Home advantage is gone. On Wednesday afternoon at Phú Thọ Indoor Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s last men and women were knocked out of the cue week’s headline events — and a clutch of world names went with them.
Saigon — host nation wiped from World 10-Ball
Dương Quốc Hoàng — better known as Hoàng “Sao” — was the final Vietnamese man left in the 2026 Iwan Simonis WPA Men’s 10-Ball World Championship. In the last-32 qualifier he took the first set 4–3 from two-time world 10-ball champion Eklent Kaçi after the Albanian misfired, then watched Kaçi seize control 4–1 and 4–0 to close 2–1 on sets (per Tuổi Trẻ / BOX Billiards and CueScore). That ended the host’s men’s run on home cloth.
On the women’s side of the same festival, Bùi Xuân Vàng blew a dream start against Taiwan’s Tzu-Chien Wei in the Poison Saigon Open 9-Ball — 4–0 up in set one, then 1–4 and a 3–3 shootout in the decider that Wei won. With both out, Vietnam has no players left in either draw.
The afternoon cull was not just local. Also gone on 23 September: Carlo Biado, David Alcaide, Konrad Juszczyszyn and Moritz Neuhausen. Men’s field is 96, race-to-4 double-to-single elim, $300,000 total / $80,000 to the champion, running through 26 September. HTV Sports streams 10:00–22:00 local; CueScore and Pro Billiard Series carry the live tables.
Leicester — Day 4 banked (Scottish Open Qual R2)
Final qualifying day at Mattioli Arena locked a long list of Edinburgh tickets before the evening session. Settled only (snooker.org / WST):
- Anthony McGill [36] 4–2 Wang Xinbo [91] — Glasgow man books Si Jiahui in December
- Liam Davies [82] 4–3 Long Zehuang [45]
- Robbie Williams [49] 4–3 Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon [92] (100 break)
- Mateusz Baranowski [81] 4–1 Ricky Walden [53]
- David Lilley [54] 4–1 Liu Wenwei [80]
- Xu Si [35] 4–2 Ng On Yee [104]
- Liam Pullen [63] 4–0 Artemijs Zizins [85]
- Fan Zhengyi [48] 4–2 David Grace [70]
- Lyu Haotian [56] 4–1 Connor Benzey [90]
- Martin O’Donnell [51] 4–2 Lan Yuhao [75]
- Matthew Selt [44] 4–1 Liam Graham [83]
- Daniel Wells [46] 4–2 Oliver Sykes [102]
Where to watch
- World 10-Ball / Poison Saigon: HTV Sports, Pro Billiard Series / CueScore
- Scottish Open quals: WST Play, HBO Max, Huya and partners
India — Anupama shifts to billiards
Reigning IBSF women’s world snooker champion Anupama Ramachandran is pointing toward English billiards for the Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships in Ahmedabad (7–10 October, Veer Savarkar Sports Complex) — a fresh India cue angle after midday’s Maharashtra junior triple crown. She’s working timing tweaks with Yasin Merchant ahead of a multi-discipline Commonwealth programme that also covers snooker, 10-ball, heyball and blackball.
Photo: Matteo Carcassi / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). File:Billiards_10_balls.jpg
