I wasn’t planning to report on the German Masters qualifiers today, but yesterday turned out to be a bit special…
Indeed Thepchaiya Un-Nooh scored a maximum break, his third, in the second frame of his first round match. You can watch it here:
It was far from staigthforward with four reds on the bottom half of the table, three of them past the baulk line.
That maximum of course is now the tournament high break, and is very unlikely to be “beaten”. Peter Devlin who had previously scored a 143 in the only frame he won, was the holder of the tournament high break until Theppy “stole” it from him…
Peter was feeling aggrieved and expressed his feelings in his own way … with a rap!
Thepchaiya ultimately lost that match. He was beaten 5-3 by Fan Zhengyi. This is an excellent result for the young Chinese who has struggled during his first years on the tour. Fan won the last three frames of the match.
There was a good result as well for another young Chinese: indeed Lyu Haotian defeated Lee Walker by 5-2, with four breaks over 60, including a century. Lyu seems to have been on the tour for a long time, and actually he is indeed a professional since 2013, but he’s only 23 years old. His first years on tour were very traumatic, but hopefully he’s finding some form and confidence back now.
Mark Allen defeated Alfie Burden by 5-1 in a match that featured three centuries, including a 141 by Alfie. The score could easily have been different if it wasn’t for Alfie’s impeccable sportsmanship. Here is what Mark Allen posted on social media after the match:
Neil Robertson beat Michael White by 5-1 in a scoring fest: each frame featured a 50+ break: 52, 88, 103, 135 (NR), 60 (MW), 73 (NR).
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Thepchaiya missed a lot of balls he would usually pot. His form has been very ragged, and his end-of-season ranking is worryingly low. Nevertheless, it was probably Fan’s best win. Sunny Akani also has to watch his ranking, but he’s somehow managed to keep winning his first-round matches, which makes a big difference. There is £3000 avaliable for a first-round win, and only £4000 for two wins. Zhang Anda also qualified for Germany, his first wins since all of the covid disruptions and the birth of his son.
But Lichtenberg lost, once again denying the German crowd the chance to support a local player.
With two rounds of qualifiers, it’s almost inevitable that neither Lichtenberg, nor Kleckers would be there. All that once again shows the reality of the UK bias. In the Home Nations some local players have their first match held-over and even if it’s not the case, the qualifiers are all played in the UK. You will tell me it’s a long trip from Scotland or South Wales to the qualifying venues in England. It’s still doable. Of course currently there is nobody watching at the qualifiers, but on a “normal year” it’s doable.