Qatar World Cup 10-Ball: Last-16 Ties to Watch on Wednesday
All eight last-16 matches run Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Doha — led by defending champion Jonas Magpantay against world No. 1 Wojciech Szewczyk.
DOHA, Qatar — Sixteen players remain at the $450,000 Qatar World Cup 10-Ball, and Wednesday's schedule squeezes all of them into one window: the eight last-16 ties go off together at 11 a.m. Doha time (8 a.m. UTC) at the Ezdan Palace Hotel — races to 11, single elimination, losers home with $5,000.
The Philippines puts seven men into the round — nearly half the field — and is already guaranteed two quarterfinalists thanks to a pair of all-Filipino ties. Poland sends three, Germany two, while Canada, Vietnam, the United States and Taiwan hold one seat each.
Magpantay vs Szewczyk — the tie of the round
The pick of the card needs no selling. Defending champion Jonas Magpantay, yet to lose a match all week, meets Wojciech Szewczyk — the WPA world No. 1 and two-time reigning world 10-ball champion. Magpantay cruised through the winners' side, then put away Hsu Jui An 11-4 and Alex Pagulayan 11-7. Szewczyk took the harder road, sent to the losers' bracket by Aivhan Maluto before conceding just 12 racks across his last three wins, including an 11-4 all-Polish dismissal of last year's runner-up Szymon Kural. The winner walks out of the morning session as the outright title favorite.
Two all-Filipino ties
Miguel Salvilla meets Jerico Bonus in one guaranteed all-Filipino tie — Salvilla off an 11-10 hill-hill over England's Elliott Sanderson, Bonus off a 11-9 defeat of Poland's No. 15 seed Wiktor Zielinski. On another table, Jundel Mazon plays Albert James Manas, who ended Mustafa Alnar's giant-killing week 11-5 on Tuesday night. With Magpantay, Carlo Biado and Rocky Tullao also in action, anywhere from two to five of Wednesday's quarterfinalists could be Filipino.
Filler vs Bongers — the all-German tie
Nobody left has had a stranger week than Joshua Filler. The No. 5 seed lost his opener to Alnar, then tore through the losers' side — three racks dropped in two elimination matches — before beating Ameer Ali and Oliver Szolnoki. His reward is a derby with Tobias Bongers, who rebuilt through the losers' bracket himself and has quietly removed Ruslan Chinakhov and Karl Gnadeberg.
Also on the slate
No. 2 seed Carlo Biado, fresh from dethroning No. 3 seed Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, draws Konrad Juszczyszyn, who survived an all-Polish hill-hill with Dominik Jastrzab. Fedor Gorst — one rack conceded in Tuesday night's 11-1 rout of Mahmoud Charif — meets Taiwan's Hsieh Chia Chen, who owns the week's other win over Biado. Rocky Tullao's back-to-back wins over Eklent Kaci and Mario He earn him Canada's John Morra, and Vietnam's Duong Quoc Hoang — who removed No. 11 Robbie Capito — faces 2024 champion Daniel Maciol.
The full bracket with tables and session times sits on the tournament hub; coverage streams on the QBSF's YouTube channel.
Pairings and session times verified against the QBSF scoring feed on Rack 9 Pool and cross-checked with Absolute Pool's coverage, October 28.