Saturday morning, 31 October 2026 — Good morning from the Cueball Talk desk. We owed you two heyball champions from Toronto, and we've now got both. Portugal's João Grilo is the men's North American Heyball Open champion, and Wendy Jans has added the women's title. In Gandia, both Poles who came in from Doha are safely through to today's last 32. Overnight in Nanjing, Mark Selby ended Jimmy White's run, and Liam Davies landed a blow in the race for York.
TORONTO — NORTH AMERICAN HEYBALL OPEN
Grilo beats the world No. 2 for the men's title
We couldn't name the men's finalists yesterday, and it turns out the men's event was already finished. The bracket on DigitalPool shows João Grilo beat Jordan Shepard 7–4 in a final that ended on Thursday night, Toronto time. Grilo had to scrap for it. He beat Kin-Ling Yip 7–3 in the quarter-finals, then edged Pakistan's Arfan Dad 6–5 in the semis. Shepard, whom the Polish federation describes as the world's second-ranked heyball player, beat Poland's Karol Skowerski 7–3 in the other semi-final. Skowerski, ranked eighth in the world, had been unbeaten until then, and his bronze is one of the best results a Polish player has had at this level. Grilo takes the US$10,000 first prize. Shepard gets US$6,000.
Jans adds another heyball title
Wendy Jans has won the women's title. The Polish federation (PZBil) reports her as the champion after Friday's final against Veronika Halliday. We haven't found the final score in any published source yet, so we're leaving it out for now. On her way to the final, Jans beat Poland's Katarzyna Wesołowska in the quarter-finals and Sara Rocha 5–4 in the semis. Halliday beat Eylul Kibaroglu 6–5 in her semi-final. JOY credits Jans with the 2025 Pan-American Heyball Open title as well, and the next WPA heyball stop is the Pan-American Open in Arequipa, Peru (3–8 November, per the Pan American Billiards Confederation). That makes her one to watch again next week.
GANDIA — SPANISH OPEN (PREDATOR EURO TOUR, 9-BALL)
Szewczyk and Macioł both make it through
When we signed off last night, Wojciech Szewczyk led Walter Laikre 4–3. He went on to win 9–5 and goes straight into today's last 32. Daniel Macioł finished off Roger Lysholm 9–2, so he has won 27 racks and lost four over three matches. Szewczyk's last-32 opponent is still to be drawn. His match is listed for 11:00 GMT, and every match from here on is a race to 11.
Winners' qualification: the rest of the results
- David Alcaide 9–8 Dennis Laszkowski. That's four wins from four for the home favourite, and this one went hill-hill.
- Francisco Sánchez Ruiz 9–8 Petr Urban, also hill-hill.
- Oliver Szolnoki (defending champion) 9–4 Alvaro Lamapereira Lage
- Luca Menn 9–7 Marc Bijsterbosch
- Wiktor Zielinski 9–3 Fabrizio Ingrasci
- Ivica Putnik 9–6 Szymon Kural
- Sambor Stachowiak 9–8 Mateusz Śniegocki, the third hill-hill finish of the round.
- Tomasz Kaplan 9–8 Konrad Juszczyszyn, and a fourth.
- Also through: Yuma Dörner (9–4 v Roman Hybler), Felix Vogel (9–4 v Mieszko Fortunski), Emil-Andre Gangfløt (9–4 v Karl Gnadeberg), Eric Mattern (9–1 v Pablo Garcia-Lagar), Jaroslav Polách (9–3 v Dzmitry Hryb) and Fabio Rizzi (9–2 v Gabriel Aspholm)
Out overnight
Timothei Furko, who took Szewczyk to hill-hill on Friday afternoon, is out. Norbert Zelasko beat him 9–8, then lost 9–6 to Iker Andoni Echeverria. Niklas Dohr's run ended 9–2 against Hubert Lopotko. Radosław Babica lost 9–7 to Dmytro Skorokhodov.
