David Causier defeated Mike Russell 8-5 at the SBI Academy in Carlow, Ireland to win the World Matchplay Championship for a sixth successive time.
Victory on the Emerald Isle saw Causier retain World Billiards’ second biggest title for a sixth staging in a row – having previously earned glory in 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The world number one also completed the double in Carlow, after defeating Robert Hall on the previous weekend to win the Irish Open.
The level six world ranking event is played over the short format of multiple games of 100-up and saw a field of 50 players from 10 countries competing at the SBI Academy.
Causier comfortably advanced from the group phase, dropping just a single game to Singapore’s Karthik Ramaswamy, before once again downing Irish Open finalist Hall 5-2 in the first knockout contest.
Having reached the quarter-finals with relative ease, the defending champion was forced to battle for his place in the title match as both Peter Sheehan and Peter Gilchrist took Causier all the way to a decider before succumbing 6-5 and 7-6 respectively.
The final opponent was former multiple-time world champion Russell, who had made his highly-anticipated return to the World Billiards circuit at the double-header in Ireland. The 56-year-old had also won through consecutive deciders against Rupesh Shah and Pankaj Advani before defeating Robert Marshall 7-2 to set up a meeting with Causier.
Two of the all-time greats battled it out in the title match but it was the current world number one Causier who won through an 8-5 victor to successfully retain the World Matchplay Championship title.
The next World Billiards events are the Austrian Open and European Open double-header which takes place on 29 May to 3 June at the National Snooker & Billiards Academy in Vienna.
