Day 2 at the 2023 British Open brought quite a few unexpected results.
Marvellous Miah Stuns Trump
World number 113 Hammad Miah staged the shock of the season so far, defeating 23-time ranking event winner Judd Trump 4-3 at the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham.
The thrilling encounter came down to the final black and Miah’s reward sees him face China’s Ma Heilong in the last 32. Defeat for 2019 World Champion Trump means his barren spell in ranking events continues, the last time he picked up ranking silverware was over a year ago at the 2022 Turkish Masters.
The first four frames this afternoon were played at a phenomenal standard. Miah fired in breaks of 126 and 101, with Trump compiling runs of 125 and 124 to leave the pair level at 2-2. Trump then moved 3-2 ahead, before Miah took a tense sixth to force a decider.
The last frame came down to the final ball, but a loose safety from Trump gave Miah a long range black, which he deposited to secure one of the biggest wins of his career.
Victory for Miah marks a high point since a dramatic return to the tour two years ago. During the pandemic he ended up stranded in Uzbekistan on the way home from a holiday in Dubai due to travel restrictions and he narrowly made it back to compete in Q School, where he regained his professional status. He now finds himself in the last 32 of a major event having beaten one of snooker’s modern greats.
Miah said: “In the city there were 300 Russian Billiards clubs and there was only one snooker table. After going to many of these clubs I asked the locals and nobody knew what snooker was. Eventually I met this guy from Tatarstan and he took me to this club. I got the hunger back.
“I appreciate just playing snooker. I want to enjoy it like every person who goes to the club to play. This is my escape now and isn’t my life. This is the way I am trying to look at it so I can enjoy it more. I need to give myself a positive outcome from playing snooker so I don’t want to think of it as work.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F0TM9XBniNE%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%3A
Jack Lisowski’s blockbuster meeting with Shaun Murphy also went right down to the wire, he also prevailed on the final black to earn a 4-3 victory.
Lisowski is competing on home turf this week in Cheltenham and is seeking what would be a momentous maiden ranking title. Trailing 62-0 in the decider he appeared to be set for the exit, but he cleared with a brilliant 63 break to turn the tie on its head and claim victory. Next up he faces either Matthew Selt or Zak Surety.
“It was an amazing match and great to beat Shaun, who was pretty much the player of last season. He played well today so it shows my game is in good shape,” said 32-year-old Lisowski. “I pulled off a really nice break in the decider and to do that under pressure is what you practice for so it is a great feeling.”
Si Jiahui scored a shock 4-1 defeat of 2010 World Champion Neil Robertson. China’s Si enjoyed a stunning run to the semi-finals of last season’s World Championship and showcased some of his best snooker again this afternoon. He fired in breaks of 66 and 107 on his way to victory. Next up Si faces either Mark Selby or Tian Pengfei.
Welsh three-time World Champion Mark Williams secured a hard fought 4-2 win over former UK Champion Stephen Maguire, while recent European Masters winner Barry Hawkins beat Robert Milkins 4-1.
As usual all the detailed results are available on snooker.org
I missed all the action yesterday, as I had to travel from my island to Athens and back for some medical treatment. It was nothing serious, but it needed to be done and I came back home late, and rather exhausted. Hopefully, I can catch up with some of the matches later, but for now, obviously I can’t comment on anything that happened yesterday.
That said, Miah has always been an excellent player and I have always wondered how and why he hasn’t done more in the game. Maybe he has to work outside snooker to sustain himself and his family? I’m not sure.
I was very pleased to see that Julien Leclercq is through to the next round with a very good win over Jamie Jones. Ben Mertens though was beaten 4-0 by Yuan Sijun.
What I wrote yesterday about Stan Moody getting the main television table attracted a lot of comments on social media, some agreeing with me, some disagreeing. I do stand by what I wrote, especially as young Stan is not at all the best young rookie on tour judging by his results so far. He is actually the only amongst the British and Chinese rookies who hasn’t won/drawn a match yet this season. Of course he’s very young and precisely, because of that, I do believe – strongly – that putting him under the spotlights is not helpful at all. In addition to that, I wonder if that decision to put Stan on the main table would have been taken if the defending champion had been Judd Trump or Ronnie instead of Ryan Day. I have serious doubts about it… and I’m probably not alone. That’s extremely unfair for Ryan.
There was an interesting comment by Michael Waring about this whole situation. It’s in the comments section. I agree with Michael, and what he describes – offering a variety of events, some targeting specific populations – is one of benefits snooker could get if they ditched the current rigid ranking system in favour of an ELO type rating system.
Also, yesterday, the random draw for the next round has been made. Here is how it looks at the time of writing:
Graeme Dott vs Daniel Wells/Ashley Carty
Si Jiahui vs Tian Pengfei/Mark Selby
Tom Ford/Ashley Hugill vs Jimmy Robertson
John Higgins/Robbie Williams vs Scott Donaldson
Ryan Day/Thor Chuan Leong vs Ali Carter
David Gilbert vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha/Stuart Bingham
Matthew Stevens vs Fergal O’Brien
Fan Zhengyi/Ross Muir vs Rod Lawler
Xiao Guodong vs David Grace/Sanderson Lam
Yuan Sijun vs Hossein Vafaei
Ding Junhui/Liu Hongyu vs Julien Leclercq
Jack Lisowski vs Matthew Selt/Zak Surety
Gary Wilson vs Mark Williams
Ma Hailong vs Hammad Miah
Oliver Lines vs He Guoqiang/Muhammad Asif
Barry Hawkins vs Kyren Wilson/Mark Allen
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Would you say this time the word “shock” was appropriate or not, Monique, since Miah hasn’t won a lot yet but you call him”excellent”? I know nothing about him and am just curious if you think one can call it a shock.
I have seen Miah play some impressive snooker, notably at the EIS during World Qualifiers. He doesn’t however produce that on a regular basis. I’m not sure why. But maybe, playing Judd and not being expected to win liberated him.
Hammad Miah has a lot of talent, and occasionally plays brilliantly, like yesterday. But he doesn’t take snooker terribly seriously, and doesn’t have a consistent level. Of course it’s a major upset for him to beat Trump.
There were some great matches, including some big upsets. Two matches went to the final black and one, tragically, went to the final pink. There was also an awful match between two players over the age of 50 that finished at 1:45am, with the score only 4-1, and the winner having a shot-time over 40s.
No bonus prize to guess who was involved in that last one 😂