WPBSA International Round-Up | January 2026
The latest WPBSA International Round-Up takes a look at four national championships that have taken place across Europe during December and January.
AUSTRIA
Oskar Charlesworth won the Austrian National Championship for the first time in his career by defeating Thomas Janszo 5-4 in Vienna.
The 25-year-old cueist came through a field of 32 players in the Austrian capital to lift his maiden National Championship crown.
Back-to-back whitewash wins over Severin Grosslinger and Alexey Goldobin secured Charlesworth a place in the quarter-finals where he then downed Josef Wimmer 4-2.
Charlesworth booked his final spot by overcoming Paul Schopf 4-2, while his opponent Janszo defeated Philipp Kock 4-1 to complete the title match line-up.
The decisive contest went all the way as Janszo fought back from 3-1 and 4-2 behind to force a decider, but it was Charlesworth who held his nerve at the vital moment to complete the victory.
HUNGARY
Erik Nagy successfully defended the Hungarian National Championship with a 7-2 success against Nicolas-Anton Le Clercq.
Staged in December, the event saw 51 competitors taking part in Budapest and it was 20-year-old who won through to become a two-time champion.
Nagy dropped just a single frame in four matches en route to the final as he beat David Ocsko (4-0), Laszlo Hajzler (4-0), Pal Vantara (4-1) and Soma Berghold (4-0) with top breaks of 101 and 100.
Le Clercq, who had last beaten Balazs Hamori 4-1 to reach the title match, battled back from 2-0 down to restore parity after four frames of the best-of-13 contest.
The defending champion then pulled away, however, as a top break of 85 helped him to winning five consecutive frames to complete a 7-2 success.
POLAND
Mateusz Baranowski beat Tomasz Skalski 5-0 to win the Polish National Championship for the fifth time.
The 28-year-old, who currently competes on the World Snooker Tour, successfully defended the title he won in 2025 against a field of 59 cueists in Zielona Gora.
A comfortable group stage passage was followed by victories over Ariel Trebocha (4-0), Oliwier Nizialek (4-2) and Konrad Juszczyszyn (4-2) to set up a final meeting with Skalski.
Skalski had shown his fighting qualities to come through consecutive deciding frames to reach this stage. He was unable to match the four-time and defending champion though as Baranowski hit breaks of 55, 117 and 50 en route to a 5-0 victory and a fifth National Championship crown.
TURKEY
Ismail Turker defeated Eren Gurgoze 4-1 to become the Turkish National Championship winner for the third time.
Twelve players contested the final stages of the event in Ankara and it was Turker who won through to lift the title for the first time since 2021.
Turker dropped just two frames in four matches during a comfortable group stage before continuing his fine form into the quarter-finals where he whitewashed Kayhan Durukan.
A 4-1 success over Melih Egeman then saw Turker into the final where he met Gurgoze, who had beaten Enes Bakirci 4-1 in the semi-finals.
The title match was a race to four frames and Turker quickly charged into a seemingly unassailable lead at 3-0 to move one away from glory.
A break of 70, the highest of the final, gave Gurgoze a brief moment of hope but this was short-lived as Turker took the next to regain the National Championship crown.
