It was another eventful day in Beijing as the last 32 round was played to its completion over two sessions.

Afternoon session (morning in Europe)

Mark Selby was in action against Ben Woollaston on the main table, whilst Neil Robertson faced Sam Craigie on table 2. Neither of the top seeds had it all their way.

Mark Selby played solid match snooker and prevailed by 6-3, but Ben Woollaston had chances and probably lost at least two frames that he really should have won.  From what I saw today, Selby is certainly playing better than he has for most of the season but is still not quite where he was last season. That said Selby had two 135 in that match. Tomorrow he will face Lyu HaoTian. That should be interesting!

Neil Robertson found himself 4-1 down to Sam Craigie, but eventually, beat him by 6-5. I didn’t see much of that match, however it was obvious that towards the end Neil’s experience of the big stages was key to victory.

On the outside tables, Barry Hawkins quietly continued his progression by outplaying Michael White; he won 6-1 and for me he’s a dark horse in this competition. Kyren Wilson scored very heavily in getting the better of the tenacious Mark King by 6-4. He’s another one who could possibly win this week IMO.  Stuart Bingham, who had to win his last 32 match to secure his Crucible spot duly did so: he beat Ricky Walden by 6-5. Ricky seems to be playing well again and I’m quite happy with that. Of course Stuart did something else too … he spoiled Ronnie’s party a bit! They now have to share those £42000.

What is also great to see is young players winning: Jack Lisowski beat John Higgins by 6-2 and that’s a bit of a surprise, Zhou Yuelong beat Jak Jones by the same score, which is less of a surprise, and Lyu HaoTian beat Fergal O’Brien in a deciding fame. Now that’s something because Fergal is as hard a match player as you will ever see. This victory shows how much Lyu has matured. He always had the talent but when he first came on the tour he was only a child lost in an alien culture and he seriously went astray. He’s back and that’s great to see.

Evening session (afternoon in Europe)

Mark Williams, Ding Junhui, Cao Yupeng and Graeme Dott all won easily. Mark Williams made “only” five breaks over 60 in a blitz 6-1 win over Michael Holt! Graeme Dott did the same in his 6-3 win over Chris Wakelin, whilst Cao Yupeng had “only” one century and three breaks over 50 in beating David Gilbert by 6-2. Shabby! Ding was 2-2 with Xiao Guodong at the MSI, then he must have got some magic tea during said MSI because Xiao didn’t pot another ball in the match whilst Ding scored two centuries and two other breaks over 80!

Mark Allen had to work harder to get the better of young Yan Bingtao. He eventually won by 6-4. Despite this, he’s not yet safely in the top 16.However, with Gary Wilson having beaten Joe Perry, by 6-4, the only way Mark Allen could be forced to qualify is for him to lose in the next round AND one of Tom Ford, Gary Wilson, Cao Yupeng, Graeme Dott, Jack Lisowski or Zhou Yuelong to win the title come Sunday. If Allen was to win tomorrow, he would be safe and it is then Ali Carter who could be sent to the qualifiers if one the six outsiders was to become China Open Champion. Ali is already out of the tournament so it’s not in his hands anymore!

Tom ford beat Elliot Slessor by 6-4 and deserves a lot of credit for what he does in Beijing. It’s only last week that he was in hospital for a surgery. Hats off!

And finally we have Luo Honghao … the 18 years old winner of the inaugural WSF Mixed Championship in Malta only 10 days ago. He’s still in this, quite remarkably. He beat Duane Jones by 6-5.

Despite losing today both Sam Craigie and Elliott Slessor have got something very positive to take home: they are now n°1 and n°2 in the list of 8 players who will automatically get a new tour card despite being out of the top 64, because they are the 8 best on the one year ranking list outside the top 64.

Finally, Ronnie and Stuart 147s this week mean that the prize for a 147 in the next tournament is reset to a mere £5000. Only that the next tournament is the World Championship … That doesn’t look right? Indeed. And Barry Hearn on social media has hinted that something will be done about it!

