Three days after Bali, Seo Seoa has a trophy again
Morning all. We'll start with pool, and with a player who didn't take long to get over a disappointment. On Sunday Seo Seoa lost her world 9-ball title, beaten 3–1 by Chou Chieh-yu in the final in Bali. On Wednesday she was back at a national event in Korea and won it.
MK Billiards reports that Seo and Kyung Kyu-min, playing for Incheon, won the pocket 9-ball doubles at the Goseong County Cup. They beat Yu Seung-woo and Kim Hye-rim of Daejeon 7–2 in the final. It wasn't as easy as that sounds. The final was level at 3–2 before Kyung and Seo took four racks in a row from the sixth to close it out. The semi-final was harder still: they came from behind to beat Kwon Ho-jun and Han So-ye of South Chungcheong 7–6. Before that they'd beaten Busan's "pool couple" Ha Min-wook and Choi Sol-ip 7–2 in the quarters.
This was only their second event as a pair. Their first was the Gukto Jeongjungang Cup in March, where they lost the final 8–7 to Lee Jun-ho and Kwon Bo-mi. Seo missed the national championship in Namwon in June because she was playing abroad. Park Sung-woo and Kim Ji-hye of Gyeonggi shared third place with Kwon and Han.
Goyang: Sánchez survives, and the last champion goes out
Last night I promised you Daniel Sánchez against wildcard Ko Jun-seo, and it turned out to be a good one. Billiards & Sports and MK Billiards both have the Spaniard winning 3–1 in the PBA last 128. He was very nearly beaten, though:
- Set 1: Ko won it 15–11 in nine innings.
- Set 2: Sánchez made bank shots in back-to-back innings to go 8–0 up. Ko got back to 10–6, but Sánchez held on to win 15–12.
- Set 3: This was the one that decided it. Ko scored in each of the first five innings and led 14–7, so he needed one point to go two sets up. He had two chances at set point and missed both. Sánchez then made a run of seven to draw level at 14–14, and he got the last point in the next inning to win the set 15–14.
- Set 4: Sánchez made a six-run that included two banks and won it 15–7.
Ko is back on the top tour for the first time in about three years, and he can be pleased with how he played. Three other team captains also got through. Choi Sung-won lost the first set to Lee Chan-hyung and won the next three, and Kim Jun-tae beat Choi Kyung-jun 3–0 with an average of 1.552. Kim Young-won, who won the second tour event of the season, beat Jo Byung-wook 3–0, and Murat Naci Çoklu beat Kim Gyu-jun 3–0. Two captains went out: Eom Sang-pil lost to Oh Sung-wook and Kim Byung-ho lost to Ko Sang-woon.
The biggest upset was T. Nguyen (Nguyen Tran Thanh Tao) going out. He won the last tour event in only his second PBA tournament. Nam Sang-min, who came up from the Dream Tour this season, beat him 3–1. Every set went past ten innings, and the fourth lasted 17. Nam was 14–10 up and on match point when Nguyen made two banks in a row to draw level at 14–14. Nam then made the last point to win 15–14. He'd gone out in the last 128 in all five of his previous attempts, so this is his first last 64. He plays Park Heung-sik next.
The LPBA last 16 is under way as I write. Lee Seung-hee is the youngest player on the women's tour at 16, and her story is worth knowing before she plays Lee Mi-rae this morning. She told Billiards & Sports that she only started playing in February last year, when her mother took her to a billiard hall. It wasn't the family's hall either, even though her parents have run one since she was in kindergarten. About 14 months later she passed the LPBA tryout and left school to turn pro. Goyang is her fourth tour event. She beat Baek Min-ju in a shootout to get here.
"I really couldn't have imagined it," she said. "Being here feels so amazing." What does she want from today? "To make sure I win at least one set."
Also today, defending champion Kim Ga-young plays Kang Yu-jin, last tour event's runner-up, for the first time ever. Kim is going for her 20th LPBA title.
Reading: Moody edges Wilson in the 900
Snooker now. Stan Moody, the 20-year-old from Halifax, won the Snooker 900 Professionals Week on Wednesday night, per SnookerHQ. He beat Gary Wilson 5–4 in a best-of-nine final at the Crucible Sports and Social Club in Reading. Six players took part in the round robin, including Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day, Jimmy White and Reanne Evans. Wilson and Moody both finished on 16 points, and Wilson topped the group because his 131 was the highest break, beating Moody's 118. Moody won the final, though, and that's what counts.
It's no ranking title, but it's a good result for a young player who has had a tough start on the main tour. He didn't qualify for the Northern Ireland Open, so his next main-tour event is the International Championship in early November.
The Changsha stop of the same format is still in its breakthrough stage. That's 224 players playing best-of-seven matches, with the 224-to-112 round finishing today and the round of 112 tomorrow. I still haven't found any reliable results from the first two days, so I'm not going to name any winners. The last-64 draw is on Friday evening in China.
Hangzhou: Wu Yize's league debut, with a film star on his team
According to the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association, the new world No.2 went straight from his Shenzhen Open win into the knockout stage of the China Billiards Club League (CBL). Wu plays for Zhejiang Jiuding, whose quarter-final against the Little Panda club runs at Hangzhou's Olympic Sports Centre arena until Saturday. Shenzhen runner-up Yuan Sijun plays for Shanghai Jiushi.
