Here is the report on day 1 at the 2023 European Masters Quals as shared by WST

Higgins Thumps Gould To Book Germany Spot

John Higgins made a superb start to his 2023/24 season as he fired a century and three more breaks over 70 in a 5-1 thrashing of Martin Gould to reach the final stages of the BetVictor European Masters.

Higgins elected not to enter the season-opening BetVictor Championship League, but following a three-month break from competitive action the Scot was quickly into a groove and needed just 81 minutes to stroll through the qualifying round in Leicester.

The four-time Crucible king will head to Nuremberg for the televised stages of the world ranking event which will run from August 22 to 27. ..

Runs of 97 and 80 gave Higgins the first two frames. Gould pulled one back with a 138, but failed to pot a ball in the last three frames as Higgins fired breaks of 129, 78 and 48.

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh eased to a 5-0 whitewash over Asjad Iqbal, top scoring with 75, 59 and 80. Ireland’s Aaron Hill edged out Jimmy White 5-4, despite veteran White fighting back from 4-1 down to 4-4.

Jamie Jones enjoyed a tremendous fight-back from 4-1 down to beat Yuan Sijun 5-4. Jones took the last four frames with top breaks of 98, 118 and 135.

Zak Surety scored the highest break of his career, 135, and also made a 105 during a 5-3 defeat of Cazoo British Open champion Ryan Day.

Family life has been my priority over the last two weeks and I didn’t see much of the action yesterday but here are some thoughts about what I did see, and the results. You will find all detailed results on snooker.org.

It’s really strange to see John Higgins in qualifiers and it’s bad news for whoever draws him there, as Martin Gould found out yesterday.

It’s really hard not to like Jimmy White despite the countless heartbreaks he has inflicted to his fans over the teears. Even in qualifiers, he always presents himself impeccably dressed. He puts his heart in every shot. He fights with all he had. There was all of that yesterday again. His fightback from 4-1 to 4-4 are the three frames I saw in the whole afternoon. I know that Aaron Hill is part of the future of the sport we love, and Jimmy, at 61, is the past… I was still sad when I found out the final result.

Zak Surety is a mystery to me. I have seen him play countless times, in PTCs, on the Q-tour … at times he looks unplayable, more often he looks ordinary. Apparently yesterday was an “unplayable” day…

In the evening I watched a bit of the Slessor vs Moody match, two frames actually. The kid ha a LOT to learn, which is to be expected of course. To his credit though he showed strong resilience. Shaun Murphy sees a young self in Stan Moody. I don’t. He’s a very “busy” player but actually not fast at all. His mannerisms remind me more of Matthew Stevens or Ricky Walden than Shaun Murphy.