The action at the tables …
Here are the two reports shared by WST after the first day of action in Nuremberg
Morning and afternoon sessions
Selby Scores Whitewash Win
Mark Selby enjoyed a perfect start to his season with a 5-0 win over Thai tour rookie Manasawin Phetmalaikul at the BetVictor European Masters in Nuremberg.
This morning’s win was Selby’s first appearance on the World Snooker Tour since losing an epic Crucible final to Luca Brecel 18-15 back in May. He now progresses to the second round, where a clash with Sheffield’s Adam Duffy awaits.
It was Phetmalaikul who made a promising start this morning, firing in a break of 51 to take control of the opener. However, four-time World Champion Selby responded with 75 to clinch the frame and move 1-0 ahead. A contribution of 63 gave Selby the second, before he made it 3-0 by taking a marathon 59-minute third. The Leicester cueman then crafted two breaks of 60 to ease over the line with a 5-0 win.
Over the summer Selby was awarded with an MBE and admits it is an accolade he could scarcely have believed he would receive when he was growing up.
“Coming from a council estate background, not really having much and wearing trousers that didn’t fit me. If you had told me back then that when I got to 40 years old I would be picking up an MBE, I’d probably have laughed at you. I am really proud of my achievements to be given that,” said 22-time ranking event winner Selby.
“It was a shock in the first place to be given one. To go to Windsor Castle with Vikki, Sophia and Vikki’s mum was an amazing experience. Going inside, seeing the place and meeting Princess Anne was nice. She is a lovely lady and said some nice words. She follows the snooker and said commiserations for the world final.”
Last season’s Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui held of 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty to win 5-3 and secure his progression.
China’s Si had looked set for a dream maiden world final earlier this year, when he led Luca Brecel 14-5 in the last four. However, Brecel mounted the biggest comeback in Crucible history to emerge a 17-15 winner and land a heartbreaking blow on his opponent. Si will be hoping to bounce back from that defeat with a big run early on this season.
Next up Si faces a potential showdown with defending champion Kyren Wilson, who beat Scotland’s Dean Young 5-1 in their heldover tie this morning. Wilson top scored with 61 and now plays Alfie Burden in the second round.
John Higgins eased through to the last 32 with a 5-1 win over Dylan Emery. The Scot had a chance for a 147 in the final frame, but broke down after missing a black on 73.
First of all, congratulations to Mark Selby on his MBE. This is a well deserved recognition for all his hard work, perseverance and courage over more than 20 years. The estate council kid who was abandoned by his mother and lost his father at 16 has gone a long way and he should be proud indeed.
Then, of course, as usual, a lot of matches are not reported on.
Zhou Yuelong beat Andrew Higginson by 5-1, with a break of 124 in frame three. Duane Jones won by 5-2 against Dominic Dale. Lyu Haotian had a very good hard-fought win against Elliott Slessor; Lyu lead 2-0, trailed 2-3 and 3-4, only to win the last two frames for victory.
Crucible King Brecel Makes Winning Start
Luca Brecel won his first competitive match as World Champion, beating Jackson Page 5-3 at the BetVictor European Masters in Nuremberg, despite having recently lost his cue.
The Belgian sensationally landed his first ever Crucible crown back in May by winning a classic final with Mark Selby 18-15. Although he first competed at the Theatre of Dreams in 2012, this year’s opening round victory over Ricky Walden was remarkably his first at the hallowed venue.
World number two Brecel can reach the summit of the rankings this week if he makes the final, following current world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan’s withdrawal this morning. However, he is having to overcome cue issues, after the one he used to win the World Championship was lost whilst flying from Seattle to Frankfurt in the summer.
Using a different cue, Brecel faced a tricky test this afternoon against Welshman Page in his first match as World Champion. Breaks of 54 and 66 helped the 28-year-old to take the first two frames this afternoon, but Page replied with two on the bounce himself to restore parity at 2-2.
Brecel hit the front again after taking the fifth, where he embarked on a 147 attempt before breaking down on 80. A run of 89 from Page saw him claw back level again, but it was Brecel who stormed to the line by taking the next two frames to emerge a 5-3 victor. He faces Indian rookie Ishpreet Singh Chadha in round two.
Brecel said: “When the draw came out I was panicking a bit. Jackson Page is not the one you want as a starter, he is really tough and a big talent. I had to play really well and I didn’t expect to play this well. I’m really happy with the win.
“I don’t think this cue is ever going to be the same. Normally the cue doesn’t matter to me but this one felt so good that it is going to take some time to get used to. I guess this is also a good cue and it is never going to be exactly the same, but I think I can get really close to my World Championship level.”
Chinese 19-year-old Wu Yize staged a shock win over 2010 World Champion Neil Robertson, emerging a 5-3 victor after a thrilling encounter.
