Sydney — the big names do the business on day one
The Australian Women’s Open got going at Mounties overnight, and the seeds who travelled furthest made the smoothest starts. Groups are best of three, and at the time of writing (scores per WPBSA SnookerScores and snooker.org) Ng On-yee, Reanne Evans and Mink Nutcharut had won both their matches without dropping a frame.
- Group A: Mink beat Carlie Tait 2–0 and Christine Firth 2–0. Xuejun Alice Wu matched her, beating Joey Leung and Firth, both 2–0. Only the top two go through, so Mink v Wu is the match of the group.
- Group B: Evans saw off Cathy Small and Jazmin Brown, both 2–0. Small then beat tenth seed Joey Tohme 2–1, although Tohme recovered with wins over Brown and Coco Shao.
- Group C: Ng beat Theresa Whitten and Jia Shuangyu, both 2–0.
- Group D: Anupama Ramachandran beat Heidi Royle 2–0, and Jessica Woods beat Agnes Kimura 2–0. They were partway through their own meeting when we last checked.
- Group E: Lau Yuk Fan won twice without losing a frame. Narucha Phoemphul and Kenny Chandra are both 1–0.
- Group F: The early upset. Cheung Yee Ting beat sixth seed So Man Yan 2–1, though So bounced back by beating Dianne Spring.
Worth staying up for: Evans v Tohme and Mink v Wu are both scheduled for midnight UK time tonight. Ng plays Kathy Blunden, and Phoemphul meets Lau Yuk Fan, at 4am UK on Sunday. The last 16 and everything after are best of five or longer.
Reyes Cup — Asia have to win today
Team Asia have lost six of the last seven matches at Makati Coliseum, and the Rest of the World lead 6–3 in the race to 11. With six matches on Saturday’s card, five more wins would end it a day early.
Spin.ph’s match reports read like a list of Asian mistakes: Duong Quoc Hoang missing a corner pot on the 8 in the doubles, AJ Manas scratching the cue ball on what would have been a golden break, and an open 2-ball left by Albert Januarta at 4–3 up in the nightcap. Carlo Biado’s win over Shane Van Boening, when he came from 3–1 down and finished with a break-and-run, is the one result Asia can build on.
- Day Three: team match, singles, doubles, singles, doubles, singles
- Start: noon UK time
- Watch: WNT TV, ESPN+ and One Sports
Landywood — the billiards fortnight starts this morning
The English Open fills today and tomorrow at Landywood Snooker Club near Walsall, and it’s the warm-up for the World Billiards Championship, which runs there from Monday to Thursday. David Causier holds both titles. He beat Robert Hall in last year’s English Open final and Dhruv Sitwala for the world crown. The English Open pays £1,000 to the winner. The world champion gets £7,500 and the John Roberts Trophy, and the Women’s World Championship is on Wednesday. With Geet Sethi back in the field, this weekend is a decent guide to who’s in form.
Belfast — Sunday’s opening card
The Northern Ireland Open starts tomorrow at the Waterfront Hall, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max. The first three rounds are best of seven.
- 10:00: Si Jiahui v Wang Xinbo; Xiao Guodong v Sam Craigie
- 13:00: defending champion Jack Lisowski v Huang Jiahao; Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Aaron Hill; Stephen Maguire v Anthony McGill
- 14:00: Mark Selby v Louis Heathcote; Hossein Vafaei v Matthew Selt; Gary Wilson v Mateusz Baranowski
- 19:00: Joe O’Connor v Matthew Stevens; Ali Carter v Xu Si; Neil Robertson v Ricky Walden
- 20:00: Shaun Murphy v Liam Davies (Elliot Slessor has a walkover against He Guoqiang)
Maguire v McGill is the all-Scottish tie of the day. TNT Sports points out that nobody from outside the UK has ever won this event, and Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong both lost finals here.
Further ahead
- Qatar World Cup 10-Ball: qualifying in Doha starts on Monday, and the main event runs 24–29 October for US$450,000.
- WPA Blackball World Championships: Thistle Hotel Heathrow, 20–28 October.
- IBF World Blackball Championships: Cape Town, from 23 October.
- Predator Euro Tour: the Spanish Open is in Gandia, 29 October to 1 November.
Feature image: “Reanne Evans PHC 2017-3” by Bill da Flute, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
