Yesterday was the last day of the 2023 International Championship Qualifiers. Only six matches were player, but somehow WST managed to “forget” two of them in their report, including the one won by a Chinese player, Pang Junxu. Pang beat Zak Surety by 6-3. The other omission was Daniel Wells 6-2 win over Liam Highfield.

Walden Set For Tianjin

Saturday 23 Sep 2023 08:09PM

Ricky Walden, who won the International Championship in 2014, booked his place in this year’s event with a 6-1 thrashing of Jun Jiang.

Three-time ranking event winner Walden will be among a strong field heading for Tianjin in November. He knocked in breaks of 88 and 75 today in a comfortable victory.

Scott Donaldson top scored with 125 in a 6-4 defeat of Louis Heathcote while Crucible quarter-finalist Jak Jones beat Aaron Hill 6-2 with top runs of 99, 96, 88 and 124. Oliver Lines came from 3-0 down to beat Lukas Kleckers 6-4, making breaks of 76, 69, 65 and 94.

… and it should be Jiang Jun not Jun Jiang. Chinese players have been around for a long time. It’s 20 years since Ding Junhui turned pro. Ding Junhui not Junhui Ding. You would expect them to know it by now, that the family name comes first. But no … they just don’t care I suppose.

All the results are available on snooker.org

It’s another painful defeat for Lukas Kleckers who was 3-0 up. This kind of things seem to happen to him too often to be just hard luck. Lukas seems to struggle to close matches up. Maybe he should see someone to help with the mental side of this sport. He’s obviously good enough technically.

Tomorrow, the 2023 British Open will start. It’s an ITV event but it will be shown on Eurosport/Discovery in mainland Europe. We have some brutal matches in store tomorrow:

• Ding Junhui v Luca Brecel
• Jamie Clarke v Neil robertson
• Mark Allen v Anthony Mc Gill
• Ben Woollaston v Mark Selby
• Joe O’Connor v Jack Lisowski

Some of the big hitters were in action yesterday in Sheffield and here is the report by WST:

Top Seeds Secure Tianjin Spots

Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby eased to a 6-2 victory over Muhammad Asif in the qualifying round for the International Championship, on a good day for the top seeds as four other players ranked within the world’s top 16 all booked places in Tianjin in November.

Selby recovered from the loss of the opening frame to take six of the next seven, making top breaks of 75 and 102. Mark Williams fired runs of 118 and 112 during a 6-0 whitewash of Rebecca Kenna.

Jack Lisowski top scored with 86 in a 6-3 win over He Guoqiang, while Mark Allen compiled runs of 124 and 113 in a 6-2 defeat of Ma Hailong. Kyren Wilson saw off Adam Duffy 6-3 with a top run of 74.

Lyu Hoatian made an 84 in the decider to edge out David Lilley 6-5, while breaks of 138 and 134 helped Elliot Slessor beat Hammad Miah 6-2.

As usual all the detailed results are available on snooker.org

As usual some results are missing in the report: Fan Zhengyi beat Mostafa Dorgham by 6-2, and Jamie Jones beat Ashley Carty by 6-4. This last match finished well past midnight UK time.

I wouldn’t say that Mark Selby “eased” past Muhammad Asif. Yes the end result looks one-sided but Muhammad made Mark really work for it, particularly after the MSI.

He Guogiang showed good stuff in his match against Jack Lisowski. Both players had three breaks over 50. What made the difference was Jack’s superior safety game. He won all the close frames.

Willo’s match was more like a walk in the park than an actual match … unfortunately. It’s always nice to watch Willo in full flow, but he had very little opposition, especially before the MSI.

This is WST report on day 3 at the 2023 International Championship

Two-Ton Pullen Ditches Dott

Liam Pullen made two centuries during a 6-4 defeat of former World Champion Graeme Dott in the qualifying round for the International Championship.

Tour rookie Pullen, age 18, goes through to the final stages of the world ranking event, to take place in Tianjin in China in November.

The teenager from Yorkshire compiled breaks of 119, 51 and 101 in taking a 4-1 lead. After sharing the next two, 2006 Crucible king Dott won frames eight and nine to close to 5-4, and he led 45-0 in the tenth. But Pulled clawed his way back and snatched it with a brown-to-black clearance to cross the winning line.

