Portal:Cue sports

The Cue Sports Portal

Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports, a category of stick sports, may collectively be referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some English dialects.

There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

Carom billiards, played on tables without pockets, typically ten feet in length, including straight rail, balkline, one-cushion carom, three-cushion billiards, artistic billiards, and four-ball
Pocket billiards (or pool), played on six-pocket tables of seven, eight, nine, or ten-foot length, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport), nine-ball (the dominant professional game), ten-ball, straight pool (the formerly dominant pro game), one-pocket, and bank pool
Snooker, English billiards, and Russian pyramid, played on a large, six-pocket table (dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), all of which are classified separately from pool based on distinct development histories, player culture, rules, and terminology. (Full article...)

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The 2021 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2021 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 45th consecutive year the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible Theatre and the 15th and final ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season. It was organised by the World Snooker Tour. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred and broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. It featured a total prize fund of £2,395,000 of which the winner received £500,000.

Qualifying for the tournament took place between 5 and 14 April 2021 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, consisting of a mix of professional and invited amateur players. The main stage of the tournament featured 32 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and an additional 16 players from the qualifying rounds. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won his sixth world title at the previous year's event, where he defeated Kyren Wilson 18–8 in the final. O'Sullivan lost in the second round to Anthony McGill 12–13. Mark Selby defeated Shaun Murphy 18–15 in the final to win his fourth world title and the 20th ranking title of his career. There were a record 108 century breaks made at the Crucible, with an additional 106 made in qualifying rounds. The tournament's highest break was 144 by Murphy in the second round. (Full article...)
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The 2020 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2020 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 31 July to 16 August 2020 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 44th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was held at the Crucible. The final ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, the tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 18 April to 4 May 2020, but both the qualifying stage and the main rounds were postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was one of the first to allow live audiences since the onset of the pandemic, but on the first day it was announced that the event would be played behind closed doors for subsequent days. A limited number of spectators were allowed in for the final two days of the championship.

The tournament was organised by the World Snooker Tour, a subsidiary of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and was broadcast by the BBC, Eurosport and Matchroom Sport. The event had a total prize fund of £2,395,000, with the winner receiving £500,000. Qualifying for the tournament was due to be held between 8 and 15 April 2020 but instead took place from 21 to 28 July at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield. There were 128 participants in the qualifying rounds, with a mix of professional and invited amateur players, 16 of whom reached the main stage of the tournament where they played the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings. The event was sponsored by sports betting company Betfred. (Full article...)
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Masako Katsura (桂マサ子, Katsura Masako; listen; 7 March 1913 – 20 December 1995), nicknamed "Katsy" and sometimes called the "First Lady of Billiards", was a Japanese carom billiards player who was most active in the 1950s. She was the first woman to compete and place among the best in the male-dominated world of professional billiards. First learning the game from her brother-in-law and then under the tutelage of Japanese champion Kinrey Matsuyama, Katsura became Japan's only female professional player. In competition in Japan, she took second place in the country's national three-cushion billiards championship three times. In exhibition she was noted for running 10,000 points at the game of straight rail.

After marrying a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer in 1950, Katsura emigrated to the United States in 1951. There she was invited to play in the 1952 U.S.-sponsored World Three-Cushion Championship, ultimately taking seventh place at that competition. Katsura was the first woman ever to be included in any world billiards tournament. Her fame cemented, Katsura went on an exhibition tour of the United States with eight-time world champion Welker Cochran, and later with 51-time world champion Willie Hoppe. In 1953 and 1954, she again competed for the world three-cushion crown, taking fifth and fourth places respectively. (Full article...)
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The 2017 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19th and final ranking event of the 2016–17 season which followed the China Open. It was the 41st consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible.

