As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, I have a lot going on in my private life at the moment and I haven’t been able to watch as much snooker as I usually do. Except for Ronnie’s matches I haven’t reported on the 2023 English Open developments. We have now reached the semi-finals and it’s time to (try to) catch up.
Most of the top players negotiated round 3 (Last 32) safely, albeit no always easily. There were two notable exceptions: Mark Allen was beaten by Matthew Selt (4-2) and Hossein Vafaei was beaten by He Guoqiang a 23 years old rookie from China.(4-3).
Round 4 (last 16) was played on the same day as round 3 for half of players who reached that round and proved to be the stumbling block for a number of top players: most notably for Luca Brecel, the reigning World Champion, Ronnie, the current number one Mark Williams whose last 16 match finished at about 1:30 in the Friday morning. All three above mentioned top players had two matches to play on “moving day”, the second one coming in the late evening session. It is absolutely obvious that fatigue was a factor, especially for those in their late 40th (Mark Williams went on a rant on twitter about it). So much so that it triggered high profile withdrawals from the 2023 Wuhan Open. More on that later.
All that yielded a rather unexpected, and somewhat strange, quarter final line-up: indeed all four remaining British players competed in one half, whilst, the other half featured four Chinese players.
John Higgins and Judd Trump, who have met in two Crucible finals, will go head-to-head in the semi-finals of the BetVictor English Open after both scored emphatic 5-1 wins in Brentwood on Friday afternoon.
Higgins saw off Martin O’Donnell while Trump got the better of Matthew Selt, setting up an intriguing contest on Saturday at 1pm. The pair last met in the semi-finals of the BetVictor European Masters in August when Trump edged through 6-5, and the Englishman will hope for a repeat result against all-time legend Higgins.
Scotland’s 48-year-old Higgins will contest his 82nd ranking event semi-final and is two wins away from a 32nd title and first since the 2021 Players Championship. He has already seen Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams win titles this season and hopes to become the third member of the famed ‘Class of 92’ to lift a trophy within the space of three weeks.
Higgins started strongly with breaks of 67 and 59 to take the opening frame. O’Donnell levelled, only for his opponent to make 82 and 77 to lead 3-1 at the interval. Frame five was in the balance until Higgins, leading 49-27, dropped a tricky red into a centre pocket and added the points he needed to extend his advantage. And the four-time World Champion sealed the result with a run of 70 in the sixth.
“In my last couple of matches I have hit the ball really well,” said Higgins. “Martin will be disappointed because it was a big match for him and he missed a couple which he has not been missing this week. I will need to take my chances against Judd tomorrow. I love playing him, I have brought the best out of him in some of our matches and he has done the same to me. I love competing against him because he has been a breath of fresh air for our game for many years. It’s a game I relish.
“At the end of last season I made some tweaks to my cue and then I started playing to a better standard, I have been more compact and had more confidence. I want to try and win big titles. It would be great to join two great champions in Mark and Ronnie, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Trump is seeking his first ranking title since the Turkish Masters in March 2022, and he enjoyed another comfortable victory over the same player he beat in that final in Turkey. The Bristol cueman shared the first two frames with Essex potter Selt, but then pulled away to take four in a row with top breaks of 137 and 103.
World number five Trump is through to his 55th ranking event semi-final and the left-hander remains on course for a 24th career ranking title.
“It was a tricky start to the game,” said 34-year-old Trump. “Matt missed a ball at 1-1 and it changed after that, I punished him. Every time he missed the balls were going over the pocket. I upped my game in the second half of the match.
“I don’t think I’m too far away from really enjoying my snooker. I’ve had a good start to the season and it would be nice to convert one of these into a tournament win. When you lose, people think you’re not playing well. But they aren’t actually looking at how you played. I haven’t played my best yet, it’s there in spells. Hopefully I’ll save that for the semi-final and final.”
Just three months into his professional career, promising rookie Liu Hongyu reached his first ranking event semi-final with a 5-2 victory over China’s greatest ever player Ding Junhui at the BetVictor English Open.
Liu, 19, becomes only the fifth rookie since 2011 to reach a ranking event semi-final, and he is just two wins away from becoming the first player to win a ranking title during his debut season since Terry Griffiths at the 1979 World Championship.
Already this week in Brentwood, Liu has knocked out Shaun Murphy, Joe O’Connor, Chris Wakelin and Mark Williams, before getting the better of an out-of-sorts Ding. His next match will be another Chinese derby against Zhang Anda, who followed up yesterday’s defeat of Ronnie O’Sullivan by edging out Zhou Yuelong 5-4.
