Mina Awad defeated Charl Jonck 6-5 in the final of the 2026 All-Africa Snooker Championship to earn a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card for the first time.
The Egyptian cueist came through a field of 50 cueists in South Africa to lift the continental crown and earn professional status for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 campaigns.
Organised by the African Billiards & Snooker Confederation (ABSC), the event began with a group phase which saw Awad advance with four straight victories.
Whitewash wins over Graeme Britten and Bilal Elyas earned Awad a place in the last eight of the competition and he followed this up with defeats of Amir Al-Tahtawy (5-3) and Hesham Shawky (6-3) to reach the title match.
There, he faced South Africa’s Jonck, who had followed up victory in the Seniors competition on home soil by last defeated Six-Reds champion Abdelrahman Shahin 6-4 to move within one win of the WST.
The best-of-11 frame final was a closely-contested match with little between Awad and Jonck, but it was ultimately the Egyptian who was able to get over the line and secure an emotional victory.
In recent years African Champions have never been able to make an impact on the main Tour, many of them even giving up well before their tour card “expired”. The “gap” between the main tour standard and the current level of the African players appears to be huge. Even for overseas players who are successful it is hard to live as expats in a completely different culture and to adapt to a different life style, isolated from your family. It must be horrible if you get beat, match after match, and even worse if you are “lost” in a completely different culture and isolated, having no compatriot on tour. I’m NOT suggesting that African players should not be offered a chance but the way things are now … well, it’s not working. If there is a real ambition to develop snooker in Africa, maybe, WPBSA could “offer” those players a year of scholarship, with participation in the Q-Tour, before giving them a two years tour card. Yes, it would cost money … “investing ” usually costs money before yielding benefits.
This season there will no longer be a bonus available for players making two maximum breaks during the Triple Crown events. There will also be no bonus for making 100 centuries in a season.
These bonuses were designed to find innovative ways to reward incredible achievements which have now become a regular feature of WST events. The standard of play continues to rise, with a record 24 maximum breaks made last season.
Our congratulations go to Jackson Page, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Chang Bingyu who each earned £147,000 for winning the maximum break bonus and to Judd Trump who earned £100,000 for making over 100 centuries in 2024/25.
The high break prizes for each tournament will continue.
OK, understandable. Now, let’s see what happens… The fans love to watch a 147 but making one often involves taking more risky shots at some point when the frame is not yet won. Will the players still be willing to take those risks? Will we see some “protest 146” next season?
The 2026 Women Snooker World Championship has concluded earlier this week and its unexpected outcome has serious implications for the women representation in the main tour.
Thailand’s Panchaya Channoi has defeated Reanne Evans 6-2 to win the World Women’s Snooker Championship title for the first time in her career at the Snooker Sports Arena in Dongguan Changping, China and earn a two-year professional World Snooker Tour card from the start of the 2026/27 season.
Victory for the 18-year-old represents her first ranking event title on the World Women’s Snooker Tour and sees her become only the 16th player to have lifted the Mandy Fisher Trophy since 1976.
Known as ‘Mind’ Panchaya, she becomes the youngest world champion since Ann-Marie Farren earned the crown in 1987 and the fourth first-time champion from the past five years, joining compatriots Mink Wongharuthai and Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan, as well as China’s Bai Yulu in lifting the trophy since 2022.
Channoi made her Tour debut at the World Championship in 2019 aged just 11, winning the world under-21 title for the first time in 2025 and last year losing 4-2 to eventual champion Bai Yulu at the last 16 stage of the main competition. It was not until this season that Channoi began to compete outside of Asia for the first time, as she notably reached the semi-finals of the WSF Women’s Championship back in January.
A prodigious talent, Channoi brilliantly claimed the scalps of Bai, Mink and finally Reanne Evans this week to reach the summit of women’s snooker and also emulated the achievement of Bai Yulu in 2024 by completing the main and Under-21 world title double during the same year.
Channoi also scored the highest break of the Championship with a run of 107 in the title match and became only the second woman to compile two century breaks in the title match, emulating the feat of Evans in 2013.
The success will see her climb eight places to a career-high position of number seven in the latest WWS world rankings.
