Wednesday evening, 28 October 2026 — Reggie Rutherford. All times GMT.
Doha: the last four is set, and it's a heavyweight card
The quarter-finals of the Qatar 10-Ball World Cup are done, and nobody can complain about the semi-final line-up. World No. 1 Wojciech Szewczyk plays Joshua Filler, and 2024 champion Daniel Macioł plays the last Filipino standing, AJ Manas. That leaves two Poles, a German and a Filipino going for the $100,000 first prize.
- Szewczyk 11–8 John Morra. The Canadian had been a quiet threat all week, but the defending champion's conqueror stayed in control.
- Filler 11–7 Miguel Salvilla. Salvilla, who knocked out Elliott Sanderson and Jerico Bonus on the way, couldn't hold the German.
- Macioł 11–6 Konrad Juszczyszyn. An all-Polish quarter, and Juszczyszyn's run (which included beating Carlo Biado) ended there.
- Manas 11–8 Hsieh Chia-chen. Hsieh had put out Fedor Gorst hill-hill in the last 16. Manas then put out Hsieh.
What stands out is how they all got here. Filler lost his very first match of the week, 9–5 to Mustafa Alnar on Sunday. Since then he's won six in a row from the one-loss side: Albalushi, Van Lierop, Ameer Ali, Szolnoki, Bongers and now Salvilla. Szewczyk took a loss too, 9–6 to Aivhan Maluto in the winners' qualification round. So did Manas, and it was Macioł who beat him, 9–4. That makes Macioł the only semi-finalist who hasn't lost a match all week, and Thursday gives Manas a rematch with him.
A correction on timings: the semis aren't being played this afternoon as I said at midday. The live scoring now lists both semi-finals (races to 11) for Thursday at 09:00 GMT. The final, a race to 13, is also on Thursday. I'd check the federation's schedule for the exact start time. The champion gets $100,000, the runner-up $40,000 and each beaten semi-finalist $15,000. It's all on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation's YouTube channel, with scores on the QBSF live scoring.
Gandia: Correia completes the clean sweep
This morning I had Henrique Correia on three seniors golds and going for a fourth. He got it. The Portuguese won the 56-plus 9-ball title at the Predator European Seniors Championships, which means he's won all four individual events in his division. The EPBF says nobody has done that before. The last two rounds were tough: 8–7 against France's Bertrand De Loriel in the quarters, and another 8–7 against Germany's Reiner Wisbitzki in the semis. Then he beat Norway's Bjørn-Erik Bergh 8–0 in the final.
"I really don't know where I get my strength," Correia told the EPBF. "I'm super-tired but when I'm on the table... I'm an animal and I want to eat it all."
- 46-plus 9-ball: Roger Lysholm (Norway) beat home player Diego Pedro Simon 8–6 in the final. He came back from an early deficit by winning five racks in a row. "I've been chasing a European Championship since the late 80s as a junior player and I finally got it," he said.
- Ladies' 9-ball: Yvonne Ullmann-Hybler beat Sweden's Louise Furberg 6–1. It's her second European seniors gold, after last year's 8-ball title.
- Men's teams: Portugal beat Spain. Correia sealed it by beating Simon 7–5 at 10-ball, after Miguel Silva had won the 8-ball rubber.
- Ladies' teams: Germany beat Norway in a one-rack 10-ball decider, which ended early on the three-foul rule.
Gandia doesn't get a rest. The Revora Spanish Open, the last Predator Euro Tour event of the year, starts there tomorrow. The men's draw breaks off at 09:00 local time (08:00 GMT) and the women start on Friday. Pro Billiard TV is streaming tables one to three on YouTube.
Heathrow: team finals day at the Blackball Worlds
The WPA Blackball World Championships finish tonight at the Thistle Heathrow. The team semi-finals were this morning and lunchtime: England B v Malta B, Malta v South Africa at both U18 and U23, and England A v Malta A in the men's A semi at 12:30. The finals were scheduled from 15:00, with the presentation and closing ceremony at 19:30. I haven't seen confirmed team results yet, so they'll be in the morning post.
Malta already have three silvers from the individual events, according to the Times of Malta: Chaylon Castaldi lost the U23 singles final 5–4 to France's Léonardo Moreira, Jake Castaldi and Dielyn Edwards lost the U18 doubles final 4–3 to South Africa, and Castaldi and Matthias Debono were runners-up in the U23 doubles. France did best of all on Tuesday's finals day. LSEI counts seven of the 16 world titles for the French, plus six silvers and nine bronzes.
Snooker: Powell leads the Q Tour race as Nanjing nears
- Q Tour Europe: after his 4–1 win over Mark Lloyd in Oberhausen on Sunday, 18-year-old Welshman Riley Powell is top of the WPBSA's Q Tour ranking list. Sanderson Lam (2nd) and Malta's Aaron Busuttil (3rd) are next, and all three event winners have Global Play-Off places. Mark Joyce is fourth and Lloyd fifth. Event 4 is in Vienna on 12–15 November, and entries close on Friday at 12:00 GMT.
- International Championship, Nanjing: it starts on Saturday, with the first session at 01:30 GMT including Jimmy White v Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy v Mitchell Mann. Neil Robertson v Jiang Jun and Barry Hawkins v Ricky Walden follow at 06:00. Wu Yize is the defending champion, the winner gets £175,000, and SnookerHQ points out that it's the last event that counts towards the UK Championship seedings. Live on TNT Sports.
Stateside: Dupuis, still going after 22 years
On the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour, Joe Dupuis won Stop 6 at Forest City Billiards in Portland, Maine without losing a match. He beat Bob Madenjian 9–5 in the final, in a field of 56. Dupuis has played the tour for 22 years. "I've got nothing but confidence, I'm shooting well," he told AZBilliards. The tour goes to the Golden Cue in Albany, New York this weekend.
Coming up (GMT)
- Thu 09:00: Doha 10-ball semi-finals, Szewczyk v Filler and Macioł v Manas (QBSF YouTube). The final follows on Thursday.
- Thu 08:00: Revora Spanish Open men's draw begins, Gandia (Pro Billiard TV).
- Sat 01:30: International Championship begins in Nanjing (TNT Sports).
- 11–15 Nov: World Nineball Tour's Universal Open in Ho Chi Minh City.
Sources: Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring (via Rack 9 Pool), Absolute Pool, EPBF and AZBilliards, Times of Malta, LSEI, WPBSA, SnookerHQ, World Nineball Tour.
Feature image: “Joshua Filler straight pool” by MisawaSakura, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