Day 2 at the China Open in Beijing saw the completion of the last 64 round: 20 matches were played over three sessions. It was a rather eventful day…

The first session, played in the morning in China, at ungodly hours here in Europe, saw most favourites go through: John Higgins, Barry Hawkins, Graeme Dott, Zhou Yuelong and Yan Bingtao all won with the first three in this list winning quite comfortably. Stephen Maguire however lost to the ever tenacious Fergal O’Brien and this means that he will now definitely need to win three matches next week to be at the Crucible.

The second session – afternoon in China, morning in Europe – again saw most of the favourites go through: Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson all won. Mark Selby was facing Scott Donaldson who had beaten him at the UK Championship last December in York, and Scott once again made the World Champion, and Defending Champion, work hard. This time though Mark Selby came out the winner, but, IMO, he will need to improve if he is to defend his title this week. The match was very close up to 4-4 and it could easily have been 5-5 too. The second frame of that match was quite special, watch it here:

Mark Selby gets a free ball at the start of the break, following a “foul and a miss” by Scott, takes the black as a free ball, then the black again and embarks into a 16 reds total 141 total clearance, but somehow in the middle of the break, he forgets that he started with a free ball and stops the play convinced that the marker miscounted…

Someone who didn’t win in that session and needed to if he was to avoid the qualifiers for the Crucible is Liang Wenbo, who lost by 6-5 to … Duane Jones.

The third and last session, in the evening in China, afternoon in Europe saw two big “shocks” – I hate that word because at the end of the day, all players involved are pros, they all can play and they all have off days now and again, so basically, there are no “shocks” just surprises.

Ronnie lost to Elliot Slessor… again. Elliot had already beaten him in the Northern Ireland Open. You can read all about it here . So Ronnie played terrible but made one marvellous break in the match, a 147. Amazingly, and amusingly, it’s not the first time that such a thing happens at the China Open. Indeed, in 2010, in the second round (! but it was last 16 then) Neil Robertson made a 147 … in the only frame he won against Peter Ebdon. You can watch it here:

(and it was published by one of the Snooker.org first team members!)

Shaun Murphy also lost, by 6-0 to Chris Wakelin. From what transpired on social media Shaun was in a lot of pain: his neck and shoulder injuries are far from healed. I’m sure alas that the long haul flights didn’t do him any good.

For Ronnie and Shaun, those early exits might prove a blessing in disguise, giving them more time to prepare properly for the Crucible and get there fresher than most.

And although it stayed a bit under the radar on social media, Anthony McGill also lost, to no other than the young Luo Honghua the recent winner of the inaugural WSF Mixed Gender Championship.

Of course, for players like Duane Jones, Elliot Slessor and Chris Wakelin the wins might prove crucial in the context of their survival on the pro tour.

Also a point that is, maybe, worth mentioning is that those lower players are, usually, a lot fresher that the top guys at this time of the season. Slessor and Wakelin for instance played 34 matches this season, each, in 17 tournaments. By comparison, Murphy played 71 matches in 22 tournaments, and Ronnie 59 in 14 tournaments. Also the format usually gets longer at the business end of tournaments, with finals being best of 17 or best of 19. Murphy played in 5 finals, Ronnie played in 7 winning 5.

Matt Huart as usual, keeps track of every move. So basically now, the current top 13 are safe, and only Mark King could realistically join the top 16 … by reaching the final. Other players could theoretically do it too, but they need to win the title. But the “places” in the draw could still change quite a bit especially if Stuart Bingham and/or Mark Allen go deep!

Ronnie’s run in the China Open 2018 came to an end in the second round, last 64, at the hands of Elliot Slessor, who had also knocked him out of the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season. Elliot played very well, in all departments… and Ronnie was very poor, his concentration was at a sub-zero level, particularly before the MSI – Elliot was 4-0 up at the MSI. It was so bad that at a point a distracted Ronnie played a red … after potting a red. That was embarrassing! After the MSI, Ronnie was a bit more “alive” and seemed to have decided to try to make something happen by going for everything. He managed to win 2 frames… the final score was 6-2 to Elliot Slessor.