For Evans, who was appearing in her first world final since her record 12th victory in 2019, the defeat is her first final loss of her career at the blue riband event and sees her wait for an unprecedented 13th title go on.
The first ever meeting between the pair got off to an explosive start as Channoi claimed the opening frame with a milestone break of 100 which was her first ever century on the WWS Tour, becoming only the 19th player to have achieved the feat.
Channoi, however, was able to respond in impressive fashion as she compiled her second century break of the match with a tournament-high run of 107 to restore her two frame advantage.
From here, she was to add further breaks of 43 and ultimately a nerveless 59 to cross the winning line and achieve a lifelong dream of becoming world champion for the first time in her career.
New world champion Panchaya Channoi and world number two Bai Yulu will be nominated to join the professional World Snooker Tour from the start of the 2026/27 season following the conclusion of this year’s World Women’s Snooker Championship.
Thailand’s Channoi will turn professional for the first time in her career after the 18-year-old stormed to a maiden world title success which included victories against defending champion Bai, 2022 winner Mink Nutcharut and ultimately record 12-time champion Reanne Evans in the final.
Having first competed on the women’s tour at the 2019 World Championship, Channoi has competed more regularly since 2025 and will now follow in the footsteps of fellow Thais Nutcharut and 2023 world champion Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan in competing on the WST.
She will be joined by China’s Bai Yulu, who earns a professional place for the second time, having completed an initial stint on the Tour from 2024-26.
The 22-year-old won a number of matches during her first spell, most notably reaching the final qualifying round of the 2024 UK Championship, as well as having compiled a stunning break of 145 at the 2025 International Championship, the highest-ever by a female player at a WST event to date.
The pair will join OnYee Ng and Reanne Evans, who each have one year remaining on their current tour cards.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has been voted as the WPBSA Players’ Player of the Month for August after his performance in the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
Considered the ‘greatest of all time’ by most of his peers, O’Sullivan created history in Jeddah by making two maximum breaks in his semi-final match before losing out in a decider against Neil Robertson in the final.
The historic double-maximum came in his 6-3 victory over Chris Wakelin in the last four, where he also made total clearances of 142 and 134.
It was a close call with O’Sullivan securing 40% of the vote compared to 36% for Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters champion Robertson.
‘The Rocket’ succeeds the previous award winners Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire, who claimed the award in June and July respectively.
O’Sullivan said, “Thank you to all who voted for me because, as players, we all know how much we give to the game.”
Ken Doherty, WPBSA Players Chairman said: “Congratulations to Ronnie, who never ceases to amaze with his performances. What he did in Jeddah was simply incredible and he continues to raise the bar for the rest of us. It was a particularly difficult month to win the award with Neil, Kyren and Guodong all winning ranking events, so it shows how highly the players think of Ronnie’s performance in the semi-final against Chris.”
About the Award
Launched by WPBSA Players, the Players’ Player of the Month award recognises outstanding performance, as voted by fellow players. Its key aim is to honour excellence, consistency, and impact on the table, as recognised by those who understand the demands of the game best.
Each month throughout the 2025/26 season a shortlist will be compiled by an independent panel. The panel includes renowned snooker broadcasters David Hendon and Abigail Davies, sports journalist Phil Haigh and WPBSA Players Director Tian Pengfei. The shortlist will consider performances in all completed events for the corresponding month…
WPBSA Players’ Player of the Month Winners 2025/26
June – Marco Fu
July – Stephen Maguire
August – Ronnie O’Sullivan
It’s a good thing that WPBSA, through this award, recognises that it’s not “all about winning” in sport. Of course, as a sports person your goal is to win, that’s what you are out there to strive for. But the fans, the people who bought a ticket, who made the effort to actually come to the venue, to support their sport and its exponents in person rather than from the comfort of their living room, those people deserve to be entertained, they deserve to be offered something exciting, something exceptional that will stay in their memories forever. That’s why “entertainers” are important in sports and I’m glad that WPBSA recognises that importance.
Igor Figueriedo Does the Double at 2025 Pan American Snooker Championships
Igor Figueiredo defeated Fabio Anderson Luerson 5-2 to win the 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship and earn a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card.
The continental success means the Brazilian will be nominated for a fourth spell among the professional ranks having first joined the Tour in 2010.
