Midday, Reggie here. The women’s bracket in Arequipa has finally spoken: Belgium’s Diana Khodjaeva beat South Africa’s Nicola Rossouw 5–3 to take the Pan American Heyball Open title, the result this morning’s CueScore listing would not yet confirm. The revised world rankings are out as well, and Chang Bingyu is inside the top 16 for the first time. What I still cannot give you is Cherokee’s $112,000 teams winner — that overnight score has not landed on the English-language wires — but Bolton has started to sort its last 16, and Criciuma’s tour-card semis are due any minute.
KHODJAEVA TAKES THE WOMEN’S TITLE IN AREQUIPA
CueScore now records Khodjaeva first and Rossouw second from a 51-player women’s field, and their last match on Saturday is the 5–3 that decided it. Khodjaeva, listed out of Belgium, also came through Tamami Okuda 5–4 and Sara Rocha 5–4 earlier on finals day before closing out Rossouw. The official Confederacion Panamericana de Billar page on CueScore lists her among its latest tournament winners, alongside Jordan Shepherd on the men’s side.
The WPA’s tournament preview had each champion down for USD 10,000 from a combined USD 116,000 men’s and women’s prize fund. Shepherd’s men’s final was already in this morning’s piece; this is the women’s result we were waiting on. The championships were streamed on WPALive.
CHANG BINGYU BREAKS INTO THE WORLD’S TOP 16
Totally Snookered published the updated list at 8:00am UK this morning, and SnookerHQ has the same top 16. This is not another pass over last night’s Nanjing final — it is what the prize money did to the table once Kyren Wilson’s £175,000 winner’s cheque was in.
Wilson moves up one place to eighth and swaps with Mark Williams, who drops to ninth. On the one-year list he jumps to second, behind only Mark Selby. John Higgins stays sixth on the two-year ranking but, per Totally Snookered, vaults from 79th to 12th on the one-year list after finishing runner-up.
Zhao Xintong remains world number one, ahead of Wu Yize, with Totally Snookered putting the gap at just under £49,000. There is no movement in the top seven.
The genuine shake-up sits further down. Chang Bingyu, a semi-finalist in Nanjing, rises four places and enters the top 16 for the first time in his career. Ali Carter, who did not play the International Championship, moves up to 15th and collects an automatic ticket to the UK Championship main draw in York. Mark Allen climbs to 11th, replacing Chris Wakelin, who drops to 12th after the 2024 International Championship runner-up money came off his ranking. Ding Junhui, despite a quarter-final on home soil, could not defend the ranking money from winning the title in 2024 and falls eight places to 23rd, outside the elite 16.
That top 16, provided they enter, will be the seeds for the UK Championship. Qualifying is 21–26 November; the main event runs 28 November to 6 December at York’s Barbican. Jak Jones is 17th and, per Totally Snookered, will need to win two qualifying matches at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.
- 1 Zhao Xintong
- 2 Wu Yize
- 3 Neil Robertson
- 4 Mark Selby
- 5 Judd Trump
- 6 John Higgins
- 7 Shaun Murphy
- 8 Kyren Wilson (+1)
- 9 Mark Williams (−1)
- 10 Barry Hawkins
- 11 Mark Allen (+1)
- 12 Chris Wakelin (−1)
- 13 Ronnie O’Sullivan
- 14 Xiao Guodong
- 15 Ali Carter (+1)
- 16 Chang Bingyu (+4)
CHEROKEE: STILL NO $112k TEAMS SCORE
Amigos and Rack Of Ages met for Ultimate Pool USA’s $112,000 8-ball teams title at 8pm Eastern on Saturday — 1:00am Sunday UK — at Harrah’s Cherokee. As of midday Sunday UK, Sportshorts, Billiard News and poolhall.tv have not published a final score. Sportshorts’ latest note, timed late Saturday evening, still only had the two sides reaching the final. A Sunday news page on poolhall.tv has not gone up, and DigitalPool’s public event pages did not return a readable teams bracket or result.
Until a primary source posts the winner and the score, I am not guessing at it. Sunday’s individual programme — the National Open, National Women’s Open and Junior Open — is still listed to run at Cherokee, with streams on Ultimate Pool USA and scores on DigitalPool, but I do not have verified Sunday singles results to report either.
BOLTON: TWO THROUGH TO THE LAST 16
Decision day at the IPA Amateur Series Grand Final is well under way at Royal Sports Lounge, race to 8 on the winners’ side and race to 6 in the losers’ bracket, per CueScore.
Losers’ round 4, from 10:00am UK, is complete. Among the results: Gary McLeish whitewashed Qutaiba Kanawati 6–0, Wade Morley beat Ajit Mistry 6–0, Jamie McCutcheon saw off Dan Hemphill 6–1, Gary Bullocke beat Jake Fuller 6–1, Harry Reay came through Andy Yates 6–4, Harjeet Singh edged Iain Wilson 6–5, Scott Higgins beat John Keddy 6–5, and Kevin Kirkham received a walkover from Brad Ferguson.
Winners’ qualification, from about 11:00am, has produced two confirmed last-16 places so far:
- Kyle Brown beat Josh Thomond 8–4
- Shaun Moore beat Kevin McLeod 8–4
Thomond and McLeod drop into the losers’ half. The other six winners’ qualification ties — Connor Pattie against Enrico Forgione, Scott Carpenter against Jack Park, James Kelly against Archie McCorkell, Harvey Cunnah against Anton Riley, Dawud Qadir against Scott Mackenzie, and Jordan Graham against David Markey — were still on the table just after midday UK. I am not publishing unfinished scores that will have moved by the time you read this.
Three players are already through losers’ round 5: Harry Reay beat Ryan Moore 6–1, Glen Lane beat Scott Higgins 6–4, and Jamie McCutcheon beat Gary Bullocke 6–2. The rest of that round was still being played. Losers’ qualification is listed at 12:30pm, the last 16 at 2:00pm, quarter-finals at 3:45pm, semi-finals at 5:30pm and the final at 7:00pm, all race to 8 from the last 16 onwards. There is no champion yet, and there will not be one until this evening.
CRICIUMA: SEMIS DUE AT 1:00PM UK
snooker.org still has both Pan American Open semi-finals down as not started — no frames on the board, listed for 1:00pm UK at Mampituba Country Club. They are best of seven:
- Daniel Holoyda v Jason Williams
- Claudio Menechini v Noel Rodrigues Moreira
The final is best of nine at 5:00pm UK. The winner takes a two-year World Snooker Tour card starting in 2027–28; Igor Figueiredo won that place here last year.
COMING UP
The Champion of Champions starts tomorrow at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena, live on ITV. Monday is Group One: Mark Selby against Alfie Burden, then Barry Hawkins against Chris Wakelin, from 1:00pm, with the winners meeting in a best-of-11 group final at 7:00pm. The rest of the group stage, per the official championship site, runs Tuesday to Thursday — including Shaun Murphy against Ronnie O’Sullivan and Wu Yize against Chang Bingyu on Wednesday, a handy first look at the new world number 16. Semi-finals are Friday and Saturday evenings; the best-of-19 final is next Sunday.
I’ll be back later with the Criciuma finalists, however far Bolton has got once the last 16 is drawn, and Cherokee’s $112,000 winner the moment a primary source puts a score on it.
— Reggie
Feature image: “Plaza de Armas de Arequipa, Perú” by Apugaia, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
