Morning all. Kuala Lumpur gave us the early headline while most of us were still asleep, Doha is about to get going in the single-elimination rounds, and the snooker tour is packing for Nanjing. Here's the Tuesday breakfast read.
Evans takes out the top two seeds back to back
Reanne Evans is into the final of the Niche Cues Women's Snooker Open in Kuala Lumpur after beating world number one and defending champion Bai Yulu 4–1 in the semi-finals, which began at 04:00 GMT.
The frame scores on the live scoring tell you how tight it was early on: 70–50 and 52–39 put Evans 2–0 up, Bai pinched the third 65–52, and then Evans shut the door with a 90–0 and a 59–28.
That's the number one and number two seeds gone in successive matches. Evans, seeded fifth, edged second seed Panchaya Channoi 3–2 in yesterday's quarter-finals. She hasn't been shaky all week either: four wins out of four in Group B without dropping a frame, then 3–1 over Lau Yuk Fan in the last 16.
Mink v Bayarsaikhan still on as I write
The other semi wasn't finished when this went up. Mink Nutcharut led Narantuya Bayarsaikhan 3–2 in the best-of-seven, so one more frame sends the Thai fourth seed through and Bayarsaikhan needs two. Bayarsaikhan is the Mongolian who knocked out Ng On Yee 3–1 in the quarters, so don't write her off.
The final is best of nine and was down for 08:30 GMT, though it will obviously wait for the semi to finish. It's streaming on YouTube, with frame-by-frame live scoring alongside. We'll have the result at lunchtime.
Doha: one life left for 64 players
The Qatar World Cup 10-Ball is single elimination from here. Today's last 64 is race to 11, with the first wave of 16 matches at 08:00 GMT and the second at 11:00 GMT. These are the ties I've ringed:
- Joshua Filler v Ameer Ali (08:00). Filler lost first up to Mustafa Alnar, then won 9–1 and 9–2 on the losers' side to get here
- Wojciech Szewczyk v Juri Pisklov (08:00). The world 10-ball champion also came through the back door after Aivhan Maluto beat him 9–6
- Jonas Magpantay v Hsu Jui-An (08:00). The defending champion went through unbeaten, 9–0 and 9–5
- Kledio Kaci v Wiktor Zielinski (08:00). Seeds eight and 15 meet, so one of them goes out early
- Niels Feijen v Olivér Szolnoki and Alex Pagulayan v Ali Al-Obaidli (08:00)
- Robbie Capito v David Alcaide (11:00). Seeds 11 and 10. Alcaide was beaten 9–4 by Bashar Hussain on the winners' side
- Carlo Biado v Mateusz Śniegocki (11:00). Biado had to go the long way round after Hsieh Chia-Chen beat him 9–8
- Fedor Gorst v Marco Teutscher and Francisco Sánchez Ruiz v Marlon Cañeda (11:00)
- Mustafa Alnar v Bernie Regalario (11:00). Alnar is the man who beat Filler on day one and is unbeaten so far
Venom makes it a double in Philadelphia
This one's a bit different but deserves a mention. Full results from the WPA Artistic Pool & Freestyle World Championships, played earlier this month at Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, landed yesterday. France's Florian "Venom" Kohler won the Artistic Pool world title for the third year running, beating Steve Markle in the final, and then won the first ever WPA Freestyle World Championship by beating Tim Chin in the final.
- Artistic Pool podium: Kohler, Markle, with Wayne Parker and Brian Pauly in the bronze positions
- Freestyle podium: Kohler, Chin, with Abram Diaz and Jamie Moody in the bronze positions
- Kohler also topped the Trick & Fancy (39/40) and Stroke (40/40) disciplines, and Wayne Smith from North Wales was perfect in Draw with 40/40
Rankings after Belfast
SnookerHQ has the updated lists after Kyren Wilson's Northern Ireland Open win. He stays ninth in the official rankings but jumps to 15th on the provisional Race to the Crucible list, back inside the automatic Sheffield places. He also leads the Home Nations bonus race on £113,200, ahead of Ali Carter.
- Neil Robertson and Mark Selby both move above Judd Trump, who drops to fifth. Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize stay first and second
- Losing finalist Jak Jones climbs six places to 18th
- Sam Craigie goes up to 66th after his semi-final run, and Scott Donaldson moves up to 59th
- Ding Junhui is the one to watch. He has to defend his 2024 International Championship points this week, and without them SnookerHQ has him provisionally down at 24th
Nanjing next
The International Championship gets going in Nanjing this weekend. Local wildcards play held-over ties for the right to face Jackson Page, Fan Zhengyi and Judd Trump, and Pang Junxu meets a wildcard to decide Mina Awad's opponent. The last 64 starts on 31 October, and the draw has a few tasty ties: Jimmy White v Mark Selby, Liam Highfield v Kyren Wilson and Barry Hawkins v Ricky Walden. The final is best of 19 on Saturday 7 November, with £175,000 for the winner. It'll be on the usual WST broadcasters, with live scores widely available.
Blackball worlds reach finals eve
At Heathrow, the WPA Blackball World Championships had the doubles semi-finals last night. Finals day is tomorrow (Wednesday 28 October) from 15:00, with the closing ceremony at 19:30. Streams are on WPA Live TV, and singles and Grand Prix draws are on CueScore. I'll have the medal winners once they're confirmed.
Coming up
- Today: KL women's final (from around 08:30 GMT), plus the Doha last 64 at 08:00 and 11:00 GMT and the last 32 to follow
- Wednesday: Blackball World Championships finals day at Heathrow
- Thursday: Qatar World Cup 10-Ball final
- From the weekend: International Championship, Nanjing
- PBA and LPBA: the sixth tour of the Korean season is 21–29 November, per the players' association calendar
Back at lunchtime with the KL champion and the first wave of Doha results.
Reggie
Feature image: "Reanne Evans PHC 2017-3" by Bill da Flute, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
