5 in the 9-ball this afternoon.
Brits in the 9-ball: Stephen Cartwright lost 6–5 to Wilk this morning and then beat Cvetko Vegan 6–5 on the one-loss side. Daniel Luton is unbeaten and plays Henrik Larsson at 1pm UK time on Sunday, a rematch of their 10-ball quarter-final. The 9-ball finals are scheduled for Monday (official EPBF results).
Around the tables
Indore: Six Indians have reached the last stage of the first IBSF qualifying event, where eight places in the main draw are up for grabs. Kamal Chawla beat Laxman Rawat 4–1 with breaks of 133 and 108, and he won the fourth frame 65–64 on the black. Kreishh Gurbaxani came from 2–0 down to beat Rayaan Razmi 4–2. S Shrikrishna made 81, 84 and 120 in a 4–1 win over Pushpender Singh. Piyush Kushwaha, Ranveer Duggal and Digvijay Kadian are also through. Hong Kong's Fung Kwok Wai put out Aarav Sancheti 4–0 (PTI, Times of India). The main event starts on Tuesday.
Germany: Marec Stachly retained his under-21 15-reds title at the German Championships, beating Lennart Tomei 3–1 in the final (Saxony Billiards Association).
Korea: The Huons PBA-LPBA Championship at KINTEX in Goyang runs from 21 to 29 November, the PBA has confirmed, with 100 million won for the men's winner and 40 million for the women's.
Still to come tonight
- Leicester: Shaun Murphy v Kyren Wilson, best of 11, starts at 7pm, live on ITV and ITVX. Murphy has won 12 of the last 13 frames between them, and the winner plays Chris Wakelin over two sessions on Sunday.
- Las Vegas: The Women's U.S. Amateur Championship finishes today at the Westgate. APA hadn't published a result when I checked.
- Warsaw and the Isle of Man: Both 8-ball finals at 7pm and the IPA professional final at 8.30pm. Results will be in the morning roundup.
Sources: DigitalPool official bracket, CueScore, EPBF official results, PTI, Times of India, Saxony Billiards Association, PBA, LiveSnooker. Feature image: “Philippine pool medalists KL 2017” by Primo Agatep for the Philippine News Agency, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.