News Manas Wins Hill-Hill to Meet Filler in the Doha Final — Murphy and Brecel Join Hawkins Out of Nanjing; O'Donoghue Keeps His Nenagh Crown

The last day in Doha has already produced two very tight semi-finals. Joshua Filler beat world champion Wojciech Szewczyk 11–9, and Albert James Manas beat Daniel Macioł 11–10 in a deciding rack, so there will be no all-Polish final. The snooker side of the week has had a bad morning: Shaun Murphy and Luca Brecel have joined Barry Hawkins in pulling out of the International Championship in Nanjing before it has even started.

Doha 10-ball: Filler v Manas for $100,000
Both semi-finals were races to 11 and were played side by side at the Ezdan Palace Hotel from 09:00 GMT. Results are from the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation's live scoring.

• Joshua Filler 11–9 Wojciech Szewczyk. Szewczyk had not let an opponent reach nine racks in the knockout stage. He beat Szymon Kural 11–4, the defending champion Jonas Magpantay 11–5 and John Morra 11–8. Filler got to nine and then won the two racks he needed. The German lost his first match of the week to Mustafa Alnar and has come all the way through from the one-loss side to reach the final.
• Albert James Manas 11–10 Daniel Macioł. This was a rematch from the qualifying stage, when Macioł, the 2024 champion, beat Manas 9–4 and sent him to the one-loss side. Manas has not lost since. This week he has beaten Mustafa Alnar, Jundel Mazon and Hsieh Chia Chen, and today he won a deciding rack to reach the final.

The Philippines had seven players in the last 16, and Manas is the only one left. He now plays for the title. The final is a race to 13. The winner gets $100,000 and the runner-up $40,000, while Szewczyk and Macioł take $15,000 each. The live-score schedule lists the final for 14:30 GMT, a little later than the 17:00 Doha time (14:00 GMT) previously advertised, so check before you settle in. Coverage is on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation's YouTube channel.

Nanjing: three withdrawals before a ball is struck
World Snooker Tour confirmed this morning that Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins and Luca Brecel have all withdrawn from the International Championship for medical reasons. In each case the opponent gets a bye to the last 32:

• Mitchell Mann was due to play Murphy on Saturday.
• Ricky Walden was due to play Hawkins on Saturday. Hawkins has not travelled because of illness.
• Thepchaiya Un-Nooh was due to play Brecel on Sunday. That would have been one of the most watchable matches of the opening round.

WST did not give a specific reason for Murphy's withdrawal. Speaking to TNT Sports at the Northern Ireland Open earlier this month, he said tendinitis had been "the big thing" and that he had barely practised since Shenzhen. Wu Yize defends the title, and Zhao Xintong, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and John Higgins are all still in the draw. Play starts in the early hours of Saturday UK time, and the final, worth £175,000 to the winner, is on Saturday 7 November. Nanjing is the last event that can change the top-16 seedings for York, so three byes could make a difference in the race for those places.

Ireland: O'Donoghue retains the Nenagh Open
On the amateur scene, Brendan O'Donoghue beat Northern Ireland's Sean Gray 5–1 in Monday evening's final at the New Institute club to win the Nenagh Open for the second year running, as reported by the Nenagh Guardian. Forty-five players from four countries entered the five-day event. It is accredited by the IBSF and by Snooker & Billiards Ireland, carried a €16,400 prize pot, and was streamed on the OX Billiards YouTube channel. WST referee Desislava Bozhilova took charge of the final. O'Donoghue was fourth seed. He beat Daniel Merrigan in his semi-final, and Gray, the 11th seed, beat Darragh Gallagher in his.

O'Donoghue co-founded the event with Andy McCloskey while still competing in it. "This was our fourth competition. We've done two in America and two here in Ireland, in Nenagh. And we're learning each time," he said. He wants to grow it to 64 players, but admitted that might mean starting on a Wednesday, "and I don't know if that is financially viable for people."

Also on the wire

• Advani on Djokovic: in an interview with PTI after his World Billiards win in the Midlands, Pankaj Advani, 41, said Novak Djokovic is his model for staying at the top: "the epitome of consistency." He said his toughest match was the pre-quarter-final against Ireland's Christian Kirk, which he won "in the last 30 seconds." He is now training in Sheffield for the upcoming World Snooker Championship in Indore.
• Blackball: Malta finished the Heathrow world championships with six medals, four silver and two bronze, according to Malta Sport. The Men's A team took bronze by beating Wales 13–3. We have still not seen a confirmed result for the Men's A final itself.

Where to watch / what's on (all times GMT)

• This afternoon (listed 14:30): Doha 10-ball final, Filler v Manas, race to 13. Live on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation YouTube channel, with scores on the QBSF live scoring.
• Saturday from 01:30: the International Championship starts in Nanjing, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max in the UK.

Sources: Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring via Rack 9 Pool, Billiard News, Absolute Pool, World Snooker Tour, Metro, Nenagh Guardian, PTI via Rediff, Malta Sport.

Feature image: “Shaun Murphy 2026 (1)” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0 1.0.