The winner of the event was the defending champion and world number one Mark Selby, who defeated John Higgins 18–15 in the final. Selby won despite having fallen 4–10 behind in the second session of the match. Selby defeated Ding Junhui 17–15 in the semi-finals whilst Higgins defeated Barry Hawkins 17–8 to reach the final. This was Selby's third World Championship win; he had also won the tournament in the 2014 and 2016 tournaments. (Full article...)
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The 1983 World Snooker Championship (also known as the 1983 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 16 April and 2 May 1983 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. This was the third and final world ranking event of the 1982–83 snooker season following the 1982 Professional Players Tournament. Sixteen seeded players qualified directly for the event, with an additional sixteen players progressing through a two-round qualification round held at the Romiley Forum in Stockport, and Redwood Lodge in Bristol. The winner of the event received £30,000, and the tournament was sponsored by cigarette company Embassy.

Alex Higgins was the defending champion, having won the 1982 championship, but he lost 5–16 to Steve Davis in the semi-finals. Davis, the 1981 champion, won the event for the second time, defeating Cliff Thorburn 18–6 in the final. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament. The highest was made by Thorburn in the fourth frame of his second round match against Terry Griffiths, where he compiled a maximum break of 147 points, becoming the first player to make such a break in a World Championship match. (Full article...)
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The 2002 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the final ranking event of the 2001–02 snooker season. This was the 26th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, marking the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event at this venue. The championship was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.

Peter Ebdon won his only world title by defeating seven-time winner Stephen Hendry 18–17 in the final. Ebdon defeated Matthew Stevens 17–16 in the semi-finals, and Hendry defeated the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–13 to reach the final. This was Hendry's ninth and last appearance in a World Championship final. There were 65 century breaks during the tournament. The highest break of the tournament was by Stevens, who achieved 145 in his quarter-final match. Hendry made 16 centuries during the event, a record for any individual tournament, equalled by Mark Williams in 2022. A total prize fund of £1,615,770 was awarded at the event, the winner receiving £260,000 (Full article...)
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The 2019 Tour Championship (officially the 2019 Coral Tour Championship) was a professional snooker ranking tournament that took place from 19 to 24 March 2019 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Wales. Organised by World Snooker, it was the first edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the inaugural Coral Cup. It was the eighteenth ranking event of the 2018–19 snooker season.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list, taking part in a single elimination tournament. Each match was played over a minimum of two sessions, the final as best-of-25-frames over two days. The winner of the tournament won £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £375,000. The event was sponsored by betting company Coral. (Full article...)
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The 2020 Tour Championship (officially the 2020 Coral Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 to 26 June 2020, at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the second edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the second season of the Coral Cup. It was the 16th and penultimate ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season following the Gibraltar Open and preceding the World Championship. The tournament was originally scheduled for 17 to 22 March 2020, but on the morning of 17 March the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following advice from the UK government, it had been decided that no spectators would be permitted at the event.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list. The event was contested as a single-elimination tournament, with each match played over a minimum of two sessions and the final being a best-of-19-frames match. The winner of the tournament won £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £380,000. The event was sponsored by betting company Coral. (Full article...)
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The 2021 Tour Championship (officially the 2021 Cazoo Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 22 to 28 March 2021 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it was the third edition of the Tour Championship and the third and final event of the third season of the Cazoo Cup. It was the 14th and penultimate ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season, following the conclusion of the WST Pro Series and preceding the World Championship.

The draw for the Tour Championship comprised the top eight players based on the single year ranking list. The event was contested as a single-elimination tournament, each match being played over two sessions. The winner of the tournament received £150,000 out of a total prize fund of £380,000. The event was sponsored by car retailer Cazoo. The defending champion was Stephen Maguire, but as a result of reduced earnings during the season he was unable to qualify and defend the title. In a repeat of the 2019 final Australian Neil Robertson played Englishman Ronnie O'Sullivan. Robertson won the event defeating O'Sullivan 10–4 in the final. There were 26 century breaks made during the event, Barry Hawkins making the highest break, a 138. (Full article...)
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The 1987 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 1987 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purpose of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between 18 April and 4 May 1987 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the sixth and final ranking event of the 1986–87 snooker season. The championship was the 1987 edition of the World Snooker Championship, first held in 1927, and had 32 participants. The highest ranked 16 players were awarded a place in the first round draw, whilst a pre-tournament qualification event for 104 professionals was held between 26 March and 4 April at the Preston Guild Hall for the remaining places. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy and had a prize fund of £400,000 with the winner receiving £80,000.

