Crown Haitai PBA Championship — Quoc Nguyen does it again
David Martínez came to the KINTEX PBA Stadium in Goyang one win away from history. He leaves with a runner-up cheque. Vietnam's Nguyễn Quốc Nguyện beat the Spaniard 4–1 in Monday night's men's final, and on the evidence of the scoreline it was nowhere near as close as the occasion promised.
Set by set it went 15–10, 15–14, 15–9, 4–15, 15–7. The one that broke Martínez was the second: a six-inning slugfest that Quoc Nguyen took by a single point, with a high run of 10 in his second visit doing most of the damage. Martínez hit back hard in the fourth, taking it 15–4, but a run of six in the fifth carried Quoc Nguyen clear and he closed it out 15–7. He averaged 1.641 over the final; Martínez's 1.486 would win most nights and still wasn't enough. Set scores and averages per E-Daily and Thanh Niên.
- Second PBA title for Quoc Nguyen, 252 days after his first at the Welcome Savings Bank PBA Championship in February
- Back-to-back Vietnamese winners on the PBA tour for the first time, after a compatriot won the previous stop, the SY Championship
- 100 million won to the winner, taking his career PBA earnings past 300 million won
- Martínez adds 34 million won for second. A win would have been his ninth PBA title, taking him clear of Frédéric Caudron for the most in the league's history. That record will have to wait
It was Martínez's 11th PBA final, and he had won eight of the previous ten. He'd earned his place, too, beating Cho Geon-hwi 4–2 in the afternoon semi while Quoc Nguyen came through a 4–2 scrap with Noh Jong-hyun.
No rest for the circuit. The fifth tour stop, the NH NongHyup Card event, comes straight back to the same Goyang arena: the LPBA runs 18–25 October and the PBA 20–26 October. The LPBA draw is due on Wednesday and the PBA draw on Friday, per the PBA's own notice.
Reyes Cup week — Manila gets ready
The 2026 Roobet Reyes Cup starts on Thursday at Makati Coliseum and runs to Sunday 18 October, live on WNT TV. Francisco "Django" Bustamante's Team Asia (Carlo Biado, AJ Manas, Robbie Capito, Duong Quoc Hoang and the 17-year-old Albert Januarta) are going for a third straight title. Ralf Souquet's Rest of the World side looks their strongest yet on paper: Francisco Sánchez Ruiz, Shane Van Boening, Joshua Filler, Fedor Gorst and Aleksa Pecelj.
The interesting subplot is in the Rest of the World dressing room. Sánchez Ruiz and Filler are usually Mosconi Cup team-mates on the European side, and now they share a team with Van Boening, the man they normally line up against. Biado and Manas arrive having finished runners-up in the WPA Men's Doubles 10-Ball World Championship in Bali, where Sánchez Ruiz and David Alcaide won it for Spain.
The Philippines Open Pool Championship follows straight after, 20–24 October at Gateway Mall in Quezon City, per Spin.ph.
Live tonight — Ultimate Pool League semis
Back home, the Ultimate Pool League 2026 reaches its business end. Semi-final one is being played tonight (17:00–21:30 UK), live and on demand via Ultimate Pool. Semi-final two is next Monday, 19 October, and the National Final is on Monday 26 October.
Grassroots 9-ball — Armentia unbeaten at the 109
At the 109 Pool Room's autumn 9-ball open on Sunday, Julen Armentia went through a 32-player double-elimination field without dropping a match and beat Iñaki Rodriguez Rico 6–1 in the final. He conceded only ten racks all day. Semis: Armentia 6–0 Montxo Cossio; Rodriguez Rico 6–5 Javier Gutierrez. Scores on CueScore.
The week ahead
- Thu 15 – Sun 18 Oct: Roobet Reyes Cup, Makati Coliseum, Manila (WNT TV)
- Wed 14 Oct: LPBA draw for the NH NongHyup Card tour stop
- 17–20 Oct: Australian Women's Open snooker, Mounties, Sydney
- 17–22 Oct: World Billiards Championship, English Open and Women's World Championship, Landywood SC, Great Wyrley; World Billiards says David Causier is going for a third straight world title
- 18–25 Oct: BetVictor Northern Ireland Open, Waterfront Hall, Belfast
- 26–30 Oct: North American Heyball Open (WPA)
Feature image: Raymond Ceulemans at the table during the 1965 World Three-cushion Championship, photographed by Jan Voets for Anefo (Nationaal Archief), via Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0.