Here is the report on Wordlsnooker (excerpt):

Tuesday 3 Apr 2018 04:45PM

Ronnie O’Sullivan lost to Elliot Slessor for the second time this season as he crashed out of the Fuhua Group China Open with a 6-2 defeat.

Despite making the 14th maximum break of his career  in the fifth frame, world number two O’Sullivan lost to a player ranked 71 places below him. Slessor goes through to the last 32 in Beijing to face Tom Ford.

O’Sullivan has had one of the best seasons of his career so far, winning five of the 11 ranking events he has contested. Other than John Higgins, Slessor is the only player to beat him twice in those events, having also knocked him out of the Northern Ireland Open in November.

Today’s 147 will earn O’Sullivan £42,000 if the break is not matched this week, which would bring his tally of prize money this season to £845,500. With just the Betfred World Championship to come, he will need to reach the final at the Crucible to become the first player ever to earn £1 million in a single season.

He trailed 4-0 today when he compiled the 147. Slessor then made it 5-1, and although O’Sullivan stole the seventh frame with a 35 clearance, he was soon heading for the exit door. Slessor’s break of 64 put him in charge of frame eight and he sealed victory after his opponent had gone in-off while attempting to play safe on the last red.

“I love playing the top names in front of a crowd, that’s what I practise for,” said 23-year-old Slessor. “I don’t feel intimidated by them because I know if I play my best, I can compete. I knew Ronnie would come back at me after the interval so I just had to make the most of my chances.”

O’Sullivan said: “Elliot played a fantastic match, he kept potting balls and there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.  The 147 was nice for me and nice for the fans. Obviously I would have preferred to win the match, but a 147 is a good second prize.”

But in the middle of that disaster, there was a diamond: Ronnie made a 147, his 14th in competition.

I honestly think that Ronnie was embarrassed about such a poor performance and extremely happy to at least give the fans something to cheer on. After the match he tweeted:

Thanks to all the fans in China for your support, I always enjoy coming here! Nice to get a 147 in the match #14

That maximum break earned him £42000 (if nobody else makes one in the tournament) and a cuddle from Peggy Li, the referee!

Here are some images of the match, shared by worldsnooker and on weibo

It’s hard to know exactly why Ronnie’s form was so terrible today, maybe he was still heavily jet-lagged, maybe it was just a bad day, maybe, with the Crucible in sight and his n°2 seeding certain, his motivation wasn’t as high as it should have been or maybe … he ate a bit too much and had a bit too much fun ?

Indeed he shared this on weibo before the match:

Had lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in Beijing called Bai Jia Da Yuan. Already getting to see the beautiful places and meeting the lovely people of China. Looking forward to my match tonight! #ChinaOpen ​​​​

with pictures…

Whatever, hopefully, he will now go back home, get well rested and be able to prepare himself for the World Championship. This defeat may in fact be a blessing in disguise.

A lot happened today at the China Open in Beijing today as 22 matches were played.

There were three matches involving “wildcards”, of which two were won by the amateur over the professional. One of those winning amateurs is this boy:

Luo Honghao, 18 years old. He’s already certain to be a pro next season as he is the winner of the Mixed Gender World Federation Championship held  two weeks ago in Malta. Luo played another match today and defeated Stuart Carrington in the last 128 round, quite comfortably, by 6-2.

There were seven “held-over” last 128 matches. Four of those matches involved top players: Mark Selby, the defending Champion, World Champion and World n°1, Ronnie, World n°2, Ding Junhui, China’s n°1 and Liang Wenbo, China’s n°2. All four won their matches. Ding and Liang won quite easily judging by the frames scores. Ding was facing Michael Georgiou, potentially a banana skin for the local hero, but Ding, who scored five breaks over 60, had too much scoring power for the man of Cyprus.