Since his 1986 victory, Joe Johnson had experienced a disappointing season leading up to the 1987 Championship, and bookmakers considered it unlikely that he would retain the title. Johnson did reach the final, a rematch of the previous year's final against Steve Davis. Davis won his fourth championship by defeating Johnson 18 frames to 14. A total of 18 century breaks were made during the tournament, the highest of which was 127 made by Davis in first frame of the final. Stephen Hendry, aged 18, became the youngest player to win a match in the tournament's history since it moved to the Crucible in 1977, whilst it was the last time that six-times champion Ray Reardon appeared. (Full article...)

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Sean Maddocks (born 10 April 2002) is an English former professional snooker player. As a 15 year old, he became the youngest snooker player to score a 147 break in competition, beating the previous record held by Ronnie O'Sullivan. (Full article...)
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Ralph Greenleaf (November 3, 1899 – March 15, 1950) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years 1919 and 1938, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times.

His obituary in The New York Times said of Greenleaf, in March 1950: "What Babe Ruth did for baseball, Dempsey did for fighting, Tilden did for tennis...Greenleaf did for pocket billiards."

The championships of his era were contested in the game of 14.1 continuous ("straight pool"), but varied in format from contest to contest and were not annual events. Championships were challenge matches between two players often played over several days to relatively high numbers (1,500 points for example). (Full article...)
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The layout of balls in sinuca brasileira

Sinuca brasileira (Portuguese for Brazilian snooker), often simply called sinuca, is a cue sport played on a snooker table, using only one red ball instead of snooker's fifteen, with the normal six colours of the standard set of snooker balls. Each ball carries the same basic point value as in snooker. As with other pocket billiards games, a white cue ball is used to pot the red and other coloured balls. The game is played almost exclusively in Brazil and is little known outside this region. (Full article...)
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Earl Strickland (born June 8, 1961) is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. In 1996, Strickland won the largest cash prize to date winning the PCA $1,000,000 Challenge by being the first player to run 10 consecutive racks in a tournament. (Full article...)
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Joseph (Joe) Balsis (born 1921, Minersville, Pennsylvania, died January 2, 1995, Minersville), nicknamed "the Meatman", was an American professional pool player, who was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1982. (Full article...)
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The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). It was established under this name in 1948 as a non-profit trade organization in order to promote the sport and organize its players via tournaments at various levels. The BCA is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The voting members of the organization are mostly equipment manufacturers.

The BCA publishes an annual rule and record book that incorporates the WPA world standardized rules for games such as nine-ball, eight-ball, ten-ball and straight pool, as well as rules for other games that are not presently the subject of international competition, such as one pocket, bank pool, cowboy pool, rotation, American snooker, and Chicago among many others. The BCA holds an annual trade show, the International Billiards & Home Recreation Expo. Also annually, it inducts great players, and those who have made great contributions to the sport, into the BCA Hall of Fame. (Full article...)
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Appleton at the World 9-Ball Pool Championship in Doha, 2012

Darren Appleton (born 8 February 1976) is an English professional pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.

Appleton won the 2008 WPA World Ten-ball Championship (the inaugural 10-ball world championship) against Wu Jia-qing, of China, a former world champion in both nine-ball and eight-ball. Appleton is also a world champion in nine-ball, having won the 2012 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, defeating Li He-wen in the final. (Full article...)
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Marco Zanetti at the 1986 Einband-Europameisterschaft

