Liang Wenbo suspended again
Shortly before Liang Wenbo was due to play Peter Lines in the English Open qualifiers, WST site, on their sessions page, indicated that Lines was getting a walk over.
Thursday 27 Oct 2022 03:03PM
The WPBSA has today suspended Liang Wenbo from attending or competing in WPBSA sanctioned events. This is due to an ongoing investigation into allegations of misconduct. The suspension will remain in place until the conclusion of the investigation or the outcome of disciplinary proceedings.
The WPBSA will not comment further until the investigation is complete.
This is bizarre on many accounts. According to reports in the press, this suspension is NOT linked to the domestic abuse affair that lead to the previous one. However there was no indication about the nature of the “misconduct”. Also, Liang was informed of his suspension at very short notice before his match. He’s not allowed to attend WPBSA sanctioned events: it’s not just that he isn’t allowed to compete, he’s not allowed to be there, even as a spectator. I’m not sure how common such restriction is, but I know that the same is true for Stephen Lee.
German Masters Draw and Qualifiers format
WST has published the draw and qualifiers format for the 2023 German Masters
Friday 28 Oct 2022 10:04AM
The draw and format for the 2023 BetVictor German Masters are now available. The qualifying rounds will be played from November 21 to 26 in Leicester, with 32 players going through to the final stages at the Tempodrom in Berlin in February.
Zhao Xintong, who beat Yan Bingtao 9-0 in the final last season, will start the defence of his title against Wu Yize. World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will take on Oliver Brown while Germany’s top player Lukas Kleckers will face India’s Himanshu Jain.
Matthew Stevens will be up against Stephen Hendry – a repeat of the 2003 UK Championship final – while Judd Trump will meet Mark Davis. John Higgins will play Marco Fu in a repeat of their recent Hong Kong Masters semi-final.
Ronnie has entered the tournament. I was not really expecting this: he’s rarely shown a lot of enthusiasm for this event, there are two rounds of qualifiers, with no held-over matches, and he has a couple of exhibitions in Bulgaria on 25 and 26 November. He’s playing his first match on November 23, with the second, should he qualify, the next day.
Liang Wenbo is also in the draw, which is slightly baffling given the previous announcement. I suppose that they can’t prevent him to enter events until the investigation finishes and maybe they expect it to be quick.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 