World number 89 Liu, from Taishan in China’s Guangdong province, turned pro earlier this year after winning the Asia-Pacific Championship, and has quickly made the transition to the highest level.
In a scrappy opening to tonight’s match he took the first three frames with a top break of 52. Liu had a chance to go 4-0 ahead but missed the last red to a centre pocket when he trailed 33-61 in frame four, and 14-time ranking event winner Ding reduced the deficit.
After the interval, Liu extended his lead to 4-1, then Ding pulled one back. In the seventh, Ding led 57-1, but twice missed frame ball – the blue to a baulk corner and then a tough red to a top corner. The second mistake proved costly as Liu made an excellent 57 clearance for victory.
“I’m very excited and very glad to be able to beat Ding,” said the teenager. “I didn’t expect to make it this far. I’ll try my best to get used to the arena tomorrow and play my own game. I felt nervous entering the arena, after all this is my first time playing in front of so many spectators. When I got these emotions under control I felt fine. After the first three frames I felt less nervous. In the last frame I felt confident to close the match in one visit.
“I thought I had chances to do well this season, but never thought it would come so soon. I can’t pinpoint what’s so different but it’s quite unique, the atmosphere was compact. All those roars from the spectators, I enjoyed it.”
Zhang and Zhou’s contest was higher quality as it included two centuries and six more breaks over 50. World number 57 Zhang took a 3-0 advantage with runs of 73 and 90. Zhou battled back to 3-3 with 61 and 102, and later made it 4-4 with a 106. Early in the decider, Zhang potted a long red then trapped his opponent in a tough snooker, and from the chance that followed he held his nerve in a smooth break of 80.
“I used all my mental strength to stay in the match because Zhou was excellent tonight,” said 31-year-old Zhang. “He was more than capable of winning frames in one visit. I don’t know how I got through the deciding frame but I fancied my chance to close out the match.
“This will be my first semi-final so I have no idea what is it going to be like tomorrow. Liu is from the same province as me so we have met in regional tournaments back home. He has beaten me before so I know how good a player he is.”
Zhang and Liu will both contest their first ranking event semi-final on Saturday at 7pm, with the winner going through to Sunday’s final to face an opponent with vastly more experience – John Higgins or Judd Trump.
Now, some thoughts about the scheduling of all this… yesterday the British players played in the afternoon, and the Chinese players in the evening, meaning that the Chinese fans had little no chance to watch “their” players as the matches were unfolding because this was the middle of the night in China. It will be the same today. I understand that it may not be an easy decision to take by WST, but why not swap those sessions? Of course they couldn’t have foreseen this line-up, and, of course some people might have bought tickets in the hope to watch a specific player or match, but, on the other hand the afternoon session can be watched Chinese fans in China, and most “working people” in the UK are free to attend matches at the venue in the evenings, whilst this isn’t probably the case in the afternoons. I have seen sessions swapped – at the Masters of all events – to allow Chinese fans to watch Ding “live on TV”, so it wouldn’t be a first.
Liu Hongyu is only 19 and this a quite extraordinary run he’s having here in his first year as a pro. It’s good that he was interviewed and I hope that him and He Guoqiang get more exposure by the governing body as the season unfolds. That brings me back to Stan Moody … I got quite some stick on social media for the comments I made when young Stan was showcased on the main table while the defending Champion was playing on an outside table at the 2023 British Open. I’m unrepentant and stand by those comments. I’m all for WST promoting the young players, and putting them under the spotlights, provided they do it for the right reasons, by this I mean on merits. Stan showed promises and talent in his match against Luca Brecel this week. On that occasion people on twitter jumped at me with “See? He’s making progress, WST was right to put him on TV to help his development”. I watched that match and indeed, the young man has talent. The fact remains however that he has played eight matches as a professional so far and is yet to win a single one. In sharp contrast, two young Chines players, Liu Hongyu and He Guoqiang have won plenty. If you look at the provisional season points on snooker.org , Lyu Hongyu is currently ranked World number 13 whilst He Guoqiang is number 25. It’s those two who should be showcased, because they earned it, on merit rather than because a top player, close to the governing body, and to whom they bear some physical resemblance, is their mentor .
