Yesterday at Ponds Forge
Here is the report by WST on what happened at the 2023 International Championship yesterday
Higgins Hammers Phetmalaikul
John Higgins rattled in two centuries and three more breaks over 50 as he beat Manasawin Phetmalaikul 6-1 in the qualifying round for the International Championship.
Four time Crucible king Higgins can look forward to a trip to Tianjin in China in November for the £825,000 world ranking event. Runs of 50, 51, 115, 137 and 57 helped the Scot to an emphatic win over Thailand’s Phetmalaikul.
Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui edged out Julien Leclercq 6-5 in a dramatic finish. Shoot Out runner-up Leclercq made a 122 to level at 5-5 then led 56-0 in the decider, only for China’s Si to snatch it with a 68 clearance.
Shaun Murphy top scored with 88 in a 6-1 win over Andres Petrov while Joe O’Connor compiled runs of 131, 81 and 90 in a 6-1 defeat of Baipat Siripaporn.
Marco Fu enjoyed a 6-4 success against Robert Milkins, making breaks of 87 and 68 in the last two frames. John Astley potted blue and pink in the deciding frame to beat Jamie Clarke 6-5.
The Si Jiahui v Julien Leclercq match was a very good one on all accounts. Basically, experience made the difference here. Julien needs to learn when to rein his huge attacking instinct a bit – only just a bit – at critical moments.
Joe O’Connor easily dominated Baipat who really, really struggles with power shots and needs implements more often than not. She’s petite and frail. Joe however showed great sporting spirit. He applauded his opponent’s good shots and there were many. Some might see this as condescending, but it never felt that way to me. It was genuine. Joe maybe understands Baipat’s difficulties better than most as he isn’t particularly tall himself. Baipat in turn also showed her appreciation for her opponent’s performance. It was nice to see.
I didn’t see that match but it’s a good win for Marco Fu, and very a very encouraging one considering the eyes issues he’s been facing in recent years.
As usual there are many omissions in the above report. All detailed results are on snooker.org
Chris Wakelin, who beat Dean Young by 6-0 is truly a “changed man” since winning the Shoot-out. He finished the match with breaks of 130, 96, 141 and 86. Not too shabby!
Dominic Dale beat Oliver Brown by 6-3 and Ali Carter beat Allan Taylor by 6-2.
The last match to finish was Neil Robertson 6-4 win over his fellow country man Ryan Thomerson. The late finish is likely the reason why it’s not reported on. That match was surprisingly close. In the final frame, Neil missed the 14th red in a maximum attempt.
WST baffling decision process …
Yesterday, Iulian Boiko shared this on facebook
I can only agree with Iulian here.
Once again WORLD Snooker showing that they are so, so UK centric and even mainly England centric actually.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Um… It is not even fair to UK players.
In original thread, Iulian also cited Sydney needed more 3 hours so he also not accepted.
(Amateurs have their own schedule 0_0, I strongly suspect they could accept if they need to work. Even 1 day is too close – they have to check realistic obligations!)
But not optimistic if it needs votes the players’ board to change it. (rank1~96 have votes, so… )
This is the only reason I can fathom why they made this role. I guess the possibility that not everyone is in the UK/England, never occurred to them. Hope, they will address the issue.
I was very happy about and for Fu, especially as Milkins needed a snooker in the 5th and got it and won it, so it was good to see that Marco went on winning the match anyway. Neil had many misses in what I saw.
Boiko is absolutely right. I suppose, the idea is that you can’t pick and choose the match/opponent you play as a substitute, but it seems it never occurred to WST that people are not necessarily in an hour driving distance – or they simply don’t care.
When Iulian was first invited, Ronnie was still in the draw, so “choosing the opponent” wasn’t even a possibility. Iulian explained why he couldn’t take the invitation, he didn’t “refuse” it, he just was not in a position to get to the venue in time. Again the UK centric nature of the whole WST is evident. This kind of policy ensures that most of the top-ups will be British, and most likely English.