World Champion Luca Brecel remains in contention to move to the summit of the world rankings, after a rousing fightback saw him beat Robbie Williams 5-4 at the BetVictor European Masters in Nuremberg.
Belgian Brecel must make the semi-finals to surpass Ronnie O’Sullivan this week, he can do that tomorrow if he comes through the two scheduled rounds. First up, Brecel faces three-time ranking event winner Barry Hawkins, who beat Zak Surety 5-1.
It had looked as if the Crucible king was set to exit the event this afternoon when breaks of 91, 53 and 67 moved world number 47 Williams into a surprise 3-0 lead. Brecel responded with four on the bounce to move one from victory at 4-3, before Williams took the game to what would prove to be a memorable decider.
With the pressure on, Brecel stepped up and fired home the 200th century break of his career, with a sublime total clearance of 134, to ensure his progression to the next round.
“It was a brilliant moment. At 3-0 down, I wasn’t in the game and he was playing really well. I think I had to take my chance in the frame before the interval. At 4-0 down there is probably no chance. I’m really proud of myself to keep fighting,” said 28-year-old Brecel.
“There have been World Champions that have struggled in the past, but I kind of like it. Always being on table one focusses me. Maybe on a different table at 3-0 down I would have given up easier. Now I am a World Champion, I have a responsibility to the crowd and snooker in general.
“I have a good chance now (to become world number one). I’m only two games away and there is a lot to play for. It is something new for me to play for so much. The World Championship and now the world number one spot. It’s exciting times.”
Elsewhere in the afternoon session, former European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson defeated three-time World Champion Mark Williams 5-4 and Mark Selby defeated Anthony Hamilton 5-1.
John Higgins defeated old rival Shaun Murphy 5-2 to seal his place in the quarter-finals of the BetVictor European Masters in Nuremberg.
Remarkably the pair hadn’t crossed cues on the World Snooker Tour for seven years prior to today. Victory for Higgins enhances his head-to-head lead over Murphy to 11-5, which includes a World Championship final win back in 2009.
Despite defeat this evening, Murphy will be able to reflect on a strong start to the campaign, having already picked up silverware at the BetVictor Championship League. Higgins is appearing for the first time this season and will hope to begin with a title, after failing to go beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking event last term.
Next up for 31-time ranking event winner Higgins is a quarter-final showdown with defending champion Kyren Wilson, who whitewashed Welshman Duane Jones 5-0.
It was 2005 Crucible king Murphy who came flying out of the traps tonight, firing in 113 to take the opener. However, Higgins responded emphatically with a break of 126 to restore parity.
Further contributions of 66 and 120 from Higgins saw him move two ahead, before he took a tight fifth frame to lead 4-1. Murphy kept himself in the contest by taking the sixth, but a frame later four-time World Champion Higgins crossed the line and wrapped up a massive victory.
Higgins said: “It was a brilliant win for me. I was nervous before the game, playing against the form player. I think just watching him in the first frame, the way he was striking the cueball and walking about spurred me on. He hits the ball like a dream. I was taking the positives from watching him and trying to add it into my game.
“Every credit to Kyren. He just seems to be at the latter stages of every tournament now. He obviously believes he is one of the best players and he is one of the best players. He is the defending champion and has won most of his games pretty easily this week. I am going to have to produce that same form again to give him a game tomorrow.”
Judd Trump secured his place in the quarter-finals with a 5-0 win over Ben Woolaston. The Ace in the Pack survived a scare earlier in the day when he rallied from 4-0 down to beat Chris Wakelin 5-4.
It was more straightforward this evening, with breaks of 78, 106 and 76 contributing to the whitewash victory. His last eight opponent will be Rotherham’s Ashley Carty, who scored a superb 5-3 defeat of Ricky Walden this evening. It is the first quarter-final appearance of Carty’s career.
Needless to say , lot of the matches played yesterday not reported on. You will find all the results on snooker.org. Ben Mertens, one of the two the Belgians pros, was in action at the same time as Luca and his fortune was somehow an inverted mirror image of Luca’s fortune. Ben was 3-1 and 4-2 up on David Gilbert but eventually lost by 5-4. He will learn from this match, I’m sure. In the decider he made a couple of shot selections that cost him IMO.
The random draw for the last 64 of the Cazoo British Open has been made. The tournament runs from September 25th to October 1st in the Centaur Arena at Cheltenham Racecourse.
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If Ronnie O’Sullivan can come through his opening round clash with Jimmy Robertson he will face talented Chinese teenager Wu Yize , while top 16 stars Shaun Murphy and Jack Lisowski will collide if they beat Rebecca Kenna and Joe O’Connor respectively.
The second round draw is below:
Joe O’Connor or Jack Lisowski vs Shaun Murphy or Rebecca Kenna
Gary Wilson or Ahmed Elsayed vs Chris Wakelin
Ryan Day or Sean O’Sullivan vs Thor Chuan Leong
Lyu Haotian vs David Gilbert
John Higgins or Zehuang Long vs Robbie Williams
Stephen Maguire vs Peng Yisong or Mark Williams
Fan Zhengyi vs Ross Muir
He Guoqiang vs Muhammad Asif
Scott Donaldson vs Liam Graham
Judd Trump or Anton Kazakov vs Hammad Miah
Jamie Jones vs Julien Leclercq
Xu Si vs Ali Carter or Allan Taylor
Noppon Saengkham vs Fergal O’Brien
David Grace vs Sanderson Lam
Daniel Wells vs Ashley Carty
Tom Ford vs Ashley Hugill
Ken Doherty vs Matthew Stevens
Hailong Ma vs Mohamed Ibrahim
Tian Pengfei vs Mark Selby or Ben Woollaston
Jun Jiang or Robert Milkins vs Stan Moody or Barry Hawkins
Kyren Wilson or Martin O’Donnell vs Mark Allen or Anthony McGill
4 thoughts on “Day 3 at the 2023 European Masters and 2023 British Open Round 2 Draw”
The British Open seems like the type of event that Ronnie would withdraw from…
We’ll see. At least it’s in Britain and doesn’t involve traveling. When Ronnie was playing in events in Germany or Belgium, years ago, he used to travel by train or drive. Both ways involved crossing the channel via the Eurotunnel. Now … Brexit hasn’t made this type of travel easier or faster because of additional controls and Ronnie is not particularly patient…
LOL why not flights? (missing cue is not small possibility though.)
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
The British Open seems like the type of event that Ronnie would withdraw from…
We’ll see. At least it’s in Britain and doesn’t involve traveling. When Ronnie was playing in events in Germany or Belgium, years ago, he used to travel by train or drive. Both ways involved crossing the channel via the Eurotunnel. Now … Brexit hasn’t made this type of travel easier or faster because of additional controls and Ronnie is not particularly patient…
LOL why not flights? (missing cue is not small possibility though.)
Because he’s afraid of flying, believe it or not.