Hassan Kerde Finally Breaks His Finals Curse to Win Q Tour Asia-Pacific Title in Albury
Sixth Time Lucky for the Australian Veteran
Hassan Kerde has ended a painful sequence of final defeats by clinching the third WPBSA Q Tour Asia-Pacific title of the 2026/27 season, whitewashing Alan McCarthy 4-0 at the Commercial Club in Albury, Australia on 3rd August 2026. The 42-year-old had lost all five of his previous Q Tour finals, but there was no sign of that weight of near-misses on Sunday as he produced a composed, dominant display to claim the first tour title of his career on home Australian soil.
Kerde — a former World Seniors Snooker Championship semi-finalist and one of the most respected figures on the Asia-Pacific amateur circuit — compiled breaks of 111, 95 and 61 across the four-frame final, with that century coming last to not only seal the victory but claim the tournament's high break prize. It was a performance that underlined just how close this man has been to glory for some time, and how dangerous he remains when the big occasions arrive.
The Road to the Title
Getting through a field of 82 players at an event of this quality is no small feat, and Kerde's route to the title was impressively consistent throughout. He opened his campaign with back-to-back whitewash wins over Muhammad Hassan and Jason Perry to advance into the last 16, before posting a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Jessica Woods — herself a former Australian Women's Open finalist and no pushover. From that point, Kerde dropped just one further frame in three matches, sweeping aside Amol Abdagiri 3-0 before edging past Shaun Dalitz 3-1 to set up his meeting with McCarthy in the final.
For Kerde, there was particular motivation to go one better in Albury. He had contested the very first event of this season's Asia-Pacific series back in June, only to fall at the final hurdle again — this time to Vinnie Calabrese in Perth. That defeat made it five finals, five losses. The relief in his game on Sunday was almost tangible. He opened the deciding match with a half-century to immediately set the tone, and from there McCarthy simply never got a look in.
A Season of Different Champions
Kerde becomes the third different winner of the 2026/27 Q Tour Asia-Pacific series, following Calabrese's triumph in Perth and Mark Canovan's maiden Q Tour title in Auckland. That variety at the top suggests genuine depth across the Asia-Pacific region, with no single player yet managing to dominate the circuit in the way that some European counterparts have done on the Q Tour's other legs in recent seasons.
The event itself carried the name of the Fred Osbourne Snooker Classic and was organised jointly by the Australian Billiards & Snooker Council (ABSC) and the Asia Pacific Snooker & Billiards Federation (APSBF) — two bodies doing crucial grassroots work to keep the sport competitive and visible across the region. Eighty-two competitors at a single amateur event is a strong turnout by any measure, and reflects the appetite for structured competition in Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific area.
What Comes Next
Attention now turns to the fourth Q Tour Asia-Pacific event of the season, scheduled to take place in Sydney, Australia between 8th and 11th October 2026. With Calabrese, Canovan and now Kerde all having tasted victory this campaign, the race for the overall series standings is shaping up to be a fascinating one. Kerde will arrive in Sydney with confidence at an all-time high — and based on what we saw in Albury, anyone drawing him in the early rounds should be very wary indeed.
For a player who has spent years knocking on the door at the highest level of amateur and semi-professional snooker, this title feels long overdue. At 42, Kerde isn't slowing down — if anything, Sunday's performance suggests he's hitting something of a purple patch. The Sydney event can't come quickly enough.
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