In 2018, championships were held across three continents to determine the best players in major

cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

, including

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

, and

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team ...

. While these are mostly single player sports, some matches and tournaments are held as either doubles or as team events. The snooker season runs between May and April; the pool and billiards seasons run through the calendar year. Four men's adult world championships were held in 2018, Mark Williams won the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927, it ...

Joshua Filler Joshua Filler (born 2 October 1997) is a German pool player from Bönen, Germany. In 2018 Filler defeated Carlo Biado 13–10 to win the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. The same year he was the youngest player to win the China Open and ...

holding the

WPA World Nine-ball Championship The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual professional nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1990. The championship is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Spor ...

, Sourav Kothari the World Billiards Championship, and

Dick Jaspers Dingeman Jacobus Johannes "Dick" Jaspers (pronounced yas-pers) (born 23 July 1965) is a Dutch professional carom billiards player who specializes in the three-cushion event. Early life Jaspers started playing billiards when he was three years ...

winning the UMB World Three-cushion Championship. Three women's world championships were also held, with

Han Yu Han Yu (; 76825 December 824), courtesy name Tuizhi (), and commonly known by his posthumous name Han Wengong (韓文公), was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty who significantly influenced the devel ...

winning the

WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship The WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship is an annual Pool tournament in the discipline of Nine-ball. The most successful player is Allison Fisher Allison Fisher (born 24 February 1968) is an English professional pool and former professio ...

, the World Billiards Championship being won by

Emma Bonney Emma Bonney is an English world champion player of English billiards, and snooker player. She has won the women's world billiards title a record thirteen times. Emma Bonney is the only player to be ranked number 1 in the world at both snooker ...

and

Ng On-yee Ng On-yee (; born 17 November 1990) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player who has won three IBSF World Snooker Championships and three World Women's Snooker world championships. She held the number one position in the World Women's Sn ...

winning the

World Women's Snooker Championship The World Women's Snooker Championship (formerly known as the Women's World Open Championship from 1976 to 1981 and the World Ladies Snooker Championship from 1983 to 2018) is the leading tournament on the World Women's Snooker Tour. The reigning ...

. The snooker

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * T ...

featured

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...

winning the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sulliva ...

, while the Masters was won by Mark Allen. In pool, the

Mosconi Cup The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1994 between teams representing Europe and the United States. Named after American pool player Willie Mosconi, the event is comparable to the Ryder Cup in golf and the Weber ...

was won by the US team, with

Skyler Woodward Skyler Woodward (born May 7, 1993) is an American professional pool player. At the 2017 World Cup of Pool, he was the runner up, alongside Shane Van Boening. Woodward has represented the United States each year in the Mosconi Cup since the 2015 ...

as the

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. Peter Gilchrist won seven events in billiards, while

Reanne Evans Reanne Evans (born 25 October 1985) is an English professional snooker player who competes on the World Women's Snooker Tour and the professional World Snooker Tour. She is the number one ranked player on the women's tour, and regularly featur ...

won six women's snooker events. The events below are professional and pro-am cue sports tournaments from the year of 2018, as well as select amateur snooker events used for qualification to the

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

Pool

The cue sport

encapsulates several disciplines, such as

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in profession ...

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls ...

, and

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of ...

won the

, while the

World Cup of Pool The World Cup of Pool is an annual international single-elimination tournament for doubles teams in nine-ball pool competition. The event has been dominated by the Philippines and China, with both nations winning the event on three occasions. Hi ...

was won by China. In events where there was more than one competition, (m) refers to men, (f) to female, (s) to seniors and (u21) refers to under-21 competitions.

Euro Tour

The

Euro Tour The Euro Tour is a series of professional pool (billiards), pool events set around Europe, founded in 1992, and created by the European Pocket Billiard Federation. The Tour's first event was the ''Belgium Open'', held on May 29 – 31, 1992. The ...

is a professional nine-ball series run across Europe by the European Pocket Billiard Federation. The season featured seven events, with six tournaments for each gender.

English billiards

The

season ran from August to July. Sourav Kothari and

won the World Billiards Championships for each gender.

World Billiards Open

Carom billiards

Three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each s ...

competitions overseen by the Union Mondal de Billiard (UMB)

Three-Cushion World Cup

The

Three-Cushion World Cup The Three-Cushion World Cup is an international tournament series in three-cushion billiards, which is held every year since 1986 between three and ten times a year. History The World Cup was founded in 1985 by German Werner Bayer, a carom bi ...

is an annual

three-cushion Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each su ...

series of tournaments hosted by the UMB. Seven events were held, with the overall winner being Frédéric Caudron.

Snooker

The World Snooker Tour season begins in July and ends in May. Mark Williams won his third

by defeating

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 ( ...

18–16 in the final.

also won her third Women's World Snooker Championship with a 5–0 win over

Maria Catalano Maria Catalano (born 27 February 1982) is an English snooker player. Career In the 2007 season she won the British Open and the Connie Gough National Championship. In December 2002, she was ranked number four in the world. She was ranked world ...

in the final.

World ranking

Non-ranking

Challenge Tour

The

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History ...

is a secondary non-professional snooker tour with events for invited players. Eight tournaments were played from the ten events in the 2018–19 season in 2018.

World Seniors Tour

The World Seniors Tour is an amateur series open to players aged 40 and over. There were four events in the 2018 World Seniors Tour. The World Seniors Championship was won by

Aaron Canavan Aaron Canavan (born 10 August 1975) is an amateur snooker player from Jersey. Career He was the surprise winner of the 2018 World Seniors Championship, beating Dennis Taylor along the way. He beat Patrick Wallace 4–3 in the final. He won £1 ...

Women's snooker

Amateur snooker championships

References

External links

World Pool Association Official Website

World Billiards Official Website

World Snooker Official Website
{{featured list 2018 sport-related lists Cue sports by year