Good evening, all. The Doha final we owed you at midday has been played, and it was over sooner than anyone expected. Below: the Qatar World Cup result, the weekend's Euro Tour action in Gandia, a final look back at the Heathrow blackball worlds, Nanjing's opening-night draw, and a word from Pankaj Advani.
Pool: Filler Does It Again in DohaQatar World Cup 10-Ball, final (race to 13): Joshua Filler 13–6 Albert James Manas
At 3–3 it looked like a proper contest. Then Filler won seven racks in a row and the final turned one-way. The German takes the $100,000 top prize and Manas, who won hill-hill against Daniel Macioł in the morning semi, gets $40,000 for his best week of the year.
- The comeback run: Filler lost his opening match 9–5 to Mustafa Alnar on the first day of the main event, so he had to win from the one-loss side. The final was his eighth straight win since then, per the results tracker kept from Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring.
- Semi-final losers: Wojciech Szewczyk (beaten 11–9 by Filler) and 2024 champion Daniel Macioł (11–10 to Manas) take $15,000 each.
- Clean sheet: a stat-keeper on the AZBilliards forum logged Filler with no misses on open shots in the final apart from one long jump shot, against six for Manas. Neither player broke well, with five successful breaks each.
- Big audience: fans watching the free QBSF stream on YouTube said the live count went past 40,000 during the final.
Reggie's take: Over two days in Doha Filler lost a race-to-9 on the opening day, then beat the world No. 1 in the semis and gave up only six racks in a $100,000 final. Manas played with real grit all week, but once Filler got in front he made almost no mistakes.
Pool: The Euro Tour's Last Stop Is Under Way in GandiaThere's no rest for the European contingent. The Revora Spanish Open, the final Predator Euro Tour event of 2026, started this morning at the Gandia Palace Hotel.
- Fields: the EPBF lists 165 men from over 30 countries. The women's event (52 players from 16 nations) starts on Friday.
- Format: 9-ball with an alternate break (two racks per breaking visit). The men play race-to-9 double elimination down to the last 32, then single elimination in races to 11.
- Doha knock-on: the EPBF notes that Euro Tour ranking leader Szewczyk will make a late start after his run in Qatar.
- Women's No. 1: Pia Filler goes in with a 230-point lead at the top of the Euro Tour rankings. She has won two of the last three events.
- Finals: both are scheduled for Sunday at 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT). Tables 1–3 are streamed on the Pro Billiard TV YouTube channel, with live scoring through the EPBF.
Blackball: Heathrow Wrap — Malta's Best-Ever WorldsThis morning we covered France's four team golds. Here are a few other results from the final two days of the WPA Blackball World Championships at the Thistle Heathrow:
- Malta: the Times of Malta calls it the island's best-ever Worlds, with six medals (four silver, two bronze). Johan Attard was runner-up to England's Garry Mehmet in the Men's World Grand Prix, Chaylon Castaldi lost 5–4 to Léonardo Moreira in the U23 singles final, and Malta took silver in both the U18 and U23 doubles.
- Bronze on the last day: Malta's Men's A team beat Wales 13–3 in the third-place match, and their U18s beat England 8–1 for bronze.
- Men's A team final: we still can't confirm the winner. French reports say France's men went out 11–13 to Wales in the quarter-finals, and Malta beat Wales for bronze, but none of the reports we've seen gives the final result. We'll report it once it's confirmed.
- France's total: French outlet LSEI counts 11 world titles and 28 medals (11 gold, 7 silver, 10 bronze). The French women, over-40s and U23s won their team events without losing a match.
Snooker: Nanjing Breaks Off Overnight FridayThe International Championship runs from 31 October to 7 November in Nanjing, with £175,000 for the winner. The withdrawals were covered at midday, so here we're looking at the first matches.
- The Whirlwind's return: 64-year-old Jimmy White plays world No. 4 Mark Selby in the last 64. The published draw lists it for 01:30 GMT on Saturday. It's White's first venue appearance of the season, after he beat Matthew Stevens 6–5 in the Leicester qualifiers.
- Hendry's view: "You can't really fancy Jimmy to beat Mark, but who knows?" he said on WST's Snooker Club podcast. He added that a best-of-11 makes an upset harder than a best-of-seven would.
- Wilson's tribute: Kyren Wilson, fresh from his 11th ranking title in Belfast, called White a "hero" of his and said: "He's just incredible and he still truly believes that he can do it and can win, which is great."
- Also in the opening session (01:30 GMT Sat): Zhou Yuelong v Liam Davies, Liu Hongyu v Louis Heathcote.
- Watch: TNT Sports and HBO Max in the UK. Live scores via WST.
English Billiards: Advani on Title No. 29Last week Pankaj Advani beat England's Rob Hall 1906–1206 in Birmingham to win the WBL World Billiards Championship, his 29th world title. A 587 break in the final session decided it. Speaking to PTI today from Sheffield, he named Novak Djokovic as his inspiration: "Djokovic is the epitome of consistency." He also said he had "hardly played billiards in the last two years" before practising four or five hours a day for the past month. Next he switches to snooker for the IBSF World Snooker Championships in Indore (12–21 November).
Coming Up- Fri–Sun: Revora Spanish Open, Gandia (men's and women's finals Sunday, 19:00 GMT), on Pro Billiard TV
- Sat 01:30 GMT: International Championship opens in Nanjing with White v Selby
- 12–21 Nov: IBSF World Snooker Championships, Indore
That's it for Thursday. Was Filler's seven-rack run the best spell of pool you've seen this year, and does anyone fancy the Whirlwind against Selby? Let us know below.
Sources: QBSF results as compiled by NCue Media and the AZBilliards forum; EPBF; Times of Malta; Malta Sport; LSEI; Bille en Tête; WST; Metro; PTI via Rediff and The Hindu.
Feature image: “Efren Reyes in the World 9-Ball Pool Championship (3)” by Doha Stadium Plus Qatar (picture by Vinod Divakaran), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.