Figueiredo was the dominant force at the Aryan Snooker Club in Sacramento, California as he won both the Open and Seniors Championship titles to earn a two-year WST tour card and qualification for the 2026 World Seniors Snooker Championship – a title he won at the iconic Crucible Theatre last year.
The 47-year-old began the event, which is organised by the Pan American Billiards & Snooker Association (PABSA), with a clean sweep of whitewash victories over fellow countryman Ricardo Bouwman Filho and American cueists Sam McGrath and Pravin Patel.
He dropped just two further frames en route to the semi-finals as he overcame Saif Ibrahim (3-0), Zia Sheik (4-1) and Jason Williams (4-1).
It was an impressive week for Brazilian snooker as the semi-final line-ups for both the Seniors and Open Championships featured all four players from the South American nation.
Three of these – Figueiredo, Luersen and Nelson Rodrigues Morreira – competed in the semi-finals of both events while they were joined by former WST professional Victor Sarkis in the Open competition.
It was Sarkis that faced Figueiredo in the last four but it was the senior man that was in dominant form as he completed yet another whitewash win to move within one victory of the title.
Luersen was his opponent in the title match after he completed a 4-2 defeat of Morreira as he looked to add to the Pan American Seniors Snooker Championship title that he had won 12 months ago.
Figueiredo proved to be too strong once again, however, as he rounded off an unforgettable week by completing a 5-2 victory to secure the title and a WST tour card.
Wether Igor will actually take his tour card remains to be seen though. He didn’t “finish” his last spell on tour and went back to Brazil before his tour card “expired”, explaining that this life abroad was too hard for him and his family. This is understandable. Brazil is too far away for making it possible for Brazilian players to return home just to spend a week-end or indeed any short period of time with their loved ones. The trip is costly and very tiring because the huge time difference. He might however decide to play in the World and Seniors World Championships, as these are “one-offs” in the season and, of course, very special.
I really do hope that he will be able to play in a few events though as he’s very entertaining and (almost) always smiling.
This is the report by WST on what happened yesterday at the 2025 ranking CLS played in Leicester:
Bingham And Slessor Dominate Groups
Stuart Bingham and Elliot Slessor both reeled off three wins out of three to reach the second phase of the BetVictor Championship League.
…
They will be among the 32 round one group winners in stage two which starts on July 18th in Leicester.
Former World Champion Bingham started Group 11 with a 3-0 win over Halim Hussain, making breaks of 83 and 102. He went on to beat Hatem Yassen 3-0 with top runs of 85 and 84, and finished the day with a 3-1 success against Antoni Kowalski, who finished second in the group having won his first two matches.
Slessor opened Group 17 with a 3-1 defeat of Mark Lloyd with a top break of 95. He then saw off Oliver Brown 3-0 and wrapped up the day with a 3-1 victory over Stan Moody, highlighted by a run of 113.
Play resumes on Monday with defending champion Ali Carter and Gary Wilson among those in action.
I have to confess that I couldn’t muster much interest for the snooker on offer yesterday, especially with Wimbledon and the Tour de France1 in progress as well. The only player I wanted to watch yesterday is Antoni Kowalski who did rather well, which pleased me.
Marco Fu has been named as the inaugural WPBSA Players’ Player of the Month by his fellow players following the launch of the new monthly award this season.
Launched by WPBSA Players, the Players’ Player of the Month award recognises outstanding performance, as voted by fellow players. Its key aim is to honour excellence, consistency, and impact on the table, as recognised by those who understand the demands of the game best.
Each month throughout the 2025/26 season a shortlist will be compiled by an independent panel. The panel includes renowned snooker broadcasters David Hendon and Abigail Davies, sports journalist Phil Haigh and WPBSA Players Director Tian Pengfei.
Fab Fu Honoured for June
Hong Kong China’s Marco Fu was selected as the inaugural Players’ Player of the Month following his successful double qualification for the final stages of the both the Wuhan and British Open tournaments which included five century breaks in the 15-frames he played across the two events.
Having received a new two-year invitational tour card at the start of the season, Fu’s first win came against world number 16 Chris Wakelin as he hit top breaks of 136, 120, 113 and 68 to book his place in Wuhan.
