This is WST report on day 5 at the 2023 British Open

Saengkham Secures Cheltenham Slot

Noppon Saengkham scored a 4-1 win over tour rookie Xing Zihao at Cazoo British Open qualifying in Leicester to seal his place in the final stages.

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World number 26 Saengkham made the semi-finals of last year’s event, but was denied a place in the final after a 6-1 loss at the hands of Mark Allen. Today’s result sees the Thai earn a return to the main event. After losing the first frame, Saengkham crafted breaks of 52 and 72 on his way to four on the bounce and victory.

Welshman Daniel Wells produced a sublime spell to come from behind and beat former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown 4-3. Wells trailed 3-2, before firing in breaks of 136 and 115 to take the final two frames and snatch victory.

China’s Lyu Haotian looked impressive in a 4-1 win over Englishman David Lilley. He produced contributions of 72, 74, 70 and 60 on his way to victory.

Malaysia’s Thor Chuan Leong scored a fine 4-1 win over Swiss number one Alexander Ursenbacher, while world number 72 Sanderson Lam registered a surprise 4-2 win over two-time ranking event winner Joe Perry.

As usual some matches are missing, and as usual you will find all the results on snooker.org

I really do struggle to understand why some matches are not reported on.

Wu Yize beat Martin Gould by 4-2 in the early afternoon, despite Martin score the two highest breaks of the match – 114 and 74 – in the two frames he won. Matthew Stevens whitewashed Victor Sarkis who only scored 41 points in the whole match. Zak Surety defeated Michael White by 4-2 in the last match of the day. It wasn’t that late though, not yet 10 pm local time so that can’t be the reason for the omission. It’s true that is was a forgettable performance from both. Zak played OK in patches, Michael was poor from start to finish.

The World Open in Yushan announced for March 2024

Snooker’s Resurgence In China Continues With Yushan To Stage World Open

WST and our partners in China are excited to announce that the World Open ranking event will be staged in Yushan in March 2024.

This will be the fourth WST event staged in China during the 2023/24 season, following September’s Shanghai Masters, October’s Wuhan Open and November’s International Championship in Tianjin.

The World Open will run from March 11 to 17 and will be held in Yushan in the Jiangxi Province, which was the tournament’s home from 2016 to 2019. Judd Trump is the most recent winner of the title, beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the final in 2019.

WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “We are delighted to join forces with Star Xingpai, Yushan Municipal Government and CBSA to stage the World Open in Yushan in 2024.

“Having been unable to stage tournaments in mainland China between 2019 and 2023 due to travel restrictions, we have made an emphatic return this season. To have four major Chinese events in our first full season back in the Far East underlines the huge appetite for snooker in China and the fact that we have built lasting relationships with our key partners.

“Snooker’s future in China is bright and this is just the beginning. The World Open is a fantastic tournament in an outstanding location which has particular significance for snooker as it is the home of Star Xing Pai and the world’s first Billiard Sports City.

“This title was won by four greats of our sport – Ali Carter, Ding Junhui, Mark Williams and Judd Trump – between 2016 and 2019. I have no doubt that all of the biggest stars will keenly anticipate the chance to return to Yushan in 2024.”

Full details on the tournament will be announced in due course.

It’s good to have a fuller calendar again, although I find its structure quite unsatisfactory and you know my stance on qualifiers. I wish WST were putting as much effort in trying to have more events in mainland Europe.

Our reigning World Champion, Luca Brecel is Belgian, last season’s “Rookie of the year” Julien Leclercq is Belgian, yet we have only two events in mainland Europe, both in Germany… I think that Belgium deserves an event. When in 2013, the 3-Cushions World Championship was held in Antwerp, in the Loto Arena, the main sponsors were the local Diamonds Industry and, on top of the prize money, the winner was offered a cue encrusted with diamonds that in itself was worth a fortune. Why wouldn’t WST be able to secure a good deal as well?

And, in Brussels, directly reachable by Eurostar or by plane were have a huge capacity round arena, “Forest National” . Has this ever even been considered?