One-cushion billiards is a carom billiards discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, 10-by-5-foot (3.0 m × 1.5 m), pocketless billiard table with two cue balls and a third red-colored ball.
In a one-cushion shot, the cue ball caroms off both object balls with at least one rail being struck before the hit on the second object ball. The object of the game is to score up to an agreed upon number of cushion caroms, with one point being awarded for each successfully made. If no object ball is contacted, one point is deducted. If there is ambiguity as to whether the second ball was contacted, it is resolved against the shooter. It is governed by the Union Mondiale de Billard, the world governing body of carom billiards. (Full article...)
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Maflin at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic

Kurt Graham Maflin (born 8 August 1983) is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competition. (Full article...)
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Aloysius Yapp (/ˌæloʊˈɪʃəs/; Chinese: 叶浚惟; pinyin: Yè Jùnwéi; born 2 May 1996) is a Singaporean professional pool player. He was the world junior champion in nine-ball in 2014 and runner-up in the 2021. In 2025, Yapp defeated Jonas Souto Comino of Spain 13–1 in the final of the UK Open Pool Championship, claiming his first major open title. (Full article...)

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... that Gary Wilson threw his snooker cue to the floor in anger at the 2022 UK Championship?
... that Turkish carom billiards champion Güzin Müjde Karakaşlı grew up playing volleyball for about 12 years?
... that the 1947 World Snooker Championship was the first world snooker championship where the winner wasn't Joe Davis?
... that Kyren Wilson won the first four frames in all of his snooker matches at the 2023 Tour Championship?
... that at the 1978 World Snooker Championship, Fred Davis reached the semi-finals at the age of 64?
... that John Spencer won a World Snooker Championship on his first attempt in 1969?
... that the Highfield Cocoa and Coffee House in Sheffield, England, sold tea, coffee and cocoa at a penny a pint and also provided billiards and reading rooms?
... that Mark Williams travelled for more than 13 hours to be a last-minute replacement at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters?

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Nations that hosted an event in the snooker calendar during the 2019–20 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 COVID-19 pandemic. 18 world ranking tournaments were planned to take place, but only 17 were played. An event was held in Austria, the first time in any snooker season, while the 2020 China Open was cancelled. The Tour Championship and the World Snooker Championship were postponed, and the Gibraltar Open played with no audience. The season contained 128 professional tour players, 35 of which had been given new two-year places on the tour from a combination of invitations and qualifying events.

Judd Trump, the reigning world champion, won a record six ranking titles for a season. Trump also became the second player ever to compile over 100 century breaks in a season. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the 2020 World Snooker Championship, defeating Kyren Wilson with a score of 18–8. By doing so O'Sullivan also won his 37th ranking title, the most of any player. The other Triple Crown championships were the 2019 UK Championship, won by Ding Junhui, and the 2020 Masters, won by Stuart Bingham. (Full article...)
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Herbert John Pulman (12 December 1923 – 25 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He first won the title at the 1957 Championship and retained it across seven challenges from 1964 to 1968, three of them against Fred Davis and two against Rex Williams. When the tournament reverted to a knockout event in 1969, he lost 18–25 in the first round to the eventual champion John Spencer. After finishing as runner-up to Ray Reardon in 1970, Pulman never again reached the final, although he was a losing semi-finalist in 1977.

He turned professional in 1946, shortly after winning the English Amateur Championship, and achieved three News of the World Snooker Tournament titles, in 1954, 1957 and 1958. An emotional player, he was prone to venting his frustration and missing important shots. He generally played attacking snooker in his early career, but he made more use of safety tactics in the 1970s. (Full article...)
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The 1934 World Snooker Championship, known at the time as the Professional Championship of Snooker, was a snooker tournament held partly at the Lounge Hall in Nottingham and then at the Central Hall in Kettering, from 2 to 6 April 1934. Joe Davis won the title for the eighth time by defeating Tom Newman, the only other entrant, by 25 frames to 22. At one stage Newman led 14–13, but Davis then pulled ahead to lead 24–18 and, although Newman won the next four frames, Davis took the 47th frame to secure the title. Davis compiled a break of 70 in the third frame. (Full article...)
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The 2021 British Open (officially the 2021 Matchroom.live British Open) was a professional snooker event played from 16 to 22 August 2021 at the Morningside Arena, Leicester, England. It was the 2021 edition of the British Open event, and the first since the 2004 British Open. It was the second ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, following the 2021 Championship League and preceding the 2021 Northern Ireland Open. It was broadcast by ITV Sport in the UK, and sponsored by Matchroom Sport. The winner received £100,000 from a total prize pool of £470,000.

