Wilson seals Nanjing — Ellis waits in Arequipa — Cherokee’s $112k final still to come
Kyren Wilson has won the International Championship.
The Englishman beat John Higgins 10–8 in Saturday’s final in Nanjing to collect £175,000, his 12th ranking title, and back-to-back ranking crowns after the Northern Ireland Open. He is only the 16th player in professional snooker history to win successive ranking events, and he stretches his World Snooker Tour winning run to 12 matches.
Nanjing final — the frames that settled it
Higgins, 51 and in his 61st ranking final, had been chasing history as snooker’s oldest ranking-event winner. He led 2–1 with a 141, and he took the afternoon session 5–4 after breaks of 71 and 75.
The evening session kept flipping. Wilson levelled with a 70; Higgins answered with signature counter clearances of 70 and 65; Wilson’s 130 sat in the middle of that scrap. At 7–7 after a 66 from Wilson, frame 15 turned the match: Wilson missed a black with the lead in sight, Higgins looked set to steal it, then missed the final blue. Wilson cleared the colours and piled in a 101 to go 9–7 — the first time either man had led by more than a frame.
Higgins pinched frame 17 after Wilson missed a pink from 44, but a missed black early in the 18th let Wilson in for a 61. The Warrior finished the job amid late snooker attempts from the four-time world champion.
Wilson becomes the ninth different International Championship winner and sits joint-11th on the all-time ranking-title list with Mark Allen. His path was ugly as well as golden: he was 5–2 down to Leone Crowley in qualifying, and he needed deciding frames against Liam Highfield and Oliver Lines in Nanjing before overturning a first-session deficit to Fan Zhengyi in the semi-finals.
Reporting drawn from BBC Sport, Totally Snookered, Sporting Life, and World Snooker Tour session notes.
Arequipa — Ellis already in the men’s final
At the Pan American Heyball Open in Arequipa, Stephen Ellis is through to Saturday night’s men’s final and waiting on the other semi.
That semi is live as this goes up: Wales’ Jordan Shepherd against England’s Craig Brown on the TV table, race to 7. Shepherd had already beaten fellow Brit Lee Stephens in the quarters earlier Saturday, so whichever way the semi breaks, the final is guaranteed a British presence opposite Ellis.
Scores updating live on CueScore and Bidbil; the final is listed for 18:30 local in Arequipa.
Cherokee — $112,000 teams final still on the clock
Ultimate Pool USA’s Grand Finals week at Harrah’s Cherokee still has its richest match to play. The 8-ball teams final is scheduled for 8pm Eastern tonight — 1am Sunday UK — with $112,000 to the champion from a $282,000 purse billed as the biggest top prize in league pool history.
Saturday’s semi-finals were Amigos against How You Like Me Now and Big Time Rockets against Rack Of Ages. The National Open (512 players, $20,000 first prize), National Women’s Open, and National Junior Open all keep running into Sunday.
Earlier in the week: Joven Bustamante beat Shane Van Boening 5–3 for the National 10-Ball Showdown; Tyler Styer and Margaret Fefilova-Styer took the National Pairs 6–2 over Van Boening and Chris Melling on Friday. Feature tables stream on Ultimate Pool USA’s channels; brackets update on DigitalPool. Context from Billiard News day reports.
Bolton blackball and next week’s snooker
The IPA 2026 Amateur Series Grand Final is deep into day one at the Royal Sports Lounge in Bolton — 110 players, double-to-single elimination, race to 8 — with winners’ bracket matches still rolling Saturday evening on CueScore. The professional IPA Tour Grand Final follows next weekend, 13–15 November, at the Comis Hotel.
Snooker’s calendar snaps straight back to the UK. The Sportsbet.io Champion of Champions runs Monday 9 to Sunday 15 November at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena, live on ITV in the UK. Monday’s openers: defending champion Mark Selby against Alfie Burden, and Barry Hawkins against Chris Wakelin. Wilson is down to meet Ali Carter in Thursday’s group stage.
Feature image: “Kyren Wilson at German Masters 2026” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC0 1.0.
