Wednesday evening. John Higgins was 2–1 up in Belfast this afternoon and then scored 31 points in the last three frames, as Jak Jones made back-to-back centuries and finished him off. In Manila the defending champion came within one 8-ball of going home, and at Landywood the four best players in English billiards are fighting over two places in Thursday's world final.
Belfast — Higgins goes out to Jak Jones
- Jak Jones 4–2 John Higgins: Higgins, the 7 seed, led 1–0 and 2–1 in a scrappy start with no big breaks. Then Jones took over. He made 121 and 133 to lead 3–2, and won the sixth 71–19. Frame scores per CueTracker: 32–64, 52–49, 33–62, 121–12, 133–0, 71–19. Higgins didn't make a 50 break all match. That's another former world champion gone from the Waterfront Hall, and Jones, the 2024 Crucible runner-up, is into the last 16.
- Daniel Wells 4–3 Ryan Day: the all-Welsh match was the strangest of the day. Day made four breaks over 50 (63, 55, 66 and 74) and led 3–2. Wells didn't make a single one, but he won the last two frames 72–1 and 65–1. On Monday Wells beat Barry Hawkins, and now he plays Jak Jones.
- Pang Junxu 4–3 Liam Davies: Davies led 2–0 and 3–1 with a 103 and a 69. Pang made 112 and 73 to level it at 3–3, then won the decider 81–60 with a break of 81. He plays Kyren Wilson next.
- Sam Craigie 4–3 Xu Si: Craigie made 103 in the first frame and went 3–0 up. Xu won the next three, including a 63 and a 59–57 sixth frame, but Craigie made 75 in the decider. He plays Matthew Selt.
- Mark Williams 4–2 Zhang Anda: Zhang beat Williams 5–2 at the World Grand Prix in February. This time Zhang made the most big breaks (69, 68 and 53), but Williams won the last two frames with 78 and 58 and goes through to play Luca Brecel or Martin O'Donnell.
Still on tonight (BST): Gao Yang v David Gilbert, Michael Holt v Jordan Brown and Noppon Saengkham v Scott Donaldson started at 7pm. Elliot Slessor v Jamie Jones and Luca Brecel v Martin O'Donnell follow at about 9pm. We'll have those in the morning.
Thursday's last 16 (best of seven, BST):
- 1pm: Kyren Wilson v Pang Junxu, Matthew Selt v Sam Craigie
- About 3pm: Anthony McGill v Mateusz Baranowski, Slessor or Jamie Jones v Ricky Walden
- 7pm: Gao Yang or David Gilbert v Cheung Ka Wai, Mark Williams v Brecel or O'Donnell
- About 9pm: Jak Jones v Daniel Wells, Holt or Brown v Noppon or Donaldson
Quezon City — Alcaide, one 8-ball from going out
Last year David Alcaide won the first Philippines Open. He won his first match 10–1 and then nearly lost his second 10–9. It's happened again. After beating Rodlin John Bautista 10–1 on Tuesday, he played Filipino Paul John Ortega in the last 64 with the crowd at Gateway Mall behind Ortega. Ortega got to the hill first and had the chance to win, but he twitched the 8-ball. Alcaide then ran out to win 10–9.
"It's the same as last year. My first match I won 10–1, then my second I won 10–9. Same again this year," Alcaide said, per the World Nineball Tour. "I was lucky to get the win. My opponent made a couple of bad mistakes, especially near the end when he missed the 8-ball."
- Justin Bergman 10–8 Arseni Sevastyanov: the American trailed last year's runner-up 7–3. Then he won seven of the last eight racks. "I played like I had nothing to lose," Bergman said. "Arseni finished second last year, so if I can beat him, I can beat anyone in this tournament."
- Tristan Decareza 10–7 Duong Quoc Hoang: the WNT called it the biggest upset of the event so far. On Tuesday Duong beat Aleksandar Atanasov 10–0 in 52 minutes. This time the local player knocked him out, and it ends a bad fortnight in Manila for the Vietnamese after a tough Reyes Cup with Team Asia.
