Three deciders, one missed blue and a 32-year rivalry that still has some fight in it. Tuesday's afternoon session in Nanjing finished the International Championship last 16, and it did it the hard way. John Higgins beat Mark Williams 6–5, Ding Junhui got Stephen Maguire 6–5 on the colours, and Marco Fu edged 18-year-old Wang Xinbo 6–5 for his first ranking quarter-final in almost six years. Fan Zhengyi's 6–4 win over Liam Davies was the closest thing to a quiet match. Away from China, the Champion of Champions draw is out, Yanggu's qualifiers are turning into a Vietnamese story, and the men's National Shootout is on in Cherokee.
Higgins 6–5 Williams: the Class of '92 goes the distance
They first met on the circuit in 1994, per WST, and TNT Sports counts 46 previous meetings before this one. Williams had the better of the first session and led 3–1 at the interval with a 94 in there. Higgins then won four in a row, with runs of 52, 53 and 60, and took the eighth on the black to go 5–3 up. Williams wasn't done. Breaks of 66 and 76, the two best of the match, forced a decider. Higgins controlled that one and Williams offered his hand once he needed more than a couple of snookers.
- It was Higgins' 24th win over Williams, according to TNT Sports' live coverage, and his 159th ranking-event quarter-final, per Totally Snookered.
- WST pointed out that Higgins came into the event 79th on the one-year list. This is his first ranking quarter-final of the season.
- Williams gave us both ends of the highlight reel: a masse escape that WST says even Higgins stopped to admire, and a jump-shot miscue that TNT Sports captioned "He will be absolutely fuming about that".
- Afterwards Higgins told WST he thinks this is the second-hardest tournament to win on the tour. He won it in 2015.
Ding 6–5 Maguire: a double kiss, a missed blue and a punch of the table
Ding needed the colours to get past Zhang Anda on Monday, and he needed them again here. He made 56 and 76 to go 2–0 up, then Maguire won four frames on the bounce with 107 and 105 among them to lead 4–2. Ding answered with 50 and 109 to level at 4–4. Maguire made 76 to go one from victory, and Ding took the tenth to force the decider.
Maguire went well ahead in the last frame, but Ding picked off the reds around the black and got himself back into it. Then he played safe on the blue and got a horrible double kiss that left Maguire a straightforward blue into the middle. Maguire missed it. Ding nudged the blue into the green pocket, put the pink away and punched the table, and the Nanjing crowd loved it.
- Ding won this event in 2024 and is defending that £175,000 on his ranking total, so the run matters for his top-16 place as well as his bid for a record third International Championship title (per Totally Snookered and WST).
- Next up is Kyren Wilson, who is nine matches unbeaten according to WST. Totally Snookered notes it is the only quarter-final between two top-16 players.
Fu 6–5 Wang Xinbo: welcome back, Marco
Wang Xinbo knocked out Jak Jones and Neil Robertson to get here, and he took the Hong Kong veteran all the way. Fu won the decider. It puts him in his first ranking quarter-final since January 2020, per Totally Snookered. Fu lost the 2013 final of this event to Ding 10–9, and now he gets Higgins. It's a hard draw, but it's another week in Nanjing for a player whose last few seasons have been quiet.
Fan 6–4 Davies: winning without the big breaks
Davies made 118 and 92 to lead 3–1, and that looked like the Welshman's afternoon. Fan won the next three. They swapped frames, then Fan made a 52 on the way to taking the tenth. TNT Sports noted that Fan didn't make a half-century between the first and last frames and still won 6–4. Fan knocked out Judd Trump in the last 64 and is into his first quarter-final since February 2024, per Totally Snookered. Hossein Vafaei is waiting for him.
Wednesday's quarter-finals (best of 11, times GMT)
- 06:00: Ding Junhui v Kyren Wilson
- 06:00: Fan Zhengyi v Hossein Vafaei
- 11:30: Marco Fu v John Higgins
- 11:30: Chang Bingyu v Zhao Xintong, a re-run of the Wuhan Open final (per WST)
The semi-finals are best of 17, one on Thursday and one on Friday, and the best-of-19 final is on Saturday 7 November. The champion takes £175,000.
Champion of Champions: O'Sullivan v Murphy straight away
The draw for Leicester (9–15 November, £150,000 to the winner) came out today, per SnookerHQ, and the pick of it is Shaun Murphy v Ronnie O'Sullivan, a repeat of the 2017 final that Murphy won 10–8. Each group is one day: two first-round ties, then the two winners play for a semi-final place.