All rounds in the tournament were played after a random draw made under a single-elimination tournament format with no seeded players. The first four rounds, from the last 128 to the last 16, were played as best-of-five frame matches, the quarter-finals and semi-finals as best-of-seven-frame matches, and the final played as the best-of-eleven frames. John Higgins, the defending champion from 2004, lost 1–3 to Ricky Walden in the third round. Mark Williams defeated Gary Wilson 6–4 in the final to win the 24th ranking title of his career. The event featured 32 century breaks, including two maximum breaks. Higgins made his 12th maximum break in professional competition in the first frame of his first-round win over Alexander Ursenbacher, and Ali Carter made his third maximum break in the second frame of his fourth-round match against Elliot Slessor. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Veldhoven Open, officially known as the 2019 Dynamic Billard Veldhoven Open, was a professional nine-ball pool tournament and the fourth Euro Tour event of 2019. It was held at the NH Koningshof in Veldhoven, Netherlands. The men's event was held from 1 to 3 August, and the women's event was held from 2 to 4 August. The event followed the Austria Open and preceded the Klagenfurt Open.

The men's defending champion was Austria's Mario He, who won the 2018 Veldhoven Open after defeating Albania's Eklent Kaçi 9–8 in the final. He defended his championship, defeating Kaçi in the first knockout round, Germany's Joshua Filler in the semi-finals and Estonia's Denis Grabe in the final 9–2. In the women's event, the defending champion was Austria's Jasmin Ouschan, who defeated Oliwia Czupryńska 7–3 in the final of the previous year's event. Ouschan also successfully defended her championship, defeating Germany's Melanie Suessenguth 7–4 in the final. The event's total prize fund was €38,000, with the winner receiving €4,500. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Q School was a series of three snooker tournaments held during the 2019–20 snooker season. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the following two seasons. The events took place in May and June 2019 at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, England. The event was organised by World Snooker, with entries for the event costing £1,000 but with no maximum number of participants.

Each tournament is split into four paths, with the winner of each path being awarded a place on the World Snooker Tour for the 2019–20 season and the 2020–21 snooker season. Twelve players qualified from the events: Chen Zifan, Riley Parsons, Louis Heathcote, Fraser Patrick, Xu Si, David Lilley, Jamie O'Neill, Soheil Vahedi, Barry Pinches, Alex Borg, Alexander Ursenbacher and Andy Hicks. Four more players: Si Jiahui, Billy Joe Castle, Peter Lines and Lei Peifan; were also given tour cards for being at the top of the Order of Merit. The highest break of the events was a 137 made by both Xu Si in event one and Lucky Vatnani in event two. (Full article...)
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Irving Crane (November 13, 1913 – November 17, 2001), nicknamed "the Deacon", was an American pool player from Livonia, New York, and ranks among the stellar players in the history of the sport. Widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time, and a member of the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame, he is best known for his mastery in the game of straight pool (14.1 continuous) at which he won numerous championships, including six World Straight Pool Championship titles. (Full article...)
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The 2019 Antalya Open (also known as the 2019 Dynamic Billiard Antalya Open) was a professional nine-ball pool tournament held from 7 to 10 November 2019 in the Limak Atlantis Resort in Antalya, Turkey. The event was the sixth and final Euro Tour event of 2019, following the Klagenfurt Open. The men's event was won by Estonia's Denis Grabe, who won his third Tour win, defeating Eklent Kaçi 9–2. The women's event was won by Poland's Oliwia Zalewska, who won her first Tour event. She defeated Tina Vogelmann in the final 7–6. (Full article...)
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The 2001 Nations Cup (officially the 2001 Coalite Nations Cup) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place at The Hexagon, in Reading, Berkshire, England, from 13 to 21 January 2001. It was a World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association team competition held as part of the 2000–01 snooker season and the third and final edition of the Nations Cup. The competition was contested by eight nations of three players each, with one of them qualifying via a play-off match. It was sponsored by smokeless coal manufacturer Coalite.

