Yesterday was the last day of the 2021 Scottish Open qualifiers and here is the (short) report by WST:
Crafty Ken Through After Carter Drama
Ken Doherty won the deciding frame on the final black to beat Ali Carter 4-3 and qualify for the final stages of the BetVictor Scottish Open.
Despite turning 52 this month, world number 73 Doherty remains competitive on the pro tour, and his victory over Carter – ranked 51 places higher – puts him through to the televised phase of the tournament in Llandudno in December.
Carter led 2-0 and 3-2, making breaks of 53, 66, 50 and 69. Irishman Doherty made 74 to level at 3-3, then in the decider he came from 67-40 down to clear from the last red and clinch a fine victory.
Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans suffered a 4-2 defeat against Mitchell Mann. From 2-1 down, Evans took the fourth frame and then built a handy lead in the fifth with a break of 44. But Mann fought back to take that frame on the colours before sealing the result in the sixth.
Chang Bingyu top scored with 109 in a 4-1 win over Jimmy White, while Hammad Miah came from 3-2 down to edge out Ashley Carter 4-3.
Chang Bingyu was really excellent against Jimmy White. He’s only 19 and still learning of course but if his safety game improves a bit – not much – he will be a danger to anyone. His potting and positional play were very good yesterday.
Hammad Miah beat Ahsley Carty of course, not Ashely Carter. It really annoys me how often players names are mispelled in recent WST reports. I usually “correct” them … but not this time.
As usual, some matches have been “forgotten”…
Craig Steadman beat Chen Zifan by 4-2. Going by the frames scores it must have been hard-fought.
David Lilley completely outplayed Dean Young: the veteran scored a 102 and a 82 en route to victory, whist young Dean was restricted to 38 points in total. Here is another one who is clearly not ready for the main tour. He hasn’t won a match yet – he played seven – and he has only won 5 frames from the 28 he played. And that, despite the fact that he hasn’t actually faced any top player yet: the highest ranked player he faced was Scott Donaldson, his practice partner. Scott is ranked 35 in the World.
There is clearly something wrong in the structure of the sport.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Chang Bingyu is a fine prospect – I predicted his as one to watch at the start of the season. He nearly qualified for the World Championship and just managed to survive by virtue of the 1-year list, which means he started the season at the bottom of the rankings despite steady improvement during his first 2 years. His biggest weakness is that he can’t play with the rest. Despite obvious disappointment at losing, Jimmy White must have been very impressed.
At last these qualifiers have finished. It may be that a few of the players are happy playing behind closed doors but I imagine most, especially the older ones, weren’t happy being excluded from the main venues and made to play in a dismal setting with only 2 tables. The conditions weren’t always up to standard, but I don’t suppose much notice was taken since these are hardly the elite players. But for most snooker fans, they were either bored with these 12 days, or just ignored them completely. The season has stalled.
Not having an audience is obviously not good and neither is the setting, but maybe it is not so bad as layers/matches were streamed which might not be otherwise if elite players are also in action.People who wanted to watch snooker and would usually watch the top, watched these matches instead.