Afternoon all. This morning I said Reanne Evans had taken out the top two seeds in Kuala Lumpur. Make that three. She has now beaten the fourth seed as well, in the final, without dropping a frame. In Doha the first wave of the one-life last 64 is done, and the second wave was still on the tables as I wrote this.
Evans takes the title 5–0
Reanne Evans has won the Niche Cues Women's Snooker Open in Kuala Lumpur, beating Mink Nutcharut 5–0 in the best-of-nine final. A few hours after knocking out world number one Bai Yulu in the semis, the fifth seed didn't give the Thai a frame.
The frame scores from the live scoring (referee Stefan Ng) show it was closer than 5–0 sounds:
- Frame 1: 40–17
- Frame 2: 127–0, with a 59 from Evans
- Frame 3: 42–15
- Frame 4: 64–62. This was the one that settled it. Mink was two points away from getting on the board at 3–1, and Evans took it instead
- Frame 5: 69–13 to finish it off
Only one break of 50 or more in the whole match tells you it was a scrappy, tactical final. That suits Evans. Her week went like this: four group wins without losing a frame, 3–1 over Lau Yuk Fan, 3–2 over second seed Panchaya Channoi, 4–1 over top seed and defending champion Bai Yulu, then 5–0 here. She also gets a measure of revenge on the tour. Bai beat her 4–1 in the UK Women's Championship final in Leeds in September.
It's a cruel couple of weeks for Mink, who lost the Australian Women's Open final 4–3 to Ng On Yee in Sydney last Tuesday. That's two finals a week apart, and she lost both. She needed all seven frames to beat Narantuya Bayarsaikhan 4–3 in the semi this morning, after leading 3–2 when the breakfast post went up. That probably didn't help her legs going into the final. Bayarsaikhan, who beat Ng in the quarters, leaves with a semi-final, which is a very good week for her.
World Women's Snooker hadn't put out its report when I filed this, so I've no quotes yet. The next stop on the women's tour is the Irish Women's Open at the SBI Academy in Carlow, 27–29 November.
Doha: first wave done, and the seeds are getting nervous
The Qatar World Cup 10-Ball has gone single elimination, races to 11, and the 08:00 GMT session sent 16 players out for good. The pick of the results, from the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation live scoring:
- Wiktor Zielinski 11–7 Kledio Kaci. Seeds 15 and 8 met, and the young Pole went through. Remember he lost his opening match to Ruslan Chinakhov and had to come the long way round
- Joshua Filler 11–8 Ameer Ali. Filler lost first up and has now won three straight elimination matches. He gets Olivér Szolnoki next
- Olivér Szolnoki 11–5 Niels Feijen. A clean win for the Hungarian, and the Dutch veteran is out
- Jonas Magpantay 11–4 Hsu Jui-An. The defending champion is still unbeaten in this event
- Wojciech Szewczyk 11–3 Juri Pisklov. The world 10-ball champion has now won two in a row since Maluto beat him
- Jerico Bonus 11–10 Sambor Stachowiak. The tightest of the morning, settled in the deciding rack
- Also through: Alex Pagulayan (11–8 v Ali Al-Obaidli), Szymon Kural (11–9 v Jerson Cumayas), Mario He (11–6 v Alex Montpellier), Rocky Tullao (11–6 v Eklent Kaci), John Morra (11–8 v Mohamed Gamal), Walter Laikre (11–9 v Wisam Dakkak), Miguel Salvilla (11–9 v Aivhan Maluto), Elliott Sanderson (11–5 v Mohammed Baabad), Karl Gnadeberg (11–5 v Daniel Guttenberger) and Tobias Bongers (11–9 v Ruslan Chinakhov)
Sanderson's run is worth a word. The Englishman lost 9–2 to Carlo Biado in round one and has won three in a row since.
Second wave, at the time of writing (about 12:25 GMT, races to 11):
- Mateusz Śniegocki 6–5 Carlo Biado. The second seed is behind and in a fight
- Fedor Gorst 4–5 Marco Teutscher. The fourth seed is trailing too
- Robbie Capito 7–3 David Alcaide. Seeds 11 v 10, and Capito is well clear
- Francisco Sánchez Ruiz 5–2 Marlon Cañeda
- Mustafa Alnar 5–3 Bernie Regalario. The man who beat Filler on day one is in front again
- Also on: Juszczyszyn leads Kazakis 8–4, AJ Manas leads Bashar Hussain 6–2, Roda leads Alghamdi 6–2, Hsieh Chia-Chen leads Mieszko Fortuński 7–5, Grabe leads Expósito 6–4 and Mazon leads Wu Kun-Lin 5–3. Charif v Oi is level at 3–3
Last 32 ties already set (15:00 GMT, races to 11):
- Jonas Magpantay v Alex Pagulayan
- Wojciech Szewczyk v Szymon Kural. An all-Polish tie, and Kural was last year's beaten finalist
- Joshua Filler v Olivér Szolnoki
- Mario He v Rocky Tullao
- John Morra v Walter Laikre
- Miguel Salvilla v Elliott Sanderson
- Wiktor Zielinski v Jerico Bonus
- Karl Gnadeberg v Tobias Bongers
There's $100,000 for the winner, and the race-to-13 final is on Thursday 29 October.
Wilson: "by 50, I'm done"
Two days after winning the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast, Kyren Wilson has been talking about the long term. Speaking on TNT Sports, and quoted by Metro's Phil Haigh, he called Jimmy White "a hero of mine" and "the godfather of snooker". He said he had been "desperate to equal" White's tally, and that going one past him to 11 was "fantastic". He's not stopping there, either. He says he has a target he won't name, but it's "at least, if not treble what I'm on now". That's around 33, which is John Higgins territory.
What he won't do is play on into his sixties the way White has: "I'm thinking 15 years... I reckon by 50, I'm done. And then hopefully retiring somewhere warm with good beer." He'll be going for number 12 in Nanjing, where he plays Liam Highfield in the International Championship last 64.
Where to watch / what's next
- Today, 15:00 GMT: Qatar World Cup 10-Ball last 32, on the Qatar Billiard Sports Federation YouTube channel, with live scores on the federation's own scoring
- Wednesday 28 October: WPA Blackball World Championships finals day at Heathrow from 15:00, on WPA Live TV, with draws on CueScore
- Thursday 29 October: Qatar World Cup 10-Ball final, race to 13
- From 30 October: International Championship, Nanjing. The last 64 starts on 31 October, and the final is on 7 November
- 27–29 November: Irish Women's Open, Carlow
Tonight I'll have the rest of the Doha last 64, including whether Biado and Gorst survived, and the last 32 results as they come in.
Reggie
Feature image: "Snooker Titans Trophy - Reanne Evans (27689153441)" by Nuță Lucian, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.
