Calabrese Defends In Sydney
Vinnie Calabrese has defeated Hassan Kerde 6-4 to win the Bob Hawke AC Memorial Australian Open Snooker Championship for a third successive year at Mounties, Sydney, Australia.
Victory for the 38-year-old former professional represents his second success on the 2025/26 Q Tour Asia-Pacific following his win at the West Coast International and all but secures his position at the top of this season’s latest ranking list. Now 3,000 points ahead of second placed Steve Mifsud, Calabrese would need to earn zero points at the final qualifying event, with Mifsud needing to lift the title at the Dr Clem Jones AO Qld Open Snooker Championship.
Calabrese also completes a notable hat-trick at the Australian Open, having also captured the title in both 2023 and 2024 at Mounties, which this year celebrated its 28th year as host venue for the prestigious event.
The top seed made serene progress through the early rounds with wins against Dennis Paul, Chris Kerr and Max Handley, before taking down the talented Andy Liu, who had previously seen off reigning national champion Kurt Dunham at the last 16 stage.
On the final day he took on Steve Mifsud and having witnessed his opponent take the opening frame with an expertly crafted break of 97, from there rarely looked troubled as he reeled off the next five frames to book his place in the final.
There he would await Hassan Kerde in a repeat of the 2024 title match, with Kerde having taken down Owen Wang, Stephen Bateman, Alan McCarthy and Moti Pakharin to reach the final day, before he secured a hard-fought 5-3 win against Shaun Dalitz to progress to the best of 11 frames final.
It appeared as though the decisive match could prove to be a runaway for Calabrese, who raced into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 76 and 73, as he looked to avoid the tense finish of a year earlier which had seen Calabrese win a 6-5 thriller.
Kerde was not to give up so easily, however, as he won his first frame of the contest with a run of 56, before adding each frame either side of the mid-session interval to level the match at 3-3 at the halfway stage.
But Calabrese was not to be denied, as he recovered to move one away from the title at 5-3, before ultimately clinching victory in the tenth frame to retain the trophy once again.
Although Kerde was not to go all the way, he did have the consolation of finishing the week with the highest break of the competition, a break of 107 during the last 64 stage.
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