Afternoon all, Reggie here.
When I left you this morning, Kyren Wilson and Fan Zhengyi were 2–2 at the interval in Nanjing and I promised you a scrappy one. By the end of the session Fan had pulled clear to 5–3. Forty-odd minutes into the evening session, Wilson has wiped that out, and the first International Championship semi-final is level going into the business end. Over in Korea, the three-cushion qualifying is finished, and one of the greats won't be in the main draw.
NANJING: WILSON HITS BACK, 5–5
The second half of the morning belonged to Fan. A 70 had him level at the interval. He took the fifth frame, and after Wilson's 84 made it 3–3, the seventh turned on one ball. Wilson worked his way back from 51–6 down and then, in TNT Sports' words, rattled the black in the jaws of the right corner. Fan knocked it in, then signed off with a 103 to go in 5–3 up.
He didn't keep the lead for long. After the restart at 11:30 GMT, Wilson opened with a 102. In the next frame Fan missed a red to the right corner, and Wilson cleared up with another 84 to make it 5–5.
Snapshot at 12:19 GMT: 5–5, frame 11 under way, with Fan 32–1 up but having just missed a red. It's first to nine.
Wilson has won ten matches in a row and is trying to win back-to-back ranking titles after thrashing Jak Jones 9–2 in the Northern Ireland Open final. WST notes he'd be only the 16th player to do it. Fan is in just his second ranking semi-final, and the first was the 2022 European Masters, where he went on to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan for the title. Wilson leads their head-to-head 3–1, per TNT, but Fan's one win came in that European Masters run.
What's next in Nanjing
- Friday: John Higgins v Chang Bingyu, second semi-final, 06:00 and 11:30 GMT
- Saturday: final, best of 19, 06:00 and 11:30 GMT. £175,000 to the winner
YANGGU: BLOMDAHL OUT BY A POINT
The UMB three-cushion World Cup's final qualifying round, played on Thursday local time, was brutal. Per the results on Billiard Today, Torbjörn Blomdahl beat Huberney Catano 40–33 but lost to Park Su Yeong 40–39. All three players in the group finished on one win each, and it's Catano who goes through.
Elsewhere it went better for the big names:
- Peter Ceulemans lost 40–30 to Lee Jung Hee, then beat Tom Lowe 40–36 to qualify
- Roland Forthomme drew 40–40 with Ömer Karakurt and beat Le Nguyen Nhu 40–31
- Tran Quyet Chien lost to Maxime Panaia, then beat José-Maria Mas 40–17 in only 12 innings
- Jeong Sung Il had the run of the day, a 13, beating Arnim Kahofer 40–20 in 16 innings
Some main-draw groups to look out for: Cho Myung-woo v Daniel Morales, Eddy Merckx v Choi Wan Young, Dick Jaspers v Thai Hong Chiem, Marco Zanetti v Turgay Orak, Martin Horn v Tran Thanh Luc, Forthomme v Gokhan Salman and Mikael Devogelaere v Tran Quyet Chien. Cho is world No.1 and is going for a fourth World Cup win this season. Per Yonhap, nobody has done that since Jaspers in 2008. Every match is on Soop, and the final is on Sunday.
BRAZIL: FIGUEIREDO WINS THE PAN-AM SENIORS
Igor Figueiredo is the 2026 Pan-American Seniors snooker champion. According to the host club, Mampituba in Criciúma, he beat fellow Brazilian Fábio Luersen 5–1 on Tuesday and also won the high-break prize in the seniors event with a 132. Noel Rodrigues finished third and Canada's Jason Williams fourth. The club says the title gets him a place at a world championship in Sheffield in 2027. The Open event starts again today, with play from 10:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and the final on Sunday.
COMING UP
- Champion of Champions, Mattioli Arena, Leicester, 9–15 November
- World Nineball Tour Universal Open, Ho Chi Minh City, 11–15 November
- IBSF World Snooker Championships, Indore, India, 12–21 November. Men's qualifying starts on the 13th, and the men's and women's main events start on the 17th (per the WCBS)
- Q Tour Europe Event 4, Vienna, 12–15 November: 115 players from 26 countries, with Riley Powell top of the rankings (per Snooker247)
- Irish Women's Open, Carlow, 27–29 November (World Women's Snooker)
WHERE TO WATCH
Nanjing: TNT Sports, HBO Max, WST Play and Huya. Live scores via WST
Yanggu: Soop, with results from the UMB and Five & Six
I'll be back this evening with how Wilson v Fan finishes and a look ahead to Higgins v Chang.
— Reggie
Feature image: “Kyren Wilson 2026 (1)” by Andrej146, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication).
