Good afternoon from the Cueball Talk news desk. Judd Trump is out of the International Championship. Fan Zhengyi beat him 6–5 in Nanjing this morning, and the deciding frame was full of mistakes from both players. In Gandia the quarter-finals were just as unkind to the big names. Pia Filler, who won $100,000 in Doha last weekend, lost 9–5 to fellow German Ina Kaplan, and Wojciech Szewczyk went out to Spain's Iker Andoni Echeverria. All times below are GMT.
NANJING: TRUMP LOSES A NERVY DECIDER
Trump made a 63 and led 2–0. Fan, a former European Masters champion, then won four frames in a row with runs of 50, 53 and 73 to lead 4–2. Trump levelled at 4–4 with breaks of 72 and 66. Fan made 71 to go 5–4 up, and Trump forced the decider with an 81, the best break of the match. Both players missed good chances in a low-scoring last frame, and Trump paid for a fairly simple missed red. Fan took it 55–11.
Per Totally Snookered, it is Fan's first professional win over Trump in four meetings. Trump is a two-time winner of this event and has 31 ranking titles, but he has not reached a ranking final yet this season. This follows a first-match exit at the Northern Ireland Open a couple of weeks ago. Fan's last-32 opponent on Monday at 01:30 is the winner of Pang Junxu v Mina Awad.
Kyren Wilson, who won the Northern Ireland Open last weekend, nearly went out too. Liam Highfield led him 5–3 and was ahead in the ninth frame. Wilson made a 51 to take that frame on the final pink, then finished with 127 and 75 to win 6–5. Ding Junhui pulled away from Gao Yang to win 6–2, making a 132 along the way. He plays Zhang Anda next. Joe O'Connor made a 146 in the fifth frame against Yuan Sijun, the highest break of the event so far. Per Totally Snookered, it is only the 41st 146 in professional snooker. It didn't save him, though, because Yuan won 6–2.
Sunday 06:00 session results (last 64, best of 11):
- Fan Zhengyi 6–5 Judd Trump
- Kyren Wilson 6–5 Liam Highfield
- Ding Junhui 6–2 Gao Yang
- Stephen Maguire 6–3 Jackson Page
- Yuan Sijun 6–2 Joe O'Connor
- Aaron Hill 6–0 Anton Kazakov
In play now (11:30 session, live scores at about 12:20):
- Wu Yize 3–0 Robbie Williams
- Sam Craigie 3–0 Stan Moody
- Zhao Xintong 1–1 David Lilley
- Pang Junxu 1–0 Mina Awad
- Chris Wakelin 1–0 Long Zehuang
- Gary Wilson 1–0 Xu Si
- Daniel Wells 1–0 Duane Jones
GANDIA: FILLER AND SZEWCZYK BOTH GO OUT
On the women's side, Ina Kaplan beat Filler 9–5. Maria-Teresa Ropero beat Linnéa Hjalmarström 9–8, and Jiang Teng won hill-hill for the second match running, this time against Ana Gradišnik. Oliwia Zalewska beat Daria Siranchuk 9–4. Zalewska had lost to Filler on Saturday morning and came back through the one-loss side.
Women's quarter-finals (race to 9):
- Ina Kaplan 9–5 Pia Filler
- Oliwia Zalewska 9–4 Daria Siranchuk
- Maria-Teresa Ropero 9–8 Linnéa Hjalmarström
- Jiang Teng 9–8 Ana Gradišnik
On the men's side, Echeverria came through the one-loss side and has now knocked out Szewczyk 11–7. Szewczyk had flown in overnight from Doha and played his first three matches straight off the plane, per the EPBF. Felix Vogel edged Mieszko Fortunski 11–10 a few hours after Fortunski's 11–0 last-16 whitewash. Luca Menn ended the run of home player Francisco Sánchez Ruiz 11–7, and Mika van Berkel beat Fabio Rizzi by the same score.
Men's quarter-finals (race to 11):
- Iker Andoni Echeverria 11–7 Wojciech Szewczyk
- Felix Vogel 11–10 Mieszko Fortunski
- Luca Menn 11–7 Francisco Sánchez Ruiz
- Mika van Berkel 11–7 Fabio Rizzi
Semi-finals:
- 12:00, in play: Ina Kaplan v Oliwia Zalewska (Kaplan leads 2–1 at about 12:20) and Iker Andoni Echeverria v Felix Vogel (Vogel leads 3–1)
- 15:00: Maria-Teresa Ropero v Jiang Teng, and Luca Menn v Mika van Berkel
- 19:00: men's and women's finals
Spain still has a player in both semi-finals: Echeverria in the men's event and Ropero in the women's.
AROUND THE WORLD
- Blackball, EBA Festival of Pool, Glasgow: the week-long team festival at the Normandy Hotel finishes today with the play-offs. In the Masters section, Scotland B topped the round robin with nine wins from ten. Scotland B1 were second, then Wales B and Wales B1. Under the section rules, first plays fourth and second plays third, per the CueScore event page.
- Pool, World Nineball Tour: the next WNT stop is the Universal Open Ho Chi Minh, from 11 to 15 November at Sniper Billiards Club. It is a 128-player Silver ranking event with a $63,000 prize fund. Play is double elimination down to the last 64, then knockout, with a race to 13 in the final. The Universal Bangkok Open follows from 17 to 21 November.
- Amateur snooker, Pan American Championship: the continental championship runs from 4 to 8 November at Mampituba Country Club in Santa Catarina, Brazil. No draw has been published yet.
- Women's snooker: the World Women's Snooker Tour's next stop is the Irish Women's Open, from 27 to 29 November at the SBI headquarters in Carlow. There is a minimum prize fund of £17,300, plus Under-21 and Seniors side events. Entries close at noon on 20 November, per WWS. Reanne Evans comes in as the most recent winner on tour after her 5–0 final win in Kuala Lumpur.
Where to watch
- Gandia Spanish Open: Pro Billiard TV on YouTube shows Tables 1 to 3. Live scores and draws are on the EPBF website.
- International Championship, Nanjing: TNT Sports, Eurosport and HBO Max in the UK and Europe, WST Play elsewhere and Huya in China. Live scores are in the WST match centre.
Coming up
- Today, 15:00: Gandia semi-finals, Ropero v Jiang and Menn v van Berkel
- Today, 19:00: Gandia men's and women's finals
- Monday, 01:30: Nanjing last 32 starts, with Vafaei v Selby, Un-Nooh v Mark Williams and Fan v Pang or Awad
- Monday, 06:00: Ding v Zhang Anda, Robertson v Wang Xinbo and Fu v Leclercq
- Monday, 11:30: Kyren Wilson v Ryan Day, plus Zhao and Wu if they win today
- 4–8 November: Pan American Snooker Championship, Brazil
- 11–15 November: Universal Open Ho Chi Minh (WNT)
- 12–21 November: IBSF World Snooker Championships, Indore
I will be back this evening with the Gandia champions and the end of the Nanjing last 64.
Reggie Rutherford
Feature image: “Fan Zhengyi 2026 (2)” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC0 1.0.