A repeat looked unlikely in his subsequent British Open qualifier against Stephen Maguire as he trailed 0-3, before the three-time world ranking event winner rebounded with runs of 140, 81, 104 and 54 to complete an impressive comeback and seal his place at the venue stages.
The 47-year-old won the honour, receiving 62% of the vote, ahead of England’s Reanne Evans and Louis Heathcote, who also won both of their qualification matches.
Players including David Grace, Stan Moody, Fergal Quinn and Bai Yulu were also considered for the final shortlist.
Fu said, “To be chosen as the first ever WPBSA Players Player of the Month for my performances at the qualifiers in June is a pleasant surprise indeed. The performances were a bit of a surprise too!
“To be recognised by my peers for these performances, is a real bonus to add to a solid start to the new season”.
Ken Doherty, WPBSA Players Chairman said: “Congratulations to Marco Fu on a great start to the season. Incredible performances in his opening two matches. He is, as voted by his fellow professionals, our first ever WPBSA Players Player of the Month!”
I’m not sure how long this initiative will “live” nor that it adds much to the sport, but, anyway…
Congratulations Marco Fu.
Belgium, as you may know is a country where cycling is BIG! ↩︎
The reigning World champion, Kyren Wilson, will face the vastly experienced Barry Hawkins today in the final in Berlin. Both beat a young Chinese opponent yesterday in a packed Tempodrom.
World Champion Kyren Wilson is through to the Machineseeker German Masters final, after defeating Xiao Guodong 6-2 at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
The Englishman last made it to a title match in Germany’s premier snooker event back in 2019, when he defeated David Gilbert 9-7 in a thrilling final. Wilson will now face either Barry Hawkins or Yuan Sijun in tomorrow’s final with the Brandon Parker Trophy on the line. The trophy is named in memory of Wilson’s late former manager, who was instrumental in bringing this event to Germany and instigating several tournaments throughout Europe.
It’s been an impressive first season as Crucible king for the Warrior, who has already picked up silverware. Wins over Judd Trump in the finals of the Xi’an Grand Prix and BetVictor Northern Ireland Open have already taken his title tally to two. He was runner-up to Shaun Murphy at the recent Johnstone’s Paint Masters.
Xiao’s week ends in defeat, but it marks the continuation of a tremendous season. He picked up a maiden ranking title at last year’s Wuhan Open and has now appeared in five semi-finals during the campaign.
Breaks of 88 and 100 helped Wilson charge into an early 3-0 lead this afternoon, before Xiao showed his class with 72 in the fourth to give himself hope at 3-1 heading into the mid-session.
When play resumed there were no signs of a momentum shift, with Wilson taking two on the bounce to move to the verge of victory at 5-1. Xiao kept himself in the hunt by pulling one back, but a 32-minute seventh went the way of Wilson to send him into the final of a ranking event for the 17th time. He received a rapturous ovation in front of a sell out Tempodrom crowd as he exited the arena.
Wilson said: “It feels amazing. The crowd were spectacular. The roar is so different to any other venue. I was desperate to make the one table set up this week and it is even better now I’m in the final.
“Xiao has had a fantastic season, winning his first ranking title and making the Champion of Champions final. He is having a fantastic season and beat me on the way to his first title in Wuhan. It was nice to get the win back there.
“I made it clear at the start of the week I was thinking of Brandon. You come here and people tell stories about Brandon. I put a post out at the start of the week saying that we are so grateful to him to have this event. It is great his name lives on with the trophy and I’ll be trying my absolute hardest to lift that tomorrow.“
Barry Hawkins summoned a six frame blitz to beat Yuan Sijun 6-2 and reach the final of the Machineseeker German Masters at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
The Hawk is hunting the fifth ranking title of his career so far and will go toe to toe with World Champion Kyren Wilson in tomorrow’s showpiece showdown. The pair will do battle over the best of 19 frames, with a top prize of £100,000 and the Brandon Parker Trophy on the line.
Hawkins and Wilson have a history of contesting finals on German soil. The 2019 Paul Hunter Classic title match in Furth saw Hawkins prevail, while Wilson came out on top at the same venue in 2022 to win the European Masters. A year later, Hawkins would return to Germany and pick up the European Masters crown with a win over Judd Trump in the final.