- Aloysius Yapp 10–5 Rodrigo Geronimo: the world number one beat the man who whitewashed Francisco Bustamante on day one.
- Also through, per Rack 9: Johann Chua 10–5 Garcia, Robbie Capito 10–4 Navarrete, Jefrey Roda 10–7 Dennis Orcollo, and Jayson Shaw, who got past Villafuerte 10–9.
- Two of the giant-killers are out: Meynard Tipawan, who knocked out Moritz Neuhausen, lost 10–2 to Bryant Saguiped. Saldy Galliguez, who knocked out Lukas Fracasso-Verner, lost 10–9 to Antonio Lining.
The Mosconi Cup race: Thorsten Hohmann has also beaten José Alberto Delgado and is in the last 32. Rack 9 has done the maths. Tyler Styer isn't playing in Manila, so his $27,470 can't change, and Hohmann ($25,050) passes him if he reaches the last 16, which is worth $2,500. Next for Hohmann is Decareza. Fedor Gorst ($24,870) still has his second-round match against Jerico Banares to play and would need to reach the quarter-finals ($5,000) to do the same. The top three on the USA list after Saturday's final qualify automatically.
Also worth watching: Jaybee Sucal, the teenage trick-shot talent from Sarangani who took Alcaide hill-hill here last year, beat Sean Mark Malayan 10–8. His reward is the Arizona Open champion Denis Grabe at 7am BST on Thursday. Alcaide plays the winner of Skyler Woodward v Ralf Souquet at about 11am BST.
Landywood — Advani v Causier for a place in the world final
The World Billiards Championship quarter-finals were played this morning at the Landywood Snooker Club near Walsall. Per World Billiards:
- Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) beat Dhruv Sitwala (India)
- Robert Hall (England) beat Dhvaj Haria (India)
- Pankaj Advani (India) beat Sourav Kothari (India) in an all-Indian quarter-final
- David Causier (England) beat Rishabh Thakkar (India)
The semi-finals, Gilchrist v Hall and Advani v Causier, started at 4pm and were at the halfway stage at about 6.15pm. Causier is going for a third world title in a row. Hall is the man he beat 427–413 in the English Open final earlier this week. The final is on Thursday. India's Shruthi L and Sweden's Eva Palmius contested the Women's World Championship final this evening, with Shruthi trying to keep her title; we'll have the result in the morning. All of it is on the World Billiards YouTube channel.
Elsewhere
- Goyang, LPBA: the last 16 is set, and Star News reports that it includes Kim Ga-young v Han Ji-eun. Jeong Su-bin, the newest LPBA champion, has averaged 1.407 so far this week. The PBA men's last 64 is next on the NH NongHyup Card Championship schedule.
- Gandia: the European Seniors moved on to 10-ball today in the men's 46-plus, men's 56-plus and ladies' divisions, and the finals are on Friday. The team events start on Thursday. Tables 1 to 3 are on Pro Billiard TV.
- Oberhausen, Q Tour Europe: Event Three starts at Snooker Arena Germany on Thursday. The WPBSA lists 153 entries from 35 countries.
- Doha: the Qatar World Cup 10-Ball main draw is made on Friday 23rd. The last 64 is on the 26th and the final on the 29th. The Philippines has four Stage 1 qualifiers: Raymond Faraon, Mark Estiola, Marlon Caneda and Rocky Tullao.
- Heathrow: the WPA Blackball World Championships carry on at the Thistle Hotel until 28 October. Scores are on CueScore.
Where to watch
- Northern Ireland Open: TNT Sports, Eurosport, HBO Max and WST Play
- Philippines Open: WNT TV (three tables), with one table free on the Matchroom Pool YouTube channel. One Sports in the Philippines.
- World Billiards Championship final: World Billiards YouTube channel, Thursday
- European Seniors, Gandia: Pro Billiard TV
Sources: BBC Sport and CueTracker (Belfast scores); World Nineball Tour and Rack 9 (Manila); World Billiards (Landywood); Star News (Goyang); EPBF (Gandia); WPBSA (Q Tour); Qatar News Agency (Doha).
Feature image: “Jak Jones 2026 (1)” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication).