England were the tournament's defending champions but were eliminated in the group stages after finishing third in their group. Scotland's Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus won the competition, defeating the Republic of Ireland's (ROI) Ken Doherty, Fergal O'Brien and Michael Judge six frames to two (6–2) in the final. During the match, referee Alan Chamberlain courted controversy when he cautioned O'Brien over slow play since the television coverage was due to end soon after. The event's highest break was a 131 made by Thai player Phaitoon Phonbun in the second frame of his nation's group match with Malta. (Full article...)
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The 2017 Masters (officially the 2017 Dafabet Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 15 to 22 January 2017 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. It was the 43rd staging of the Masters and the second Triple Crown event of the 2016/17 snooker season, following the 2016 UK Championship and preceding the 2017 World Snooker Championship.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Barry Hawkins 10–1 in the final of the 2016 event. O'Sullivan reached a record-extending 12th Masters final and successfully defended his title, defeating Joe Perry 10–7 to win the tournament for a record seventh time, surpassing the six titles won by Stephen Hendry. This was the first successful title defence at the Masters since Paul Hunter in 2002. Marco Fu compiled the highest break of the tournament, scoring a 141 in his semi-final match against O'Sullivan. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various cue sports-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1alt=Yellow snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 2alt=Black snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 3Louis XIV playing billiards (1694) (from Carom billiards)
Image 4A Game of Billiards by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1807 (from Carom billiards)
Image 5A shot using a rest, allowing the player to reach farther down the table (from Snooker)
Image 6Cigarette card, c. 1911, showing George Sutton playing balkline (from Carom billiards)
Image 7A full-size snooker table set up for a game (from Snooker)
Image 8The World Snooker Championship trophy (from Snooker)
Image 9alt=Pink snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 10A player racking the balls (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 11Illustration A: Aerial view of a snooker table with the 22 balls in their starting positions. The cue ball (white) may be placed anywhere in the semicircle (known as the "D") at the start of the game. (from Snooker)
Image 12alt=Brown snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 13A complete set of snooker balls (from Snooker)
Image 14A massé shot around a pin (from Carom billiards)
Image 15Joe Davis, founder of the World Snooker Championship, won 15 consecutive world titles from 1927 to 1946. (from Snooker)
Image 16alt=Red snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 17alt=Blue snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 18Balkline table with standard markings (from Carom billiards)
Image 19Jerome Keogh invented the game in 1910. (from Straight pool)
Image 20Paul Gauguin's 1888 painting Night Café at Arles includes a depiction of French billiards (from Carom billiards)
Image 21A pool table diagram (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 22Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, 1 January 1859 (from Carom billiards)
Image 23Dutch pool player Niels Feijen at the 2008 European Pool Championship (from Pool (cue sports))
Image 24A set of standard carom billiard balls, comprising a red object ball, one plain white cue ball, and one dotted white cue ball (replaced in modern three-cushion billiards by a yellow ball) for the opponent (from Carom billiards)
Image 25A sliding scoreboard, some blocks of cue-tip chalk, white chalk-board chalk and two cues (from Snooker)
Image 26alt=Green snooker ball (from Snooker)
Image 27The Family Remy by Januarius Zick, c. 1776, featuring billiards among other parlour activities (from Carom billiards)
Image 28A close-up view of a cue tip about to strike the cue ball, the aim being to pot the red ball into a corner pocket (from Snooker)