Yet another shot and incomplete report from WST:

Graham Scores First Professional Win

Scottish 18-year-old Liam Graham prevailed in a final frame decider to beat China’s Cao Yupeng 4-3 at Cazoo British Open qualifying in Leicester.

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Rookie Graham earned his maiden stint on the World Snooker Tour by beating Iulian Boiko in the final of the European Under-21 Championship back in March. Today’s victory against former Scottish Open finalist Cao is his first since making the leap to the professional ranks.

Breaks of 57 and 69 helped Graham to secure an early 2-0 lead this morning, before Cao hit back with three on the bounce to move one away from the win at 3-2. However, Graham dug deep and took the sixth on the black to force a decider. He then dramatically also took the last on the black to clinch his place in the final stages.

Former Crucible semi-finalist David Gilbert scored a 4-1 win over Australia’s Ryan Thomerson to progress. Tamworth cueman Gilbert crafted runs of 63 and 77 en route to victory.

Egypt’s Mohamed Ibrahim defeated former Women’s World Champion Mink Nutcharut 4-3, while Iran’s Hossein Vafaei beat Andy Lee 4-1.

Whilst Liam Graham of course deserves praise for his first professional win – congratulations to him – I find it unsettling that 3/4 of the whole report is about just one match whilst there were eight played yesterday. Three more matches are briefly covered, four are completely ignored.

You will find all the results on snooker.org

Mink was defeated by Mohamed Ibrahim by 4-3 … that certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Mink came back from 0-3 down to force a decider. This was the situation on the table at one point during frame 6:

Mohamed Ibrahim is a very solid player. Mink, who had only just come back from Australia, was probably still jet-lagged,. She showed a lot of resilience. She impressed many on social media yesterday. Her game is improving by the day. She has the right attitude. She will probably not be able to stay on tour at the end of this season, but she may well re-qualify via the women’s tour, and, if she continues to progress, we could see a totally different and far more dangerous animal at the table next season.

Liam Graham was not the only rookie to win his first match yesterday. Indeed He Guoqiang, a 23 years old from China, beat Elliot Slessor by 4-2. Elliot scored a break over 50 in both frames he won, but lost all the close ones.

Apparently WST score system failed again, as, currently, the detailed results are missing for the last four matches played yesterday.

Ashley Carty beat Jackson Page by 4-2. Of course, Jackson is only 22, still very young, but he’s not living up to the hype his first appearances in main tour matches created. In the evening session, Ashley Hugill beat Jack Jones by 4-2 and Rodd Muir beat Stuart Carrington by 4-3.

This is WST report on what happened yesterday at the British Open qualifiers is here:

Wakelin Back From The Brink

Shoot Out king Chris Wakelin recovered a 3-0 deficit to beat Andrew Pagett 4-3 in the qualifying round for the Cazoo British Open.

Wakelin looked sure to miss out on a place in Cheltenham after losing the first three frames, especially when he trailed 52-23 in the fourth. But he hit back to snatch that frame with a 40 clearance. Pagett had chances in each of the last three frames, but couldn’t take them as Wakelin battled to victory with a top break of 65.

Zhang Anda made breaks of 119 and 129 to take a 2-1 lead over Graeme Dott, but 2006 World Champion Dott eventually prevailed 4-3 thanks to a 71 in the decider. Women’s World Champion Baipat Siripaporn suffered a 4-1 reverse against Liu Hongyu.

Anthony Hamilton top scored with 86 in a 4-1 win over Aaron Hill, and he was one of three players over 50 to win on Wednesday as Andy Hicks saw off Andrew Higginson 4-1 and Rod Lawler beat Sam Craigie 4-2.

Baipat’s defeat to Liu Hongyu was no surprise to me, having watched them both previously. I didn’t expect her to win a single frame actually. She is far away from the required level to be competitive on tour but she showed a lot of resilience and battling spirit. She potted some great balls but she doesn’t score enough. She needs to work on her break-building and to get used to the conditions.

