Day 5 in Wigan delivered some surprises …
Carter Stunned By Miah
World number 71 Hammad Miah earned a place in the final stages of the Cazoo British Open with a surprise 4-1 success over Ali Carter.
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Miah reached the last 16 of the same event last year, matching his best ever run in a ranking event, and can look forward to the trip to Milton Keynes in September after a superb win over two-time Crucible finalist Carter. Breaks of 63 and 68 helped put Miah 3-0 ahead, and despite losing the fourth frame he sealed the result in the fifth with a run of 59.
Elliot Slessor, a semi-finalist in this tournament last season, came from 2-0 down to edge out Sean O’Sullivan 4-3, making breaks of 76, 53, 103 and 63. Mitchell Mann also came from 2-0 behind to beat Tom Ford 4-3, taking the decider by clearing from yellow to pink.
Ben Woollaston made a 130, equalling the highest break of the event so far, in a 4-2 defeat of James Cahill, while promising rookie Dylan Emery top scored with 87 in a 4-0 thrashing of Peng Yisong. Marco Fu was on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline against China’s Cao Yupeng.
What baffles me the most is that there is not even a mention of Jamie Clarke’s demolition of Fan Zhengyi in this report. Clarke played extremely well in that match. Fan, who was playing his first match this season, didn’t play particularly badly, he wasn’t allowed to play for the best part of the encounter. In the first frame, fan came back at the table, 77 behind with 51 on and didn’t try to play for snookers. Instead he cleared the table playing some very nice shots in the process. I was expecting a close match. Not so. The third frame definitely sealed it: leading by 58 with 59 on the table, Fan missed frame ball and Clarke, faced with a not particularly easy table, cleared to steal the frame. After that there was only one winner.
Carter was his moody self, and Miah played well. Miah is a strange player. He is very, very capable, and I have seen him play stunningly well, notably in the World qualifiers with a lot at stakes. How he hasn’t done better in his career so far is a mystery to me.
Mark Joyce won his match easily. His opponent, Daniel Wells had been called in latish to replace Asjad Iqbal who withdrew. Iqbal is one of the two Pakistani pros, still waiting for their visas. The other one is Asif.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Fan Zhengyi demonstrated very clearly how not to approach his first match of the season. He should have made sure of frame 3 (a simple blue, rather than the more difficult pink). But part of Fan’s appeal is his boldness, which will go spectacularly wrong sometimes. Clarke was a difficult opponent for him in that match. Besides, Fan is nodoubt distracted by the event next week in Germany, where he is defending champion.