Good morning. Heathrow has its world champions. Gareth Hibbott needed only seven frames of Tuesday night's men's singles final to put Christophe Lambert away, and France had a big day of its own. In Doha the Qatar 10-ball World Cup's last 16 breaks off this morning, with the defending champion drawn against the world number one.
Blackball Worlds: Hibbott is champion of the world
- Gareth Hibbott 6–1 Christophe Lambert. The Englishman was never in trouble in the WPA men's singles final, which started just after 20:00 at the Thistle London Heathrow. His run to the title went 6–3, 6–3, 6–3 through the early rounds, 6–4 over Andy Stentiford in the last 16, 6–1 over Malta's Miguel Amato in the quarters and 6–3 over England teammate Clint I'Anson in Tuesday afternoon's semi, per CueScore. Hibbott has already won the IPA world title twice, in 2016 and 2024. This one goes on the shelf beside them.[/*]
- Lambert had a long Tuesday. Hours before the singles final he and Alexandre Buscetti lost an all-French men's doubles final 4–2 to Killian Ballon and Yannick Beaufils. He had beaten Kevin Martin 6–2 in the semis. The veteran Frenchman goes home with two silver medals.[/*]
- Women's singles: Marion Jude 6–1 Sabrilla Brunet. It was an all-French final, and Jude, from Limoges, won all six of her matches. She dropped only nine frames all week, beating Emilie Carneiro 6–4 and Lynne Pinches 6–2 on the way to the final. Brunet edged Kim O'Brien 6–5 in the semis. Jude won world singles titles in Albi in 2022 and Agadir in 2023, and this is her third.[/*]
- Juniors: Leonardo Moreira beat Malta's Chaylon Castaldi 5–4 in the U23 singles final. In the U18 doubles, the Willemse/Fink pairing beat Jake Castaldi and Dielyn Edwards 4–3. We're still waiting for confirmed U23 doubles results and will bring you those once they're posted.[/*]
The championships finish today. Per the British Pool Federation, the team finals start at 15:00 and the closing ceremony is at 19:30.
Doha: Magpantay v Szewczyk heads the last 16
The Qatar World Cup 10-Ball last 16 starts at 08:00 GMT. All matches are races to 11, and the $100,000 winner's cheque is the biggest slice of a $450,000 purse.
- Jonas Magpantay v Wojciech Szewczyk. Magpantay is the defending champion. Szewczyk is the world number one and a two-time world 10-ball champion.[/*]
- Fedor Gorst v Hsieh Chia-Chen. Back in the winners' qualification round, Hsieh beat Carlo Biado 9–8.[/*]
- Joshua Filler v Tobias Bongers, an all-German tie.[/*]
- Carlo Biado v Konrad Juszczyszyn[/*]
- Dương Quốc Hoàng v Daniel Macioł. Macioł won this event in 2024.[/*]
- Rocky Tullao v John Morra[/*]
- Miguel Salvilla v Jerico Bonus and Jundel Mazon v AJ Manas. Both ties are all-Filipino, so at least two of the Philippines' seven survivors will be in the quarter-finals.[/*]
According to the published schedule, the quarter-finals are pencilled in for around 12:00 GMT and the semi-finals for about 16:00 GMT today. The race-to-13 final is on Thursday.
Gandia: Correia makes it four from four
Henrique Correia beat Norway's Bjørn-Erik Bergh 8–0 in the over-56 9-ball final at the Predator European Seniors Championships. That gave the Portuguese gold in all four of his individual disciplines this week: straight pool, 10-ball, 8-ball and now 9-ball.
Snooker: Nanjing on the horizon
- The International Championship runs from Saturday 31 October to 7 November, with Wu Yize defending the title and £175,000 for the winner.[/*]
- Three pre-qualifying ties were held over and will be played in Nanjing at 01:30 GMT on Saturday: Michał Szubarczyk v Chen Qi'en, Liu Wenwei v Dong Zihao, and Steven Hallworth v Li Jun. Jimmy White v Mark Selby is on at the same time.[/*]
- At 11:30 GMT on Saturday, Wu plays Hammad Miah, world number one Zhao Xintong plays Ian Burns, and Judd Trump plays the Liu/Dong winner. Kyren Wilson, fresh from his Belfast title, opens against Liam Highfield at 06:00 GMT on Sunday.[/*]
Where to watch
- Doha: live on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation YouTube channel, with live scoring from the federation.[/*]
- Heathrow team finals: the BPF's streaming partner channel. Team scores are on the League App and individual draws on CueScore.[/*]
- Euro Tour, Gandia: the seniors' streams were on Pro Billiard TV. Check there for the Spanish Open.[/*]
Up next / this weekend
- Today: Doha last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, plus the Heathrow team finals from 15:00.[/*]
- Thursday 29 October: the Doha final, and the Revora Spanish Open (Euro Tour, Gandia) begins with the men's event. The women start on Friday and both finish on Sunday 1 November.[/*]
- Saturday 31 October: the International Championship begins in Nanjing.[/*]
- Further ahead: the Mosconi Cup is in Orlando from 27 to 30 November, and Team USA still has to name a replacement for Thorsten Hohmann. The PBA and LPBA return with their sixth tour stop from 21 to 29 November.[/*]
We'll have the Doha last-16 and quarter-final results at midday, plus the Heathrow team-final results tonight.
Feature image: “Blackball 01” by 0x010C, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
