It was quite an extraordinary day in Leicester yesterday, and the WST report doesn’t do it justice.
Evans Reaches Final Stages
Reanne Evans battled to a marathon 5-4 win over Jenson Kendrick to successfully negotiate BetVictor European Masters qualifying in Leicester and clinch her place in the final stages in Nuremberg.
It’s a first victory in a full length match for the 12-time Women’s World Champion, since regaining her professional status back in 2021. However, she was made to do it the hard way in a match which lasted over four hours.
The first two frames were shared, before Evans claimed the third and the fourth to head into the mid-session interval 3-1 ahead. Kendrick won the fifth, but it was Evans who then took a mammoth one hour and 13 minute frame to move one from victory at 4-2.
Kendrick kept his hopes alive, before the pair were pulled off with Evans leading 4-3 to allow the evening session games to begin. When they eventually returned it was Evans who got over the line to clinch her qualification.
James Cahill scored an emphatic 5-0 defeat of Thailand’s Women’s World Champion Baipat Siripaporn. Blackpool cueman Cahill made breaks of 59, 50 and 72 on his way to the whitewash victory and a place in Nuremberg.
Jack Lisowski made a 141 on his way to beating Sam Craigie 5-4, while Belgium’s Ben Mertens came from 4-3 down to beat Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson 5-4.
Alfie Burden, who recently regained his tour place through Q School, took the final two frames of his tie with Hayden Pinhey to emerge with a thrilling 5-4 victory.
First of all, this report once again shows how everything WST is terribly UK-centric: indeed there is nothing about Liu Hongyu’s excellent 5-1 win over Hammad Miah. Liu, only 19, looks like a very special player: last month he managed to reach stage 2 of the 2023 ranking CLS on his first day as a professional and yesterday he beat Miah, an experienced professional, very convincingly. If he was a British youngster it would probably the headline of the WST report, as it is, he’s not even mentioned.
Reanne showed great patience and resilience yesterday. She was the better player and the most positive of the two at the table. It eventually paid off and she got a lot of support and praise on social media. Hopefully this win will give Reanne the confidence she needs to win matches regularly, and show what she is truly capable of.
Ben Mertens’ win is briefly mentioned but not the fact that Ben was 4-3 down and needing a snooker at one point. It looked over. Gary Wilson is a top player, a ranking event winner. Ben is only 18. Showing such resilience, fighting spirit and self-belief at such a young age is remarkable.
Sanderson Lam also registered a good win (by 5-3) against the very solid Mark Joyce. Sanderson had four breaks over 50 in the process and enjoyed the match. It was a very good game.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Why is Reanne beating one of the worst players on tour a big deal? If a 37 year old male player beat Kendrick, would anyone care? It’s a form of reverse sexism in my opinion, and quite patronising to Reanne’s career and other female players that beating Kendrick is thought of as a big deal.
Mertens beating Wilson is much more noteworthy and impressive.
Reanne hadn’t won a telling professional match until yesterday. There have been a lot of abuse directed at her and, in general, a lot of criticism about the decision to give the women tour a qualifying route status. It has certainly done nothing for her confidence and general mental health. It is true that Jenson Kendrick isn’t the strongest player in the field but she still had to win this match. She fought extremely hard. She was very patient. That’s why I feel it was important to report on it. The fact that she is 37 is not a particularly “favourable” aspect either. The older you get, the less adaptable you become and the more accumulated scars you have to deal with. But yesterday she dealt very well with the whole situation and, hopefully, she can build on that.
Yes it is a shame that the women’s elevation to the professional tour probably came too late for Reanne Evans. But anyone who actually watched that match yesterday wouldn’t be very enthusiastic about either player, and certainly not talking it up as WST’s report did. There was a frame that lasted 75 minutes where Kendrick thought he was better off trying to win by accumulating penalty points. They needed two sessions and three referees to grind through their frames, and it lasted nearly 5 hours. Honestly, I’d prefer it if they went for their shots and lost rather than play that kind of game. But I suppose winning is everything, even with the £20000 guarantee.
Yes, the Ben Mertens win was extraordinary – it’s doesn’t often happen that a player wins a match from that position. He did very well at the end of the 8th frame. At least we will get another European in the European Masters! Brecel and Kazakov have held-over matches, and Ursenbacher is yet to play.
Siripaporn Nuantakhamjan (Baipat) and He Guoqiang both lost their first professional matches 5-0. Part of their problem was that they only just arrived in the UK (although Baipat has been here before). Whilst the Summer Championship League is not a popular tournament, it does provide ideal preparation for new players, which they lacked. He Guoqiang has a lot of ability, but he didn’t get started.
Ben Mertens win is the big story for me. Gary Wilson is a fine player and I heard Shaun Murphy speaking of Wilson that he can win any tournament he plays in but it won’t be the European Masters.
Mertens & Hongyu are both in splendid form going forward.