The result sees Wu enact revenge for a 10-3 loss at the hands of Robertson at last season’s World Championship. The first four frames this evening were shared, before breaks of 81 and 47 saw Wu surge to a 4-2 lead.
Robertson responded with a sublime break of 110 to stay alive. However, Wu emphatically got himself over the line with a break of 93 in the eighth to come through 5-3.
Last season’s Player of the Year Mark Allen kept his chances of moving to world number one for the first time alive with a 5-0 whitewash win over Anton Kazakov. The Pistol top scored with 81 and must win the event to top the world rankings. He faces an intriguing clash with Thepchaiya Un-Nooh next.
Judd Trump hit the ground running with a 5-0 win over Egyptian Mohamed Ibrahim, which set up a second round clash with Northern Ireland’s Jordan Brown. The Ace in the Pack composed breaks of 71, 74, 117 and 60 on his way to the win.
Ricky Walden put on a fine performance to beat Jamie Jones 5-3. The Chester cueman compiled runs of 123, 125 and 138 during the victory.
Again a lot of “forgotten” matches …
Chris Wakelin played very well and whitewashed Aaron Hill … and he looked genuinely happy at the table as well. Winning the Shoot-Out seems to have “freed” him. Tom Ford beat Oliver Brown by 5-2 from 0-2 down. He scored three breaks over 50 in the process. Ben Woollaston beat Xu Si by 5-1 in a match that was much closer than the scores suggest. Ross Muir beat Joe Perry by 5-3 in a very hard fought and close match: the first frame set the tone, it ended in a re-spotted black after the scores were tied at 70-70. That match was pulled off at 4-3 as the next session had to start. It resumed later.
There are two extremely surprising omissions in the above report: Hossein Vafaei was beaten 5-0 by Allan Taylor – a very surprising score – and Michael White beat Jack Lisowski by 5-4 despite the fact that Jack scored breaks of 73, 74, 76 and 107 in the four frames he won. Jack still doesn’t seem to be able to win the close ones. I’m not sure what he learned from Ebdon TBH.
Shaun Murphy beat Steven Hallworth – who replaces Dott – by 5-2. Nothing remarkable there except the fact that it’s not reported on as the Smurph usually gets all the headlines… Ashley Carty beat Joe O’Connor by 5-4 in high quality match that featured eight breaks over 50, including two centuries. Ashley won the last three frames and finished with a 129.
I expected surprises and there were two big ones indeed: the defeats for Neil Robertson and Hossein Vafaei. Wu Yize is through to round three: he was due to play Liu Hongyu who had to withdraw because of visa issues.
Scoring system shambles …
The scoring system once again failed miserably 😡
For most of the day the whole snooker.org team chased scores all over the internet, on all available scores sites and streams, including the Chinese ones and even by getting in contact with fans at the venue. Even worse, in extended periods of time, there wasn’t even a “score line” shown in the streams for the matches in progress. This is utterly unprofessional from WST, and it was an exhausting exercise for the snooker.org team as well.
This morning yesterday scores are in the WST scoring system, so they surely worked on that overnight. Let’s hope it works better today …
On the program today …
Some very interesting clashes today indeed. These are my picks:
- Theppy v Mark Allen
- Xiao Guodong v Stuart Bingham
- Ben Mertens v Sanderson Lam
- Mark Williams v Matthew Stevens
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Lisowski losing is not even a surprise anymore.
In a way I felt a certain satisfaction at the outcome of the Robertson-match as I started the morning with reading an article which pretty much said how lucky Robertson is that his second round opponent could not attend the tournament and therefore he will immediately advance to the 3rd (only using the usual weak disclaimer that he had a 1st round match to win). Having said that, while people say Neil is understandably rusty at the beginning of the season, he seems to continue where he left off last season (not very good for him.) Too much time spent painting toy soldiers?
After his match Neil tweeted this “Sometimes you just have to laugh. My taxi driver taking me to the football stadium last night instead of the arena where I was playing! He couldn’t speak English so I had call the tournament office to tell him in German where to go. He still didn’t understand so I had to get maps on the phone and direct him from the back seat, getting to the venue 7-8 min before my match. Certainly topped off the trip from hell! At least I have my cue back” … Which suggests a few things…
1. he left it too late as usual. He should have planned to arrive the day before. But no. That’s Neil, and it has cost him a few times, but apparently he doesn’t learn from it.
2. his cue got lost and arrived late. So, likely he played with someone else’s cue.
Under such circumstances it’s understandable that he wasn’t at his best. Understandable but not excusable because it’s largely his own fault.
Lol, Neil also posted how he liked Nuremberg and found vegan kebab and a shop where he bought dices. 😯 So he would have had time to figure out where he was playing. 😃
Well that was likely AFTER he lost. He’s not the type who would “punish” him self by starving or sulking.