Yesterday was the last day of the 2023 Wuhan Open Qualifiers and this is WST report on what happened at the tables.

Higgins Secures Wuhan Place

Scotland’s four-time World Champion John Higgins thrashed Welsh youngster Dylan Emery 5-1 to qualify for the final stages of the Wuhan Open.

The 31-time ranking event winner endured a difficult campaign in 22/23, failing to go beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking competition. However, he has already improved on that this season, with a recent run to the semis of the BetVictor European Masters.

This afternoon’s victory over Emery was a routine one for Higgins, who fired in breaks of 61, 92, 115 and 57 during the tie. The Glaswegian is now set for a trip to Wuhan at the beginning of next month.

Hong Kong’s Marco Fu scored a thrilling 5-4 win over Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei. With the scores locked level at 3-3, the seventh frame came down to a black ball fight, which Fu eventually won to move 4-3 ahead. Vafaei forced a decider, but a crucial break of 86 from Fu saw him over the line.

Liam Highfield compiled breaks of 66 and 104 on his way to a 5-1 defeat of Jimmy White, while Mark Davis defeated tour rookie Liam Graham by a 5-1 scoreline.

Why the headline is about John Higgins totally expected win over a youngster rather than about Marco Fu’s defeat of Hossein Vafaei is beyond my understanding… somehow. Of course I know why: Higgins is a top player, a household mane and a multiple World champion, and British. But in terms of what actually happened at the table, Marco’s win was the feat of the day. Marco has struggled with serious eyes issues, issues so serious that it seemed they could force him out of the game he loves. But Marco is a fighter. He completely changed his game. He plays faster than he used to do, he delivers the shot much more quickly after getting down on the shot. In the past he used to be down on the shot, sighting the balls – object ball and cue ball – for a rather longer time. He attacks more as well, trying to avoid being dragged in long frames. Yesterday, all those changes paid off and I was very happy to watch it.

This was the only match I watched actually. The report as usual “ignores” some of the matches. All the results are on snooker.org as usual. Beating Ricky Walden by 5-3 is a good result for Ian Burns.