Time to have a look at what happened this week at the 2022 English Open qualifiers.
Tuesday
The highlight of the day for me was the excellent 4-0 win by Julien Leclercq over Si Jiahui. After a hard fought first frame, Julien dominated the match. He scored breaks of 86, 75 and 51 en route to victory. When he qualified for the main Tour, Julien was elated, like most youngsters when they start their first year. But realisation soon dawned on him that it wasn’t to be easy at all. He reacted well though. After losing his previous match against Pang Junxu in the 2022 Scottish Open qualifiers, he came on social media saying “I’ll be back”. The score in that match had been 4-1, but the match was much closer than the score suggests and Julien had shown that he’s a fighter.
Michael White produced a stunning performance in beating Michael Judge by 4-0, with breaks of 77, 141, 92 and 50. Michael is a joy to watch when playing well.
Wednesday
The standout result on Wednesday was Muhammad Asif 4-2 win over Oliver Brown. Overall it wasn’t a high scoring match, although Muhammad scored a magnificent 134 in frame 4. It was hard fought and Muhammad showed both positivity and resilience. The way he plays is very easy on the eye. It’s worth noting that Muhammad is one of the Asia-Oceania Q-School laureates. This was only his second match on the main tour. Most people I talked to don’t rate the Asia-Oceania Q-School qualifiers. They may be surprised …
Thursday
Two matches stood out for me on Thursday.
Ding Junhui absolutely destroyed Ian Burns… scores speak for themselves
Ding is a marvellous player to watch when on form.
Mink lost by 4-3 to Chen Zifan. Chen scored breaks of 122, 75, 51 and 81 in that match, he lead 3-0. Mink’s only “big” break was a 54 in frame four. She gained a lot of fans though and showed tremendous character in fighting back from the brink of defeat to force a decider. Eventually, it was in vain. She impressed though. Her tactical nous and safety game were excellent, her will to fight and win exemplary.
The low point of the day was of course the Liang Wenbo affair.
Friday
Joe Perry’s recent form is worrying. Yesterday he was beaten by 4-1 by Cao Yupeng.
We had two very hard fought matches: Anthony McGill beat David Grace by 4-3 and and Sam Craigie beat Graeme Dott by the same score in a fantastic encounter that featured two centuries and five more breaks over 50.
This week-end …
Today will see the much anticipated return of “Poomy”. Dechawat Poomjaeng will play Alexander Ursenbacher. The winner of that match will take on the winner of the held-over encounter between Ronnie and Ben Mertens.
The last match tomorrow should be interesting as Gary Wilson will face Lyu Haotian.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
So sad about Mink. Her safeties are great and she laid some mean snookers. I just wish she stopped missing some pots when she is actually making a good break. Maybe she made some fans, but there were also those who commended her for her efforts, but concluded that once again no woman made it to the main draw, therefore a good women’s tour is needed. đŸ˜¦ I mean it might be good to have one, but I don’t like the implied meaning that she can’t be successful on the main tour.
We watched with breath withheld Dechawat Poomjaeng beating Ursenbacher, especially the ending with all the mistakes. No crazy or happy antics this time, but happy to see Ursenbacher gone, he was quite dreadful anyway: only up to playing Ronnie?