Here is WST report on what happened yesterday at the 2023 Wuhan Open Qualifiers.

Robertson Makes 900th Century

Neil Robertson became only the fourth player in snooker history to make 900 career centuries, during a 5-0 win over fellow Australian Ryan Thomerson in the qualifying round of the Wuhan Open.

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Robertson, age 41, joins Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Judd Trump as the only players to cross the 900 milestone. His break came in the fifth and final frame as he compiled a 137 total clearance. Earlier, the world number six narrowly missed a century in frame three, failing to pot a red to centre on 95.

He goes through to the final stages of the new Wuhan Open ranking event, to take place next month in China. Mark Allen also booked his place as he top scored with 109 in a 5-3 win over John Astley.

China’s He Guoqiang edged out Kyren Wilson 5-4 in a high quality match which featured three centuries and four more breaks over 50. At 4-3 down, Wilson made a 122 to level and he then led 66-4 in the decider, only for his opponent to make a tremendous 64 clearance. Wu Yize also earned a spot in his home event with a 5-3 win over Allan Taylor.

Ashley Carty, a quarter-finalist at last week’s BetVictor European Masters, came from 3-2 down to beat Gary Wilson 5-3 with a top break of 98.

Mark Selby eased to a 5-0 success against Andy Lee, knocking in breaks of 75, 106 and 57.

Of course 900 centuries is a great achievement and a milestone to celebrate, especially for Neil Robertson who loves his centuries 😊 … but it’s only one frame. The highlight of the day – for me – yesterday was the match between Kyren Wilson and He Guoquiang. Kyren will find it hard to get over that one. Indeed he was leading by 66-0 with 67 on the table when he found himself out of position. He played safe. He played a good shot, leaving He snookered. What happened next was quite extraordinary and cruel for Kyren: He failed to hit a red on his way “down” (as we look) but hit one on his way back to baulk. That accidental contact sent the cue ball towards the middle pocket, hit the jaws, was deflected towards the center of the table … leaving Kyren nastily snookered by the blue. Kyren failed to escape the snooker and, worse, left his opponent in the balls. The four points penalty meant the He now could win without needing only blacks with the remaining reds. The young man held his nerves and a very good 64 earned him the victory. As much as I felt sorry for Kyren, I also could only admire how well He handled the situation. He had played impressively well all match as well.

Again, so many matches are missing from the above report…

Alfie Burden beat Robbie Williams by 5-0, scoring four breaks over 50 in the process. To me, Alfie is one of the big underachievers in snooker. Too often his emotions got the better of him. Noppon Saenghkam beat Andrew Higginson by 5-3, Joe O’Connor beat Dean Young by 5-0 (a rather surprising score line), Ben Woollaston beat Oliver Brown by 5-2 and Jackson Page got the batter of Liu Hongyu by 5-3.

In other news…

This video emerged on social media, with Ronnie reiterating that China will be his priority for the rest of his career … and highly praises Si Jiahui.