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v t e Cue sports
Pool games	Eight-ball British eight-ball Nine-ball Straight pool Ten-ball Artistic pool and trick shots Bank pool Baseball Bottle pool Bowlliards Chicago Cowboy pool Cribbage Cutthroat Fifteen-ball Golf Honolulu Kelly pool Killer One-pocket Pyramid pool Rotation Seven-ball Speed pool Three-ball
Carom billiards	Three-cushion One-cushion Balkline Straight rail Five-pins Artistic billiards Four-ball Goriziana
Snooker	Snooker Six-red snooker Snooker plus American snooker Brazilian snooker Shoot Out
Other games	English billiards Russian pyramid Kaisa Danish pin billiards Bumper pool Bagatelle Boccette Bar billiards Novuss Ground billiards Slosh
Resources	Glossary Techniques Billiard table Billiard ball Billiard hall Cue stick Rack Comparison of cue sports
Major international tournaments	Artistic Billiards World Championship UMB World Three-cushion Championship World Snooker Championship champions Six-red World Championship World Women's Snooker Championship WPA World Nine-ball Championship Women's champions WPA World Ten-ball Championship World Straight Pool Championship WPA World Eight-ball Championship champions World Cup of Pool Mosconi Cup World Pool Masters Cue sports at the World Games
Other events	Euro Tour events European Pool Championships U.S. Open Straight Pool 8-Ball 9-Ball
Governing bodies	World Confederation of Billiards Sports Union Mondiale de Billard World Pool Association International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
Categories	Cue sports Players Organizations Competitions
Cue sports portal The rules of games in italics are standardized by international sanctioning bodies.

v t e World pool champions
Nine-ball (men's)	1990: Earl Strickland 1991: Earl Strickland 1992: Johnny Archer 1993: Chao Fong-pang 1994: Takeshi Okumura 1995: Oliver Ortmann 1996: Ralf Souquet 1997: Johnny Archer 1998: Kunihiko Takahashi 1999: Efren Reyes & Nick Varner 2000: Chao Fong-pang 2001: Mika Immonen 2002: Earl Strickland 2003: Thorsten Hohmann 2004: Alex Pagulayan 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2006: Ronato Alcano 2007: Daryl Peach 2010: Francisco Bustamante 2011: Yukio Akakariyama 2012: Darren Appleton 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Niels Feijen 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2016: Albin Ouschan 2017: Carlo Biado 2018: Joshua Filler 2019: Fedor Gorst 2021: Albin Ouschan 2022: Shane Van Boening 2023: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2024: Fedor Gorst 2025: Carlo Biado
Nine-ball (women's)	1990: Robin Bell 1991: Robin Bell 1992: Franziska Stark 1993: Loree Jon Jones 1994: Ewa Laurance 1995: Gerda Hofstätter 1996: Allison Fisher 1997: Allison Fisher 1998: Allison Fisher 1999: Liu Hsin-mei 2000: Julie Kelly 2001: Allison Fisher 2002: Liu Hsin-mei 2004: Kim Ga-young 2006: Kim Ga-young 2007: Pan Xiaoting 2008: Lin Yuan-chun 2009: Liu Shasha 2010: Fu Xiaofang 2011: Bi Zhu Qing 2012: Kelly Fisher 2013: Han Yu 2014: Liu Shasha 2015: Liu Shasha 2016: Han Yu 2017: Chen Siming 2018: Han Yu 2019: Kelly Fisher 2023: Chou Chieh-yu 2024: Rubilen Amit
Eight-ball (champions)	2004: Efren Reyes 2005: Wu Jia-qing 2007: Ronato Alcano 2008: Ralf Souquet 2010: Karl Boyes 2011: Dennis Orcollo 2012: Chang Jung-Lin 2022: Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 2023: Shane Van Boening 2024: Joshua Filler
Ten-ball	2008: Darren Appleton 2009: Mika Immonen 2011: Huidji See 2015: Ko Pin-yi 2019: Ko Ping-chung 2021: Eklent Kaçi 2022: Wojciech Szewczyk 2023: Eklent Kaçi 2024: Carlo Biado
Straight pool	2006: Thorsten Hohmann 2007: Oliver Ortmann 2008: Niels Feijen 2009: Stephan Cohen 2010: Oliver Ortmann 2011: Thorsten Hohmann 2012: John Schmidt 2013: Thorsten Hohmann 2014: Darren Appleton 2015: Thorsten Hohmann 2016: Mika Immonen 2017: Lee Vann Corteza 2018: Thorsten Hohmann 2019: Shane Van Boening
Cue sports portal

