Zheng snatches the first ¥2m of the Golden Nine season
Morning from London. Our lead this morning comes from Sichuan, a story we didn't get to over the weekend and should have. Zheng Xiaohuai has won the opening stop of the new Duya Legends Golden Nine season in Qianwei, beating Zhao Ruliang in the final for a ¥2 million (yuan) champion's cheque.
Chengdu Business Daily says he won it in the final minute. Zheng was gracious about it afterwards: "Xiaoliang played better than me overall today. Maybe I was just a bit luckier." (my translation) WPA, which backs the series, has not published a final score, and I haven't found one from a source I'd trust, so you won't get one from me.
The scale is the real story. Per WPA, 802 players from 28 countries and regions entered at the Blue Gem Arena, playing for a ¥5.149 million prize fund. The 2026–27 Duya Legends season has four ranking stops, each paying ¥2 million to the winner, and a Grand Final with a ¥10 million top prize. This circuit deserves a lot more airtime on our side of the world.
Ahmedabad opens today: who India are banking on
The Commonwealth Cue Sports Championships start today at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex. Players arrive and check in today, the athletes' meeting is at 16:30 local and the opening ceremony at 17:30 local (12:00 and 13:00 BST). Per the WCBS athlete guide, the last 16 is on Thursday, the quarters and semis on Friday, and the finals and closing ceremony on Saturday.
Some format details are worth knowing before you tune in:
- Snooker is straight knockout, best of five. The women's event is played as six-reds.
- Every match has a time clock: 100 minutes for snooker and the pool disciplines, 90 for English billiards. In snooker, any frame started after the 100 minutes is settled on a blackball shootout.
- In 10-ball and heyball the men race to 9 and the women to 7. In blackball it's 7 and 5.
- English billiards is new to the programme, with eight-player draws.
There are plenty of home names to watch, per the BSFI squad release carried by IANS. Vidya Pillai is defending the women's heyball title she won on a shootout against South Africa's Marina Jacobs in Mauritius last year. Shivam Arora, who took silver in the men's heyball behind Uganda's Ceaser Chandiga, gets a direct entry, and so does Chitra Magimairaj, a 10-ball silver medallist. India won five medals in 2025.
The most interesting entry is Anupama Ramachandran. She's the reigning IBSF women's world snooker champion, but this week she leads India in English billiards. She told The Hindu: "Obviously, I'm playing billiards, which is a little different... So, I'll have to put in the hours on the billiards table." Keerthana Pandian, the 2026 Asian women's snooker champion, leads the snooker squad.
£3,500. That's the York cut right now
Back on the main snooker tour, the next fight is about seeding rather than silverware. SnookerHQ's numbers this morning have Zhou Yuelong in 16th, the last automatic place for the UK Championship, on £358,700. Chang Bingyu is 17th on £355,200, just £3,500 behind.
It isn't only a two-man fight either. Seven players sit within roughly £55,000 of Zhou, among them Jack Lisowski, Stuart Bingham, Zhang Anda, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Jak Jones. Ding Junhui is 23rd, and his points from the 2024 International Championship are about to drop off.
Only Belfast (£100,000 to the winner) and Nanjing (£175,000) are left before the cut, so £275,000 of ranking money is still in play. Mark Selby is top seed as defending champion after beating Judd Trump 10–8 last year, and the winner at the Barbican this time takes a record £312,500.
There's a twist too. Mark Allen is 11th, but he hasn't entered or has withdrawn from everything this season. If he doesn't enter York at all, 17th place effectively becomes an automatic spot. If he enters and then pulls out, his opponent gets a bye instead. So Chang has a reason to keep an eye on the entry list.
Houston: Matchin's comeback at the Seniors One Pocket Classic
This one was too good to leave out. AzBilliards has the report from the 11th Seniors One Pocket Classic at Bogies Billiards in Houston (30 September to 4 October), open only to players who turn 65 by the end of the year. Forty entered the $3,500-added main event.
Chicago's Ike Runnels came through the winners' side without dropping a game in his early rounds and won the hot-seat match 3–0 against Jerry Matchin. Matchin came back through the one-loss side, beating Ronnie Wiseman 3–2, to set up a final played as one extended race to four.
Runnels won the first three games. Matchin then won four in a row. In game six he was 5–1 down and banked his way back level, and Runnels finally missed with the pressure on and sold out. Matchin broke the decider and closed it out 8–1. He takes $4,100, with $2,100 for Runnels and $1,400 for Wiseman in third. Wiseman also won the One Ball One Pocket mini event, beating John Di Toro 3–0.
Goyang: the big names who played late
We covered Kim Ga-young and David Martínez last night, but some of the men's 128 finished after that went out. Per Yonhap, Cho Jae-ho beat Lim Taek-dong 3–0. He was 11–14 down in the second set and won it 15–14 with two bank shots in the ninth inning. Kang Dong-koong (Huons) beat wildcard Kim Kyung-min 3–1 with high runs of 8 in the second and fourth sets, and Lee Choong-bok beat Kobayashi Hideaki 3–0.
Day two of the 128 is on today at the Kintex PBA Stadium. Daniel Sánchez opened against Ko Jun-seo at 12:30 Korean time. I don't have a confirmed result yet, so I'll leave it for lunchtime.
Riyadh: Kingdom Championship under way
Monday's Saudi Snooker Federation Cup is done (Omar Al-Ajlani beat Abdullah Al-Shammari in the final), and the Kingdom Snooker Championship got going on Tuesday evening at the Ronnie O'Sullivan Academy. It's a 24-player round-robin, race to three, and runs until Saturday. According to CueScore, cup runner-up Abdullah Al-Shammari opened with a 3–0 win in Group A and semi-finalist Ayman Al-Omari won 3–0 in Group C. Per the Saudi Press Agency, the federation picks its national squad from the overall ranking, so every frame counts.
Where to watch / What's next
- Ahmedabad (today to Sat): opening ceremony 13:00 BST today, play from Thursday. Per the organisers, selected matches will be on TV and streamed, with viewing details given out at today's athletes' meeting. Live scores for 10-ball, heyball and blackball will be on DigitalPool.
- Goyang (PBA 128, day two): Choi Sung-won v Lee Chan-hyung is in the 22:30 Korean slot (14:30 BST) on BilliardsTV. Sánchez's table was on MBC Sports+ and BilliardsTV.
- Riyadh (to Sat 10 Oct): Kingdom Snooker Championship, scores on CueScore.
- Qianwei catch-up: Golden Nine highlights are on WPA Live. WPA's report doesn't name the next Duya Legends stop yet.
- Coming up: Reyes Cup in Manila from 15 October, then the Northern Ireland Open at the Waterfront Hall from 18 October.
If you've got a local result, whether it's league, county or a weekend open, put it below and I'll chase it up for a future roundup.
— Reggie Rutherford
Sources: WPA, Chengdu Business Daily, WCBS athlete guide, IANS / BSFI, The Hindu, SnookerHQ, AzBilliards, Yonhap, CueScore, Saudi Press Agency.
Feature image: “Tibet” by Christopher Michel, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0.