Losers' qualification is under way
The last-32 places that are left are being settled now. Play began at 08:00 GMT. The matches include Śniegocki v Paweł Błachowski, Juszczyszyn v Jonas Souto, Laszkowski v Ramazan Dincer, Urban v Yannick Pongers, Lysholm v Skorokhodov and Laikre v Lopotko.
GANDIA — SPANISH WOMEN'S OPEN
Pia Filler plays Oliwia Zalewska at 10:00 GMT for a place in the last 16. It's one of seven winners' qualification matches, all race to 7, at that time:
- Filler v Zalewska
- Marion Jude v Jiang Teng
- Miriam Steiner v Ina Kaplan
- Monika Zabek v Silvia López Fibla
- Kamila Khodjaeva v Daria Siranchuk
- Ana Gradišnik v Maria-Teresa Ropero
- Oktawia Brodecka v Linnéa Hjalmarström
SNOOKER — INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, NANJING
Selby ends White's adventure
Jimmy White, at 64, came through qualifying with a 6–5 win over Matthew Stevens. His run ended in the first session in Nanjing, where Mark Selby beat him 6–2 in the last 64.
Davies hurts Zhou's York hopes
This was the result that mattered most for the race to York. Liam Davies led 4–0 and beat Zhou Yuelong 6–2, making breaks of 54, 57, 52 and 86. Zhou's best was an 82. WST's projection on Friday said Zhou would overtake Jak Jones for 16th place if he reached the last 16. That can't happen now. Davies plays Ricky Walden next. Liu Hongyu beat Louis Heathcote 6–1. Michal Szubarczyk (6–4 v Chen Qien) and Liu Wenwei (6–5 v Dong Zihao) both won held-over matches, and that sets them up against Jackson Page and Judd Trump.
On the tables as we write (about 07:50 GMT)
- Neil Robertson 3–1 Jiang Jun. Robertson made a total clearance of 133 just before the interval.
- Hossein Vafaei leads Stuart Carrington 5–0.
- Ben Woollaston 3–1 Yao Pengcheng
- Ryan Day 3–2 Lei Peifan
- Ding Junhui trails Sahil Nayyar 1–2 in their held-over qualifier.
- Pang Junxu 2–2 Wang Xinzhong
ELSEWHERE
- Heathrow blackball: We still haven't seen an official result for the WPA Blackball World Championships Men's A team final. As soon as there's a reliable one, we'll report it.
- IBSF Worlds: The IBSF World Snooker Championships in Indore run from 12 to 21 November at the Yeshwant Club. The main men's event and the women's event start on 17 November, and both finals are on the 21st.
- Carom: The UMB three-cushion World Cup in Yanggu, South Korea, starts on Monday (2–8 November).
Coming up today (all times GMT)
- 08:00 — Gandia men's losers' qualification (under way)
- 10:00 — Filler v Zalewska and the rest of the women's winners' qualification, Gandia
- 11:00 — Gandia men's last 32, race to 11, with Szewczyk, Macioł, Alcaide and defending champion Szolnoki
- 11:30 — Nanjing: Jak Jones v Wang Xinbo, Wu Yize v Hammad Miah, Judd Trump v Liu Wenwei, Si Jiahui v David Grace, Jackson Page v Michal Szubarczyk
- 18:00 — Gandia women's last 16
Where to watch: In Gandia, tables 1–3 are streamed on Pro Billiard TV on YouTube, and full scores are on the EPBF draw and results pages. In the UK, Nanjing is on TNT Sports and HBO Max. Elsewhere it's on Eurosport, WST Play and Huya.
Gandia scores were taken from the EPBF draw and results pages at about 07:50 GMT. Nanjing scores marked as in play were unfinished when we checked.
Sources: DigitalPool (North American Heyball Open men's bracket), Polish Billiards Federation (PZBil), Qiaoshi/JOY Billiards, WPA athlete guide, Pan American Billiards Confederation, EPBF draw and results (men's and women's Spanish Open), Snooker Org results service, TNT Sports live blog, Zhibo8, World Snooker Tour ("The Race To York"), IBSF, UMB calendar.
Feature image: “8ball break” by Paul Goyette, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.
