Calabrese Extends Australian Open Reign at Mounties
Vinnie Calabrese has defeated Daniell Haenga 6-2 to win the Bob Hawke AC Memorial Australian Open Snooker Championship for a fourth successive year at Mounties, Sydney, Australia.
Victory for the popular 39-year-old means that he has now won 24 consecutive matches at the prestigious event since October 2023, with his four titles moving him into a tie for second place on the all-time list with Shawn Budd, behind only seven-time champion Steve Mifsud.
The win will also see him leap to the top of this season’s Q Tour Asia-Pacific rankings ahead of Hassan Kerde, with Vinnie having also claimed victory at the season-opening West Coast International back in June.
The defending champion dropped just two frames en route to reaching the quarter-finals stage, where he would produce arguably his best performance of the week in scoring breaks of 65, 94, 58, 65 and a match-clinching 136 – the highest break of the tournament – to overcome Steve Mifsud on Saturday evening.
On the final day he completed the Mifsud double with a 5-3 success against James, to book his place in the title match for a fourth straight year. There he would await New Zealand born Daniell Haenga, who reached the final for the first time since 2019 following a drama-filled week in Sydney.
Having earned two comfortable wins to progress to the last 32 stage, Haenga then won three consecutive deciding-frames to progress to the final, most notably recovering from 4-1 down to former Oceania champion Cale Barrett in the semi-finals, to win 5-4.
He was not able to repeat the feat in the final, however, as Calabrese claimed the opening frame on the black on his way to establishing a 4-1 lead, before eventually closing out a 6-2 victory with top breaks of 86, 65 and 43 to further cement his place in Australian snooker history.
The Q Tour Asia-Pacific will conclude with the staging of the Dr Clem Jones AO Qld Open Snooker Championship in January 2027.
