The qualifying round for the 2023 International Championship started yesterday in Ponds Forge, Sheffield. This is the first time this season that fans have the opportunity to watch qualifying matches live. The matches are best of 11, which is a nice change from the best of 7 that has become the norm in most UK events.

Here is the report by WST on what happened yesterday:

Hawkins Scores Whitewash To Earn Tianjin Place

Barry Hawkins continued his superb start to the season by beating Andrew Pagett 6-0 to qualify for the final stages of the International Championship.

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The qualifying round in Sheffield runs until Saturday this week, with all winners going through to Tianjin in China in November.

Hawkins captured the BetVictor European Masters title in Germany last month and is now on a streak of ten consecutive wins. He needed just 85 minutes to beat Pagett with top breaks of 52, 59 and 103.

Ryan Day made the fourth 147 of his career, as well as a 128, during a 6-1 victory over Mink Nutcharut. Ross Muir scored an impressive 6-3 defeat of Wu Yize, knocking in runs of 51, 92, 51, 68 and 112.

Jordan Brown recovered a 5-2 deficit to beat Sean O’Sullivan 6-5, taking a 35-minute deciding frame by potting brown, blue and pink.

Tian Pengfei came from 2-0 down to beat Stephen Hendry 6-3, while Stephen Maguire top scored with 80 in a 6-2 success against Peng Yisong. Long Zehuang came from 5-3 down to edge out Yuan Sijun 6-5, making breaks of 102 and 89 in the last three frames.

Matthew Selt recovered from the loss of the opening frame to beat Jimmy White 6-1, while Robbie Williams top scored with 135 in a 6-3 defeat of Ben Mertens.

One of the highlights of the day was … Day’s 147.

Day Makes Sheffield Maximum

Ryan Day crafted the fourth 147 break of his career during a clash with Thailand’s Mink Nutcharut at International Championship qualifying in Sheffield.

Welshman Day made the break in the fourth frame of the match to move 3-1 ahead. Day has now compiled two perfect breaks in 2023, having also made a 147 during last season’s Tour Championship.

It’s the 191st official maximum in snooker history and the second to be made this season, following Sean O’Sullivan’s 147 at European Masters qualifying. The break puts Day in line to take the £5,000 high break prize for the International Championship.

All the results are available on snooker.org as usual.

It may sound strange given he was beaten by 6-3, from 2-0 up, but yesterday was the best I saw from Hendry in a very long time. Recently, Hendry said that he retired mainly because he had lost all confidence. This lack of confidence was evident again yesterday. He started the match well. Ok, he still made mistakes, but he was playing ok. As soon as he lost a frame, there was a noticeable change in his demeanour around the table. He didn’t totally give up though, contrary what he often did in the last couple of years in his (first) pro career. He continued to try, which was good to see. Maybe the presence of a crowd helped him.

Although he was beaten by 6-3 by Jackson Page, I enjoyed watching Liam Graham. I believe that he is much better than most UK youngsters, notably better than some who for some reason are talked about a lot more than him.

Long Zehuang also impressed me. The rookie came from 5-3 down to beat Yuan Sijun and he looked very solid mentally in doing so.

Ross Muir scored heavily yesterday, in beating Wu Yize. I’m happy for him: there was a time when his career looked over as ocular migraine – a ver painful condition – prevented him to play to his full potential and even forced him to withdraw from matches on occasions.

Robbie Williams beat Ben Mertens by 6-3. Ben wasn’t at his best but there was more to it than that. Robbie Williams is typically the type of hard match player who will cause younger opponents problems. Most young players are “potters”, the hard-graft match play is not their thing. They have to learn that side of the game to succeed as pros, and hopefully Ben will learn from yesterday’s match. The young John Higgins was a notable exception, he was an all-rounder right from his beginnings, but … well, he’s a an exceptional player.

In other – anecdotic – news, Ronnie DID offer the Shanghai trophy to a friend

This guy is a long time close friend to Ronnie and the owner of a Chinese restaurant… You may have noticed him in the crowd, watching many of Ronnie’s matches live over the past years, notably during the Masters.