v t e World Snooker Championship
Early events	1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
Match-play	1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
Challenges	Apr 1964 Oct 1964 Mar 1965 Nov 1965 Dec 1965 Apr 1966 Mar 1968
Knock-outs	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976
Crucible era	1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Related articles	List of winners List of players Triple Crown Crucible Theatre Crucible curse World Professional Match-play Championship Black ball final (1985)
Cue sports portal

v t e World snooker champions
Early events	1927: Joe Davis (ENG) 1928: Joe Davis (ENG) 1929: Joe Davis (ENG) 1930: Joe Davis (ENG) 1931: Joe Davis (ENG) 1932: Joe Davis (ENG) 1933: Joe Davis (ENG) 1934: Joe Davis (ENG) 1935: Joe Davis (ENG) 1936: Joe Davis (ENG) 1937: Joe Davis (ENG) 1938: Joe Davis (ENG) 1939: Joe Davis (ENG) 1940: Joe Davis (ENG) 1946: Joe Davis (ENG) 1947: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1948: Fred Davis (ENG) 1949: Fred Davis (ENG) 1950: Walter Donaldson (SCO) 1951: Fred Davis (ENG) 1952: Horace Lindrum (AUS)
Match-play	1952: Fred Davis (ENG) 1953: Fred Davis (ENG) 1954: Fred Davis (ENG) 1955: Fred Davis (ENG) 1956: Fred Davis (ENG) 1957: John Pulman (ENG)
Challenges	1964 (Apr): John Pulman (ENG) 1964 (Oct): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Mar): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Sep–Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1965 (Dec): John Pulman (ENG) 1966: John Pulman (ENG) 1968: John Pulman (ENG)
Knock-outs	1969: John Spencer (ENG) 1970: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1971: John Spencer (ENG) 1972: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1973: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1974: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1975: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1976: Ray Reardon (WAL)
Crucible era	1977: John Spencer (ENG) 1978: Ray Reardon (WAL) 1979: Terry Griffiths (WAL) 1980: Cliff Thorburn (CAN) 1981: Steve Davis (ENG) 1982: Alex Higgins (NIR) 1983: Steve Davis (ENG) 1984: Steve Davis (ENG) 1985: Dennis Taylor (NIR) 1986: Joe Johnson (ENG) 1987: Steve Davis (ENG) 1988: Steve Davis (ENG) 1989: Steve Davis (ENG) 1990: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1991: John Parrott (ENG) 1992: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1993: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1994: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1995: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1996: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 1997: Ken Doherty (IRL) 1998: John Higgins (SCO) 1999: Stephen Hendry (SCO) 2000: Mark Williams (WAL) 2001: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2002: Peter Ebdon (ENG) 2003: Mark Williams (WAL) 2004: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2005: Shaun Murphy (ENG) 2006: Graeme Dott (SCO) 2007: John Higgins (SCO) 2008: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2009: John Higgins (SCO) 2010: Neil Robertson (AUS) 2011: John Higgins (SCO) 2012: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2013: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2014: Mark Selby (ENG) 2015: Stuart Bingham (ENG) 2016: Mark Selby (ENG) 2017: Mark Selby (ENG) 2018: Mark Williams (WAL) 2019: Judd Trump (ENG) 2020: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2021: Mark Selby (ENG) 2022: Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 2023: Luca Brecel (BEL) 2024: Kyren Wilson (ENG) 2025: Zhao Xintong (CHN)
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v t e Snooker world rankings
World rankings	1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Ranking points	2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Cue sports portal List of world number one snooker players