No surprise either about Yuan Sijun beating Dylan Emery by 4-1. I wasn’t expecting too much from Yuan after his recent adventures in China and on social media but he has far too much for Dylan.

Rory McLeod was called in last minute to replace Asjad Iqbal and it’s not surprisingly that he was convincingly beaten by Tian Pengfei. Tian is a very solid player and Rory probably came into the match unprepared.

The qualifiers for the 2023 British Open started yesterday and here is the report by WST:

Singh When You’re Winning

India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha continued his promising start to his rookie season on the World Snooker Tour as he beat Manasawin Phetmalaikul 4-1 to qualify for the final stages of the Cazoo British Open.

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Having earning a place on the circuit via Asian Q School, Singh has won his first two qualifying matches of the season as he also beat Ryan Thomerson to earn a spot at next week’s BetVictor European Masters in Germany. He can then look forward to a trip to Cheltenham in September.

Singh, who had a previous career as one of India’s top professional gamers before dedicating himself to snooker, compiled breaks of 50, 92 and 62 today in an emphatic win over Phetmalaikul.

Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif also enjoyed a notable victory as he beat seven-time World Champion Stephen Hendry 4-2. Veteran Hendry took the opening frame with a run of 73, but Asif hit back to take four of the next five with a top break of 66.

Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui beat Lukas Kleckers 4-1 while rising star Ben Mertens made a 101 to round off a 4-2 win over Louis Heathcote. Ken Doherty came from 2-1 down to beat Alfie Burden 4-2.

All the detailed results are available on snooker.org as always.

I never understood what “guides” WST in their choice of matches to report on. Why don’t they report on all of them? That would be only fair. But if they can’t report on all … how do they select the “lucky ones”. I suspect that the main criteria is to try to please their British readers, many of them indulging in nostalgia.

For instance, there is no reporting on 19 years old debutant Ma Hailong victory over the experienced Ian Burns. It wasn’t an easy match, there was little fluency but Ma did well to win it and scored two breaks over 50.

The match between Louis Heathcote and Ben Mertens was a good one to watch. Ben’s century to finish the job was a very nice one.

Hendry’s defeat to Asif was another for the “frustrating to watch” collection. Hendry won the first frame, with a 73, that remained the highest break of the match. After that however, as Asif was finding some form, Hendry grew increasingly frustrated and it was plain for all to see both in his demeanour and his shot selection. Why does he put himself through this if he’s not enjoying it? Asif is a good solid player and he would have won by 4-1 if it wasn’t for a rare incident in frame 5. With only the colours on the table, Asif attempted a long yellow in the green pocket. It was effectively match ball. The yellow stayed in the pocket … literally IN the pocket without dropping … at least not immediately. Luize Kraatz, the referee, called the scores, the player started walking, Asif towards his seat, Hendry towards where the cueball stood … and only then the yellow dropped. Luize had to replace it where it stood before, in the pocket, and it took some effort to convince that yellow to stay up there. 😉.

The governing body had promised some improvements to the temporary scoring system. There is: we now have the “points remaining” feature working although slightly differently than it was before. What it shows is actually the remaining points available to the player who is at the table. For instance, at the start of the frame, after the first red is potted, the remaining available points will be 146 and that’s indeed correct from the player at the table point of view. Now if that player plays safe, and their opponent comes at the table, the available points will change to 139 and that, again, is correct from the player at the table point of view. So, that’s an important feature now available. Unfortunately the scores are still not refreshing automatically, at least not consistently.

This wouldn’t be a “normal” first day at a WST event without some shambles. For some mysterious reason Discovery+/Eurosport was showing all matches everywhere they are active EXCEPT in the UK . Matchroom.live wasn’t showing the first day (why is anyones’ guess). There were several streams available in China as well. So, basically, on the first day of the 2023 BRITISH Open, the whole world could watch the action EXCEPT for the BRITISH fans. You couldn’t make that up. Eventually WPBSA/WST provided a stream on Facebook …