Wu's first CBL appearance on Wednesday night came with a celebrity guest. The actor Xu Kai played for Jiuding in the opening "charity day" session, and Sina Sports reports he arrived in a suit and bow tie and joked that he was only "here to promote it". The league's own social account posted a clip of him making a one-cushion trick shot into the bottom pocket. Wu's singles match is on Friday.
USA: Um wins in Sacramento, Wisely in Little Rock
AzBilliards reports that Revelina Um went unbeaten through a 34-player field to win Stop #5 of The West Coast Women's Tour at Jointed Cue Billiards in Sacramento. She beat Jennifer Ai 5–2 for the hot seat and 5–2 again in the final. Ai, coming from the one-loss side, needed to win two sets. Her FargoRate is 424 to Um's 619, and she made three banks in a row in game five to get within 3–2. Um didn't drop another rack.
"My game definitely wasn't perfect, but I was able to recover from mistakes instead of letting one bad shot turn into several bad shots," Um said. Further down the field, 16-year-old Faith Overturf won six matches in a row on the one-loss side to finish fourth. She's been on the tour for four years and this was the first time she'd finished in the money. Um won the WPBA qualifying spot for this week's Bristol, Tennessee event, but a last-minute conflict means she can't go, so side-pot runner-up Lela Andrews is going instead.
Last weekend there was also a title for Matt Wisely of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, at the $3,000-added Arkansas Open, which drew 80 entrants to Krome Billiards in Little Rock. He went through the winners' side unbeaten and took the hot seat 9–7 over Shane Jones. In the true double-elimination final he lost the first set 9–7 to Ryan Robinson, then won the second 7–4 for the title.
Thailand: Boo Pattaya wins his fifth national title
Siamsport and the WPBSA SnookerScores results page both have Preecha Boonmoung, known as "Boo Pattaya", as the winner of the TAOM 9 Ball Thailand Championship in Bangkok on Tuesday. It's his fifth national title. In the race-to-13 final he beat former snooker player Phalakorn Teawsakul ("Oat Ranong"). The official SnookerScores result is 13–8, but Siamsport has it 13–9. Either way, it was level at 3–3 early on, and Preecha pulled away once he was 10–8 up. He'd beaten Passakorn Suwannawat 12–10 in the semi-final. The women's title went to Pennipa Nakjui ("Nam Pattaya"), who beat Vutthiphan Kongkaket 13–8. The total prize fund was 220,000 baht.
Around the rest of the map
- Riyadh: The Kingdom Snooker Championship groups are done. Per CueScore, Saudi Cup winner Omar Al-Ajlani won Group H with both matches won (3–1 and 3–0), and he plays Osama Abbas Ammar in tonight's last 16.
- Sydney: The Q Tour Asia-Pacific Bob Hawke Memorial Australian Open has 112 players at Mounties. The first batch of last-128 matches went through overnight. Former event winners Vinnie Calabrese and Hassan Kerde weren't in that batch.
- Ahmedabad: The Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships got going at 06:00 BST with the last 16. I haven't seen any confirmed results yet, so you'll get them at lunchtime.
- Bristol, Tennessee: I haven't found any results yet from day one of the WPBA Borderline Brunswick/Pechauer Invitational ($20,000 added).
- On this day: Ray Reardon was born on 8 October 1932. He was world champion six times and died in 2024.
Where to watch / What's next
- Goyang (today): the LPBA last 16 started at 07:00 BST with Lee Mi-rae v Lee Seung-hee. Kim Ga-young v Kang Yu-jin and Hida Orie v Kim Jin-a are also today. It's on BilliardsTV, and the PBA last 64 comes next.
- Ahmedabad (to Sat): the last 16 is today and the medal matches are on Saturday.
- Riyadh (to Sat): the last 16 is at 15:00 and 18:30 BST today. The quarter-finals are on Friday at 15:00 BST, the semis on Friday at 18:30, and the final is on Saturday at 16:00 BST.
- Changsha (to 13 Oct): the breakthrough rounds finish on Friday and the last-64 draw is at 12:30 BST. The knockout runs from Saturday to Tuesday.
- Hangzhou (Fri/Sat): Wu Yize plays his CBL singles on Friday at 12:35 BST and the mixed doubles with Fan Langtong on Saturday at 12:35 BST, according to the event's ticketing listing.
- Reading (Fri–Sun): it's World Seniors Tour event three. Craig Steadman and Ryan Day won the first two events, and Jimmy Robertson makes his seniors debut. Scores are on WPBSA SnookerScores.
- Sydney and Bristol (to Sun): Q Tour scores are on WPBSA SnookerScores, and the WPBA continues all week.
- Goseong (to Sun): the singles continue, on SOOP and IB Sports.
- Manila (15–18 Oct): the Reyes Cup, live on WNT TV.
Seo went from a world final in Bali to a doubles event at home in about 72 hours, and she won it. Should more top players turn up at domestic events like that, or is it too much to ask after a long trip? Let us know below.
— Reggie Rutherford
Sources: MK Billiards, Billiards & Sports (Korea), Dong-A Ilbo, Newsis, SnookerHQ, Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association, Sina Sports, NetEase, AzBilliards, Siamsport, WPBSA, WPBSA SnookerScores, CueScore, WCBS, IANS.
Feature image: “9-Ball Grand Prix Open 2006 LePavillon Biel” by 9-Ball Grand Prix Open, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.5.
