The 2019 Beverly World Cup was a professional non-ranking

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

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

Wuxi Wuxi ( zh, s=无锡, p=Wúxī, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu, China. As of the 2024 census, it had a population of 7,495,000. The city lies in the southern Yangtze delta and borders Lake Tai. Notable landmarks include Lihu Park, the Mt. Lings ...

, 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. It is headquartered in Bristol, England. Founded as the Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) in ...

(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 name is ...

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

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo ( zh, s=梁文博; born 5 March 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate ...

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 15 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 Championship, ...

and

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and the current List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He is currently in ...

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 2 ...

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 from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won 33 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the List of snooker players by num ...

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 in ...

. 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 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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 players ...

and

Noppon Saengkham Noppon Saengkham (; born 15 July 1992) is a Thai professional snooker player. Since turning professional in 2010, he has reached one ranking final (the 2023 Scottish Open) in which he finished as runner-up to Gary Wilson. Career Early years I ...

. 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 Andy Lee may refer to: __NOTOC__ Sportspeople * Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter * Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer * Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City * Andy Lee (footb ...

and

Cheung Ka Wai Cheung Ka Wai (; born 17 February 1999), also known as Ka Wai Cheung, is a professional snooker player from Hong Kong. In February 2024 he won the 2024 WSF Open Championship, earning a two-year tour card on the World Snooker Tour starting with th ...

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. A four-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, Brecel is a former World Snooker Championship, World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 World Snooker Champ ...

and

Ben Mertens Ben Mertens (born 13 October 2004) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships in 2018. Career Ben Mertens is from Wetteren. When he was 12 years old, he reached the 2nd round of the 2017 EBSA ...

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, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis 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 ...

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 retired professional snooker player and a current Sports commentator, commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, ag ...

and

Alan McManus Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player, and a current commentator and pundit for ITV and Eurosport on snooker coverage. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has wo ...

. 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 former professional snooker player who is currently serving a five-year ban from professional competition after committing a range of match-fixing offences. He rose to prominence by winning th ...

; 104, 103

* – 117

* – 116, 113

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

* – 112 Brian Cini * – 105

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei (; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first ranking title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mark Williams 1–0 (71–0) in the final. ...

* – 104

Jack Lisowski Jack 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 International Open Series, PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he ...

* – 104

References

External links

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

Snooker competitions in China Sport in Wuxi