- Mon 9 Nov: Mark Selby (holder) v Alfie Burden; Barry Hawkins v Chris Wakelin
- Tue 10 Nov: Neil Robertson v Panchaya Channoi (women's world champion); Judd Trump v Jak Jones
- Wed 11 Nov: Murphy v O'Sullivan; Wu Yize v Chang Bingyu
- Thu 12 Nov: Zhao Xintong v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh; Kyren Wilson v Ali Carter
Chang and Zhao meet in Nanjing tomorrow and are both in Leicester next week too.
Three-cushion: Vietnam's day in Yanggu
The second qualifying round (PPQ) of the UMB World Cup in Yanggu finished today, and 12 of the 16 group winners were from Korea, Japan or Vietnam, according to the UMB's daily report. Song Yun Do was the best of them with a 1.935 average, including a 30 in 10 innings with a high run of 10. Former world champion Ryuuji Umeda and Mexico's Javier Vera also went through. Alessio D'Agata, Daniel Sainz Pardo, Hugo Patino and Luis Aveiga all went out.
Four Vietnamese players won their groups, and the best story belonged to Nguyen Nhu Le. Vietnamese daily Thể Thao & Văn Hóa reports that he was 15–26 down to Korean youngster Kim Hyeon-woo, four points from going home, then ran a five and two fours to win 30–26. Nguyen Hoan Tat beat Kim Dae-hyun 30–29, the same Kim who made Monday's 12-run. Le Thanh Tien beat Heo Chae-won 30–5.
- The third qualifying round (PQ) is on Wednesday. Per the UMB, van Etten, Bouerdick, Löwe and Kostistansky are among the players coming in. Vietnam has six players at that stage.
- World No. 1 Cho Myung-woo, who is chasing a fourth World Cup win of the season, comes in at the main-draw stage later in the week. The final is on Sunday 8 November.
- All matches are streamed on Soop. Korea is nine hours ahead of GMT.
Pool: the men's National Shootout breaks in Cherokee
A day after the women's event, the men's National Shootout at the Ultimate Pool USA Grand Finals was scheduled to break at 15:00 GMT on the TV table at Harrah's Cherokee. It's a 32-player single-elimination bracket under UPL 8-ball rules on seven-foot tables, with alternate break, no jump cues and a 30-second shot clock, per BilliardNews. Scotland's Craig Waddingham is the defending champion. We haven't been able to confirm the early first-round results at the time of writing, so they'll be in tomorrow's roundup.
- Still to come tonight (GMT): Johnny Archer v Declan Brennan at 19:30, a rematch of last year's quarter-final that Brennan won. After midnight GMT there's Chris Melling v Joey Gray (01:15), Shane Van Boening v Dalton Comstock (02:45), Justin Bergman, last year's runner-up, v Chase Stumfoll (03:30) and Skyler Woodward v Eric Charlton (04:15).
- The last 16 starts at 15:00 GMT on Wednesday, and the final is scheduled for 03:30 GMT on Thursday.
- Every match is free on the Ultimate Pool USA YouTube channel.
Around the regional scene
- Spain: Julen Armentia won the Flysch Billar Bilbao Halloween 9-ball Open (24 players, 31 Oct–1 Nov), beating Ibon Fuentes in the final. Felician Farcas of CA Numancia and Miguel Saro shared third, per the Soria paper Desde Soria. Farcas also plays three-cushion for Numancia in the Spanish first division.
- USA, this week: the first Gem State Diamond Classic in Pocatello, Idaho, started today and runs to Sunday ($42,750 purse across 8-ball, 9-ball, 10-ball and scotch doubles). The SkyDancer $25,000-added MPA event in Belcourt, North Dakota, starts Wednesday, and the Mississippi 9-Ball Classic in Jackson ($10,000 guaranteed added) is Friday to Sunday.
Where to watch
- Nanjing: TNT Sports and HBO Max in the UK and Ireland, Eurosport and HBO Max across most of mainland Europe, and WST Play everywhere else. Live scores in the WST app and on CueTracker.
- Yanggu three-cushion: streamed on Soop, with results on the UMB site and Five & Six.
- National Shootout: free on the Ultimate Pool USA YouTube channel, with the bracket on DigitalPool.
Looking ahead
- Wednesday: Nanjing quarter-finals from 06:00 GMT, the Shootout last 16 to the final in Cherokee, and the Yanggu PQ round.
- Thursday to Saturday: International Championship semi-finals and final. The Yanggu main draw starts later in the week, with the final on Sunday.
- Next week: Champion of Champions in Leicester (9–15 Nov), the World Nineball Tour's Universal Open Ho Chi Minh (11–15 Nov, $63,000) and the IBSF World Snooker Championships in Indore, India (12–21 Nov).
Who's your money on for Nanjing now, the in-form Chang Bingyu or a Higgins and Fu nostalgia run? Let us know below.
Feature image: “John Higgins Masters 2026 2” by BennyOnTheLoose, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