Stuart Bingham eased to a 6-0 win over Xing Zihao, while Jimmy Robertson top scored with 118 in a 6-2 success against Anton Kazakov. Noppon Saengkham rattled in runs of 74, 69, 80, 67, 117 and 123 during a 6-3 defeat of Victor Sarkis.

Gary Wilson needed just 81 minutes to beat Mohamed Ibrahim 6-0 with breaks of 103, 89, 64, 103 and 94.

It’s worth noting that Dott started the match in the worst possible way, losing frame 1 on the “three miss rule” and it’s hard to know if and how that affected him. Never mind that incident, this is an excellent result from the young man against one of the hardest “positive match-player” there is in the game.

As usual the above report leaves a lot of matches out. All the detailed results are available on snooker.org.

Sam Craigie beat Rory Thor by 6-1. That match was much closer than the scores suggest and Rory lost the last frame despite scoring a 55 break in it.

Zhang And beat Arnie Ursenbacher by 6-3 in a hard fought match. Both had a 50+ break in the first frame but it was Zhang who prevailed. Zhang lead 4-0 at the MSI but Arnie didn’t give up: he won three of the last five frames but it was too much to do, too late against a “reliable” opponent.

Not mentioned either is Xiao Guodong win over Ishpreet Singh Chada. Xiao had three breaks over 50 in that match whilst Ishpreet Singh had none. The Indian player however is really good, tactically sound. If he can start scoring a bit more heavily, he will become seriously dangerous.

It is strange that Hossein Vafaei 6-1 win over Reanne Evans isn’t mentioned. Hossein had two centuries and two other breaks over 50 in that match. Reanne had a 53 and a 77. The 53 came in frame 4, a frame she lost by 68-67 …

Also “forgotten” is Mark Davis’ excellent 6-4 win over Rod Lawler. “Dark Mavis” played really well in that match: he made breaks of 61, 66, 91, 89 and 56. “Rod the Plod” himself scored breaks of 68 and 113. When I use Rod’s nickname, it’s just a bit of teasing. I quite like him actually. Yes, he’s slow, very slow, but he’s never negative and his break building skills are excellent. Watching him play can be a bit of a “zen” exercice”. Rod is just slow … on and off the table, and he’s a very likeable character as well.

This is WST report on day 2 at the 2023 International Championship:

Ford Edges Moody In Late Night Battle

World number 21 Tom Ford defeated WSF Junior Champion Stan Moody 6-4 with the clock just shy of midnight to make the final stages of the International Championship.

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

Leicester’s Ford had trailed tour rookie Moody 2-0 in the early stages, but turned the match around in his favour to come through with a hard fought victory. He crafted breaks of 72, 70 and 50 en route to the win.

Anthony McGill secured his spot in the final stages thanks to a 6-3 defeat of Alfie Burden. The pair were locked level at 3-3, but Scotland’s McGill took three on the bounce to ensure his progression.

Joe Perry’s difficult start to the season continued with a 6-3 loss at the hands of Dylan Emery. The Welshman top scored with 96 during this afternoon’s match.

Former UK Championship and Masters winner Matthew Stevens qualified courtesy of a 6-4 win over Lyu Hongyu, while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh eased to a 6-1 victory over Andrew Higginson.

As so often, a number of matches are missing from this report, most notably Cao Yupeng 6-0 win over Ashley Hugill. This is a tournament played in China, Cao is the only Chinese player who managed to qualify yesterday and he doesn’t deserve as much as one mention in the report. Sanderson Lam is another player who went through and is currently having a very good start of the season. Sanderson is from Chinese descend.

In general, Chinese players have always struggled for results in the qualifiers for their “home” tournaments. They probably feel added pressure. Those qualifiers should be scrapped, or played at or near the main venue, the week before the event proper. The fans would be able to watch “their” players “live”, and there is a higher probability that the “players on form” make it through to the venue as opposed to the “players on form a month before the event” make it through to the venue.

Also “forgotten” are David Gilbert 6-0 win over James Cahill, Stuart Carrington 6-4 win over Xu Si and David Grace 6-2 win over Jenson Kendrick.

After his defeat, Joe Perry, on twitter, admitted that he’s really struggling with the mental side of the game at the moment and expressed his hope to get over his issues in the near future. Indeed he didn’t look happy at all out there.

All the detailed results are on snooker.org