You can read about Ronnie’s win here

Mark Selby was made to work very hard by Wang Yuchen. He eventually won by 6-4, but up to 4-4, Wang was matching him in every department. Mark wasn’t playing fantastic, but he wasn’t playing badly either. It was in many ways a strange match.

In the three other held-over matches, there were wins for Peter Ebdon, Andrew Higginson and Luo Honghao.

The remaining twelves matches on the day were last 64 matches, some of them potentially with a big impact on the Crucible seeding.

Mark Allen played Noppon Saengkham in the very first session and, in fact, outplayed him. He won by 6-1, with three centuries and three other breaks over 50! Here is what he had to say afterwards (source Worldsnooker)

“I’m not usually one to follow the rankings closely, but it’s hard to avoid it when we’re coming up to Sheffield and people are in my ear saying what I need to do. It’s still possible I will have to qualify, but I am in a far better position now after winning that match. I’m here to win the tournament and that’s all I can concentrate on.

“Today was as good as I have scored since the Masters. Noppon is a very good player so it’s nice to get a win under my belt, especially as it was tough to come here knowing I had to win.”

Allen’s victory means that Ryan Day will now definitely need to play three matches to qualify for the Crucible. Allen himself though, is not entirely safe just yet even if he is provisionally back in the top 16.

Stuart Bingham is another one who needed a win to consolidate his top 16 spot and got it: he beat Matthew Stevens by 6-5, from 5-3 down.

However two other currently top 16 members, Luca Brecel and Ali Carter lost in the last 64 round and are in danger to need to qualify for the Crucible, depending on others results. Follow Matt’s “race to the Crucible” blog to stay updated with the latests development of this important sub-plot. I watched most of the Luca Brecel v Cao Yupeng match and the least I can say is that Luca had countless opportunities. Cao looked quite vulnerable under pressure, and needed many chances, but they kept coming. Luca looked so strong early in the season, and motivated, but not today, and not for quite some time actually. Yes, he suffered some injuries, and had issues with his cue but, still, it’s hard to understand.

Elsewhere there were easy wins for Ricky Walden, Mark Williams, Jack Lisowski and Joe Perry.

Tomorrow both Mark Selby and Ronnie will face players who caused them problems earlier in the season: Ronnie is due to play Elliot Slessor, who beat him in Belfast, and Mark Selby will face Scott Donaldson who beat him at the UK Championship in York.

Also, Marco Fu, who isn’t playing in Beijing, confirmed that he will play at the Crucible despite ongoing eye issues.

Ronnie was amongst the players who had their first-round match held-over to the venue and he faced Ross Muir today in the afternoon in Beijing (morning for us in Europe). Ronnie won by 6-2 but it wasn’t a great performance.

Here is the report on Worldsnooker (excerpt)

Ronnie O’Sullivan could become the first player ever to earn £1 million in prize money in a single season if he goes all the way to the £225,000 top prize this week, and he started strongly with a 6-2 defeat of Ross Muir. Runs of 110, 67, 64 and 84 helped O’Sullivan into the last 64.

“It was difficult for Ross today because he’s not used to the TV table so there was more pressure on him than me,” said O’Sullivan, whose next opponent is Elliot Slessor. “I don’t play snooker for the money, but for some of the other players this is a big opportunity to earn a lot.”

Asked about the mistakes he made during the match, O’Sullivan joked: “I felt very angry, I wanted to smash my cue into a thousand pieces, but with so many people watching I thought I’d better be good.”

Ronnie started strongly, with an excellent 110, but as the match progressed his tiredness became obvious. He played some excellent snooker in spells, but also made lots of mistakes as he seemed to struggle to maintain his concentration.

Here is a report of what Ronnie had to say by Star Online 

O’Sullivan: Come to China and feel like a vacation doesn’t care about big bonuses

Star Online 2018-04-03 00:04:25 Report

Star Online News April 2, 2018, 2018 Fuhua Group Snooker China Open officially kicked off. In the afternoon, O’Sullivan debuted. In a contest with Ross Muir, “Rockets” defeated his opponent by 6-2 to win the match. After the game O’Sullivan came to the news center for an interview.