China’s Yuan bows out after the most significant tournament run of his career so far, having also made the semis of the Gibraltar Open back in 2019. Deciding frame wins over Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson this week helped him to make the final four and earn today’s appearance in front of a crowd of over 2,300 expectant German fans.
Yuan got off to a flyer when play commenced this evening, breaks of 82 and 70 saw him move 2-0 ahead. From that moment Hawkins took charge. Breaks of 89 and 54 helped him to take frames three and four to draw level at 2-2.
Tightly fought fifth and sixth frames both went to Hawkins, before back-to-back contributions of 83 allowed him to make it six on the bounce to secure a comprehensive victory.
Hawkins said: “I think he faltered towards the end a little bit. He started strongly and then when I came back at him it put him on the back foot. I tried to stay positive and tried to stay calm. I didn’t want to make silly mistakes. To get over the line quite easily, I was delighted.
“It will be an amazing occasion for me against Kyren. Those occasions have been few and far between for me lately. I won the European Masters last season and I’ve had a couple of good results since then. Hopefully I can keep doing what I’ve been doing and enjoy it.
“Winning tomorrow would be up there with the best moments of my career. I’ve got such a tough game against Kyren though. He is playing some great stuff and even when he isn’t he is so hard to beat these days. I won’t be thinking any further ahead. I’ve still got a mountain to climb.“
Meanwhile, in Morroco, Gao Yang won the 2025 WSF championship and regained a tour card
Gao Yangbeat Brian Cini 5-3 in the final of the 2025 WSF Championship to claim the biggest title of his career in Morocco and secure his return to the professional World Snooker Tour for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons.
Having previously reached the final of the Championship 12 months ago, Gao was able to go one step further in 2025 following a high-quality final to add victory in the Open Championship event to his prior success at the WSF Junior Championship in Malta five years earlier. He becomes the first player to have claimed both titles during their career and underlines his record as the most successful player ever at the World Snooker Federation Championships.
Gao’s reward will see him now rejoin the professional circuit for the first time since the end of his initial two-year spell in 2022, and further extends a run which has seen the tournament dominated by players from Asia, with five of its six stagings now won by players from the region. He follows in the footsteps of Luo Honghao (2018), Si Jiahui (2022), Ma Hailong (2023) and last year’s winner Ka Wai Cheung (2024) to lift the trophy.
The outstanding performer during the week, Gao hit a tournament-best five century breaks on his way to the title match for a second successive year, including the overall high break of 140 during his quarter-final victory against Stuart Watson.
The match would prove to be a more cagey affair on the resumption of play, with Cini notably claiming the sixth frame from behind on the colours to once again draw level at 3-3.
Ultimately, it would be Gao’s day, however, as he responded by winning the following two frames to seal victory and secure his return to the World Snooker Tour following a three-year-absence.
Gao said: “This tournament has many former professional players and so it is very hard to win. Now I have a chance to start again. I have moved to Victoria’s Snooker Academy in Sheffield and play more often against professional players like Si Jiahui, Zhang Anda and Zhao Xintong in practice which is very important. My target for the next two years is to get into the top 64.”
Held at the Radisson Blu Resort Saïdia Beach in Morocco, the sixth staging of snooker’s most prestigious amateur championships attracted approximately 250 entries from around the globe across three competitions, with around 600 matches completed across 15 days.
Victory for Gao completes a memorable fortnight in Morocco which had previously seen Ireland’s Leone Crowley and Thailand’s Mink Nutcharut claim the titles in the Junior and Women’s Championships respectively.
The World Snooker Federation would like to thank all of its partners who have supported the event, in particular Morocco Snooker and its president Mr Mourad Mahi, without whom the staging of the Championships would not have been possible.
Unfortunately, I can’t comment. I saw next to nothing of the action and it may well be the same today.
As some of you probably know already, I live in Santorini. The island itself is a “living” volcano, with the craters in the middle in the caldera. We have another volcano nearby, under water, north-east of the island, Koloumbo. Both volcanos are currently showing signs of “activity”. We had dozens of mild earthquakes over the last 48 hours. The last “seismic tremor”, about half an hour ago was on 4.8 Richter. Schools are temporary closed, gatherings in closed spaces are forbidden, access to the harbours and beaches is forbidden as well.
