The 2019 Beverly World Cup was a professional non-ranking

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place from 24 to 30 June 2019 at the Wuxi City Sports Park Stadium in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

, China. Hosted by the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

(WPBSA), it was the first event of the

2019–20 snooker season The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 47 events were held during the season: however, the ending of the season was highly disrupted by the ...

and the 16th edition of the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. The event featured 16 teams of 2 players representing national teams. The Chinese team of

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...

and

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005 ...

were the defending champions, having won the 2017 event defeating the English team of

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championsh ...

and

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...

4–3 in the final. Ding and Liang were on different teams for the event, due to China having two sides as hosts. The ''China B'' team of Liang and

Zhou Yuelong Zhou Yuelong (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He has been runner-up at three ranking events, the January 2020 European Masters, the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out, and the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. Career Between ...

reached the final of the event, where they met the Scotland team of

John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...

and

Stephen Maguire Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional i ...

. Higgins and Maguire won the event winning the final 4–0. This was the first win in the World Cup for Scotland since the 1996 World Cup. Liang also had the highest break of the event, a 138 in the group stage match against Switzerland.

Tournament overview

Format

The 2019 World Cup was a professional

tournament for national pairs. The defending champions were the Chinese team of

and

. The tournament used the same format as that used in 2017 World Cup. The tournament consisted of 24 national teams, with two players competing for each side. The World cup was split into a group stage and a knockout stage. The 24 teams were split into four groups of six teams. The group stages consisted of matches played as best-of-five-frames with four frames of singles, and a frame of doubles. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Knockout Stages, the order being determined by total frames won. If there is a tie in either of the first two places the following rules determine the positions: *If two teams are equal on frames won, the winner of the match between the two teams will be ranked higher. *If three or more teams are tied, a sudden-death blue ball shoot-out will be played. *Teams tied for position 3 to 6 would remain tied and share the prize money for those positions. During the knockout stage, matches were played as best-of-seven-frames. The knockout matches were scheduled as four singles matches and two doubles matches with the final frame being a singles match, with participants nominated by each team.

Prize fund

The total prize fund for the event totalled $800,000, with the winning team receiving $200,000. *Winner: $200,000 *Runner-Up: $100,000 *Semi-final: $60,000 *Quarter-final: $40,000 *Third in group: $22,500 *Fourth in group: $15,000 *Fifth in group: $10,000 *Sixth in group: $7,500 *Total: $800,000

Participants

The tournament was made up of 24 pairs of players representing individual nations. China, who had won the event in both the last three events, in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

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were allocated two places due to being hosts. Below is the list of teams and players participating.

Summary

Group stage

The group stages for the event was played from 24 to 28 June 2019. Group A featured defending champions Ding Junhui and Yan Bingtao representing China A, who won four of their five matches. The pair lost one match to the Thailand team of

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (, ; born 18 April 1985) is a Thai professional snooker player. He has won one ranking event, the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out, and finished as runner-up in the 2019 World Open. He is regarded as one of the fastest snooker playe ...

and

Noppon Saengkham Noppon Saengkham (; born 15 July 1992) is a Thai professional snooker player. Career Early years In April 2009, Saengkham lost in the final of the ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 1–5 to Zhang Anda. He went one better at the 2009 IBSF ...

. The Chinese pair finished the group as the leaders, winning 19 of the 25 total frames. In second, the Thailand team had 15 frames won ahead of Norway and Poland with 11. England won all four of five their matches in group B 3–2 to win the group with 17 frames. In the final match of the group, Iran and Hong Kong met with the winner progressing. The Hong Kong pair of Andy Lee and

Cheung Ka Wai Cheung Ka-wai also as Ka Wai Cheung (, born 17 February 1999) is a snooker player from Hong Kong. Career Amateur In 2015, Cheung won the IBSF World Under-18 Snooker Championship On 4 March 2015 it was announced that Cheung was invited to play ...

won the match 3–2 to progress. Both the Belgian team of

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the European Under-19 title at the age of 14 and went on to break Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible Theatre. He made hi ...

and Ben Mertens and the Scottish team of

and

were assured of progressing to the quarter-finals after winning their first four matches in group C. In the

dead rubber Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...

match, Belgium won 3–2 to top the group on head-to-head record. They both finished eight points ahead of the Israeli team in third. In group D, the Welsh team of Mark Williams and Ryan Day won the most frames of any team during the group stage, completing a

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used ...

over Switzerland and dropping a single frame in the other four matches. They qualified ahead of China B who completed three whitewashes of their own.

Knockout stage

The quarter-finals of the tournament were held 29 June, as the first to four frames. The China A team won their match with Hong Kong 4–0, whilst China B defeated Belgium 4–2. Scotland made an early 3–1 lead over Wales, but Williams won frame five and Wales won a frame to force a . Maguire won the frame with a break of 59 over Day. England and Thailand also went to a deciding frame, despite Noppon Saengkham missing in the sixth to win the match, with Wilson then getting a . In the decider, Jack Lisowski beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to win the match 4–3. The semi-finals and final were both played on 30 June. Defending champions China A were defeated by Scotland 1–4, whilst the China B side defeated England on a deciding frame 4–3. The final was played between Maguire and Higgins representing Scotland and

and Liang Wenbo representing China B and was refereed by Jan Scheers. The Scotland team took the match by winning the first four frames, with neither team making a break of above 50. This was Scotland's first win at the event since the 1996 World Cup also won by Higgins alongside

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

and

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...

. After the final, Maguire commented that he had "never felt nerves like that in any professional match" due to representing a team rather as a singles competitor.

Results

The following is the results from the event. Teams listed in bold denote match winners.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Final

Century breaks

There were a total of 17

century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...

s made in the tournament. The highest break was made by China B's

in the third frame of the group stage match against Switzerland. Below is a list of centuries made during the tournament, along with the team they were representing. * B – 138

* – 134 Ryan Day; 127, 110, 101 Mark Williams * – 133, 115

* A – 123

Yan Bingtao Yan Bingtao (, born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the youngest player to win the Amateur World Snooker Championship after defeating Muhammad Sajjad 8–7. Having qualified to compete on the main tour for t ...

; 104, 103

* – 117

* – 116, 113

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

* – 112

Brian Cini Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word mea ...

* – 105

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei ( fa, حسین وفایی ایوری; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first professional title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mar ...

* – 104

Jack Lisowski Jack Adam Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he is known for his atta ...

* – 104

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:2019 World Cup (Snooker) World Cup (snooker)

Snooker competitions in China Sport in Wuxi