　　”I was a bit tired lately, probably without a good rest.” Perhaps because of the time difference, O’Sullivan hurried to the stadium 25 minutes before the start of the game.

In the first game of the game, the “Rockets” shot a single shot with 110 points and sealed the opponent. The score at halftime was tentatively set at 4-0. In the second half, despite the opponent’s counterattack, with a score of 64 and a score of 84, O’Sullivan sealed the victory. “I’m happy to see Rose Rachel’s performance with so many viewers.” O’Sullivan assured the opponent after the game.

　　The Snooker China Open has achieved a full upgrade this season. The total prize money exceeded one million pounds. It is very attractive to most players. However, in O’Sullivan’s opinion, it is not for bonuses. “I am very glad to come to China. I can see my fans here are very happy. I like China. Every time I come here, I feel like I’m on holiday. I’ll be willing to come if I have the opportunity. What I don’t care about is what I pay for.” China Billiards Association Xiaofan)

(automatic translation by Chrome)

However, this article in XinhuaNet probably gives us a better understanding of what Ronnie said (excerpt)

“I don’t play snooker for money. But maybe for some of the other players it’s a big opportunity to make some big money. But for me, fortunately, I’m alright in that area so I just come to play for fun,” he said. “China is the best place in the world. So any opportunity to come to China, I take every opportunity. So, for me it’s just like a holiday, and just good to be here,” O’Sullivan added.

For now I couldn’t find many images of the match, however someone on weibo clearly had fun snapping at Ronnie’s faces during his press conference!

Thanks to Tai Chengzhe for these! Much appreciated.

And Ronnie himself posted on weibo, for the first time in ages, saying that he was glad to be with Liang Wenbo again and vowing to be more active on weibo in the future…

Back in China with Liang Wenbo and back on my Weibo account. Looking forward to sharing more pictures and videos about my life on here! 

Ronnie will play Elliot Slessor in the last 64. The match is scheduled tomorrow evening in China (afternoon in Europe)

As is usual in China on the day before a big tournament, the players are made to feel very welcome, with an opening press conference and a “red carpet walk”. This time was no exception. One player for whom this day was even more special, is Ding Junhui who was celebrating his 31th birthday.

Happy Birthday Ding!

It’s worth remembering that on April 3, 2005, a very young Ding – he had just turned 18 – beat Stephen Hendry by 9-5, sending the ball rolling for what proved to be the massive snooker revolution in China. He had entered the tournament as a wildcard!

Today, the shy boy has grown up into a National Super Star and a hero for an entire generation of young Chinese talents!

There were plenty of images of the opening press conference and red carpet ceremony shared on weibo … enjoy!

I also found some images, taken yesterday by Windy Xu, showing the venue and some players practicing, amongst them Ross Muir, Ronnie’s opponent in the first round

But tomorrow the things start in earnest. Ronnie, Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo will all be in action, as their last 128 matches were held to the main venue.

However, for Mark Selby and Ronnie, what will happen in Beijing will have no impact on their seeding at the Crucible in three weeks time. Mark Selby though had a pretty dire season by his standards and an early exit would do his confidence no good.

For other players though, this tournament is crucial, be it for a possible seeding at the Crucible – avoiding three qualifying matches – or for their survival on the main tour.

Master Anorak, Matt Huart explains it all in those two articles:

https://www.wpbsa.com/race-to-the-crucible-2018-china-open-preview/

https://www.wpbsa.com/tour-survival-2018-two-to-go/

And it starts right away! Mark Allen is facing the very dangerous Noppon Saengkham tomorrow morning – still night here in Europe – and there is a lot at stake for him: should he lose, he’s heading to the World Qualifiers, should he win, he’s not 100% safe but definitely sends Ryan Day to the World Qualifiers.