Snooker World Cup Quarter-Finals

After a few thrills and spills on the final day, the qualifiers for the knock-out stages of the snooker world cup have been confirmed.

At different stages of their respective final group games both China A and B teams were in danger of falling at the first hurdle and not making the quarter-finals. China B were in trouble at 2-1 down to Malaysia with Brazil only needing to better their result by a frame, and they were 2-1 up against Wales at the same time. Brazil failed to take their chances in frame four and even though they won the last for a 3-2 victory, China B managed to turn things around to win 3-2. Therefore, the duo of Zhou Yuelong and Yan Bingtao go through on head to head having seen off Brazil 4-1 earlier in the group.

Meanwhile, China A faced a winner takes all match against Hong Kong with Belgium ahead of both sides and looking like qualifying. Belgium were in trouble at one stage as they faced a 3-0 deficit against the Republic of Ireland but winning the final two frames there was enough to top the group.

China A however faced a final frame decider after Liang Wenbo lost both of his singles game. In the decider Fu missed a black when in on 51 and Ding calmly cleared to send Hong Kong home and march on to the quarter-finals.

Things were much more straight forward in the other groups. Australia had to better Iran's result to qualify for the qualifiers, but that quickly became impossible as Iran cruised to a 5-0 win. That was more than enough for Hossein Vafei and Soheil Vahedi as the Australians lost 4-1 to England, just as they had against Iran the a day earlier to squander their advantage in the group.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland and Thailand led the way in Group D coming into the final day and knowing that any victory against Israel and Cyprus respectively would be enough. Scotland were the chasing side and needed to win big against India to put the pressure on, but could only manage a 3-2 win which was matched by Northern Ireland against Israel. Thailand meanwhile secured a second 5-0 whitewash in successive days to finish as group winners.

Quarter-Final Draw: 

QF 1: Wales Vs China A
QF 2: Belgium Vs China B
QF 3: England Vs Northern Ireland
QF 4: Thailand Vs Iran


The quarter-finals are pretty tough to call and evenly matched in my view. Wales were on fire in the first four games before struggling against Brazil by which time they were already through as group winners. China A nearly fell to the final day pressure, and Liang Wenbo losing both of his singles matches is a worry as they come into this game. Ryan Day will be full of confidence after his Riga win and Mark Williams was a semi-finalist that week too so they should thrive of each other and I think they may edge it.

Belgium and China B is an interesting clash. Jacobs has done a decent job so far partnering Luca Brecel and if he can continue with strong support tomorrow than Belgium have a great chance once again. China B did struggle at times during the group stages, nearly falling to the final day pressure and being thrashed by Wales in the penultimate game to leave them vulnerable. Having already beaten China A and Hong Kong in the group stages though you have to give Belgium a very good chance again here.

England and Northern Ireland is my pick of the round. Barry Hawkins and Judd Trump have been flying as they topped Group C for the loss of just three frames. However, in an easy enough group they have not really been tested thus far and that should change here. Mark Allen has been playing really well for Northern Ireland who made a couple of centuries in the group stages. They too won all five games in a much more difficult group that saw 2015 runners-up Scotland take an early bath. Joe Swail is the weaker player of the four here, but that does not mean he will fail in his two singles outings here. This match could potentially rest on the two doubles frames, with both sides finishing on a 4/5 win rate for doubles frames in the group stages, with England losing doubles against Australia and Northern Ireland losing to Scotland in the doubles.

Thailand and Iran is a tale of two sides who flourished towards the end of the group stages. The Thai duo of Thepchaiya-Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham won their final two matches with India and Cyrpus by 5-0 scorelines. That saw them top the group despite losing to second place Northern Ireland. Iran meanwhile were struggling to qualify after a 4-1 loss to England, but they recovered their deficit with Australia by beating the Aussie duo 4-1 in the penultimate match. They then ensured that Neil Robertson and Kurt Dunham had no way back by thrashing Malta 5-0 in the final game. It is difficult to judge where the key battles could be as the Thai's are a very aggressive duo, a tactic that can be very hit and miss. Neither duo is necessarily that experienced in the latter stages of big tournaments. Soheil Vahedi is a new tour pro, though did win the World Amateur Championship which will give him good experience. Hossein Vafei has really broken through in the last nine months reaching the semi's in Beijing in April as well as the Northern Irish Open quarter-finals. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has had a few semi-finals but never gone on, despite his potential, while Noppon Saengkham's best is a quarter-final in the China Open in 2016. Therefore, it is a huge match for both sets of players and may be the nerviest of the four quarter-finals.



The knock-out stage games are played as best-of-7 frames ties with frames 1 and 2 being singles, with frames 4 and 5 being the reverse singles and frames 3 and 6 being played as doubles frames. If required, the seventh and deciding frame would be played as a singles frame with the participating players being nominated by the captain's.

According to the initial World Snooker release the winner of Quarter-Final 1 should play the winner of QF 4 and the winner of QF2 should face the winner of QF3 in the semi-finals, though this has not yet be reaffirmed during the tournament as yet. The semi-finals and final are both to be played on Sunday.