2023 Wuhan Open Qualifiers – Day 2

This is WST report about yesterday at the 2023 Wuhan Open qualifiers:

Milkins And Bingham Earn Wuhan Spots

Robert Milkins and Stuart Bingham were among the victors on day two of qualifying for the Wuhan Open, earning places in the final stages of the new world ranking event to take place in China next month.

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Welsh Open champion Milkins saw off Zak Surety 5-2 with a top break of 52, while former Crucible king Bingham fired runs of 70, 73, 92 and 78 in a 5-3 success against James Cahill.

Aaron Hill made the highest break of his career so far, 145, as he scored a superb 5-0 victory over Joe Perry. The Irish youngster also compiled runs of 64 and 89.

Sanderson Lam continued his fine start to the season as he beat Tian Pengfei 5-3 with a top break of 132. Stuart Carrington knocked in breaks of 107, 111, 79 and 54 as he beat Fan Zhengyi 5-1.

Fan Zhengyi never really settled as Stuart Carrington played very well and kept him cold for most of their match. It was pretty much “one mistake will cost you the frame” type of game. Fan made a 98 in the only frame he won. The last frame was the only one that didn’t feature a break over 50.

No mention in the above report on Cao Yupeng blitz 50 victory over his young compatriot Jian Jung. Although Cao’s AST wasn’t particularly impressive – nearly 27 second per shot this was a very fast match.

Regarding the Sanderson Lam match this happened in the last frame: Tian led by 51-34 with only the colours left. Lam snookered him behind the black and Tian failed to escape 12 times, after which he needed snookers.

Hammad Miah beat Andy Hicks by 5-3. This was a good match. Both players were fluent and they scored well: breaks of 88 and 61 for Hicks, 53,91, 51 and 73 for Miah.

No mention either of Yuan Sijun’s 5-1 win over Ross Muir. Yuan had 4 breaks over 50 in that match, Muir had none.

Elliot Slessor inflicted a 50 defeat to David Lilley, restricting his opponent to just 78 points in total.

Martin O’Donnell beat David Grace by 5-2. It was 2-2 at the MSI and, at that point, David had been the heaviest scorer of the two, with a couple of breaks over 50. Martin though won all three after the MSI, with a couple of breaks over 50 of his own. That match had no rhythm and that probably suited Martin more than David as he’s a rather slow cautious player naturally.

Two matches were pulled off as they over-ran.

Zhang Anda beat Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Americas’ Champion, by 5-3 from 0-3 down. It was actually a very close match. Ahmed is a very methodical player with an AST over 36 seconds. The match was pulled off at 4-3 to Zhang.

The last match to finish – 13 minutes past midnight in Leicester, 2:13 am at my place – saw Xu Si beat Anton Kasakov by 5-3 from 2-3 down when the match was pulled off. The score at that point could have been worse for Xu: indeed Xu required snookers on multiple occasions in frame 2 but eventually won it on a re-spotted black. Anton, is only 18, from Ukraine, but somehow his style of play reminds me of players from the past … a very past past actually. He can score – he had a 103 and a 74, the only two breaks over 50 in the match – but he’s very, very slow with an AST over 42 seconds! He tends to be quite defensive as well. It’s bizarre considering how young he is.

One thought on “2023 Wuhan Open Qualifiers – Day 2”

It was a very eventful day. Carrington’s performance was as good as anyone, and it appears that he has recovered from his technical woes. Fan called a foul on himself in frame 2 (hitting red and black simultaneously) which allowed Carrington’s second century, and soon after it was 3-0 and the match was probably gone.

Anton Kazakov’s 42s shot-time included a toilet break in frame 3, and several lengthy ball replacements. But even without those it would have been over 40. Marcel Eckardt spoke to him during the 3rd frame, but after that frame (2-and-a-half hours into the match) a new referee was called in – Marcel had had enough! Several frames were horribly stuck, could have been re-racked, but Kazakov rather favours scrappy frames and Xu is very shy in speaking, so they just kept on tapping. I don’t think Kazakov is going to get very far in snooker with his current method, but he’s young enough to be able to reinvent himself.

I think Olivier Marteel was wrong to call 12 misses against Tian. That snooker was much more difficult than it might look on screen, and some of the escapes left a decent chance for Lam, including at least one free ball. With a safe brown, there wasn’t any advantage in missing, and no shot selection issue. Losing 48 points, Tian then needed a snooker himself. Remarkably, he was generous in defeat: almost anybody would be furious.

Lewis says:

September 3, 2023 at 8:13 am

It was a very eventful day. Carrington’s performance was as good as anyone, and it appears that he has recovered from his technical woes. Fan called a foul on himself in frame 2 (hitting red and black simultaneously) which allowed Carrington’s second century, and soon after it was 3-0 and the match was probably gone.

Anton Kazakov’s 42s shot-time included a toilet break in frame 3, and several lengthy ball replacements. But even without those it would have been over 40. Marcel Eckardt spoke to him during the 3rd frame, but after that frame (2-and-a-half hours into the match) a new referee was called in – Marcel had had enough! Several frames were horribly stuck, could have been re-racked, but Kazakov rather favours scrappy frames and Xu is very shy in speaking, so they just kept on tapping. I don’t think Kazakov is going to get very far in snooker with his current method, but he’s young enough to be able to reinvent himself.

I think Olivier Marteel was wrong to call 12 misses against Tian. That snooker was much more difficult than it might look on screen, and some of the escapes left a decent chance for Lam, including at least one free ball. With a safe brown, there wasn’t any advantage in missing, and no shot selection issue. Losing 48 points, Tian then needed a snooker himself. Remarkably, he was generous in defeat: almost anybody would be furious.