A final world about the Wuhan withdrawals. It’s a crying shame and I don’t blame the players. They need to look after their own wellbeing and health, because WST won’t. But the World Champion, Luca Brecel and Mark Williams withdrawing … that’s quite a blow to the first ranking event played in China in years! Ronnie on Weibo confirmed that he would be in Wuhan and was looking forward to it. That said, he looked tired and didn’t exactly ooze enthusiasm… This is all because the shambolic scheduling of the season. The Chinese events should be grouped – this is done in other sports – and the qualifiers or rather round 1, played in China. Make them a 10 days events played in one go. That would give time from travel and rest between events (China is vast). Yes, it would be a long time away from home for the Brit players. So what? It’s even more “long time away from home” for everyone else as it is now, and that is one of the reasons, an important reason, why the main tour remains so predominantly dominated by the Brits.
7 thoughts on “Catching up with the 2023 English Open results and 2023 Wuhan Open withdrawals”
I would like to believe that Moody got on the TV table due to Barry Hawking being the first winner in the season, who at least got some exposure and against Brecel it is also logical: had he drawn Ronnie, he would have played on the TV table too. I think he did well against Brecel and had his first century on the tour, so I don’t see that the exposure hurt him in the end. This blog seems to care a lot about the young players, so he is one and it should not be held against him that Murphy has a soft spot for him.
Of course, if there is a “China-series” grouping together Chinese tournaments, they will have to ensure that even early losers can continue practicing as it was a problem at one point. And I personally am happy with the streaming and if it limits the number of tables, the problem it causes should be solved some other way. Actually I’m considering cancelling the Eurosport-subscription, because I was mighty pissed that the British Open here could be seen only on ITV and that meant TV table only. It was very annoying.
I would say that a young player shouldn’t be thrown onto the main table in a first-round match – let them win a match first, being aware of the prospect of a showcased second-round. It was fortunate that Stan Moody played well – he might have again been annihilated 5-0 in 1 hour. It was a huge risk to take with a young player’s career.
As always, a lot of people are clobbering Ding Junhui on social media (and even some broadcast media), but I think that match must have been very difficult for Ding, given the way the draw shaped up. He’s also got the Wuhan Open on his mind, where he is the figurehead. Liu Hongyu had already played Ding and done well (he lost 4-3 last week), which must have helped him enormously. My biggest worry for Liu is that he is so small that ultimately he will be at a disadvantage. Ironically, he’s playing Zhang Anda in the semi-final. Zhang has always been a highly skilful player, with the obvious limitations. He’s been extremely successful in CBSA events, but underperformed in the UK. In China, he’s probably regarded as a similar level to Xiao Guodong.
Everybody is talking about scheduling issues. I met several players in Brentwood who were talking about two completely separate issues: match scheduling (two matches per day, 11pm starts, etc.) and the calendar (travel to Wuhan). Aside the difficulties WST have faced reintroducing events in China (which was never going to be easy), this is a problem ultimately caused by the 4-table limit. They shouldn’t have signed that stupid streaming contract. If we had 6 tables in Brentwood (as in Crawley) it would have made a difference. If they had 8 tables in Wuhan they could start the tourmanent on Tuesday. Some players have ‘given up’ matches, primarily because of exhaustion; other players have withdrawn from Wuhan or Belfast. The damage caused by this must surely lead to changes, if anything can.
As to young Stan:
Yes, he lost all his matches so far – all against top-50 players. And, in most of them, he made it a match, judging from the results.
Liu, before the English Open, lost all his matches against top-50 players, won against players ranked lower than that.
With He, the picture is mixed. He lost to Muir 0:5, and some weeks later beat Slessor, and thereafter narrowly beat Kyren Wilson.
All in all I’d say, all three deserve our attention, and all three should be safeguarded against the devastation the main tour can wreak, and has wrought, upon young talent. So, I hope they all get proper counsel to navigate towards a stable, long-term development.
Having seen parts of Stan’s match against Brecel, I was impressed, not just by his talent, but by what seemed like a fine balance between cockiness and prudent caution. I found that extraordinary in a person of his age. He needs to adjust to the main tour, which means exposure, but not too much. No idea how to strike that balance, really, but… fingers crossed.
So at the moment we have 4 Chinese events. 1 Invitation event and 2 ranking events over a period of 2 months and the World Open. If you group the first 3, then snooker’s main (TV) audience in raw numbers can pretty much watch over a period of 3 weeks throughout the whole year deciding matches of tournaments of the sport they like live or attend the whole tournament in person and then at another one months later. To some extent following a sport is also about witnessing deciding moments of tournaments as well as attending in person, but 95% won’t see any other final matches live but just on replay. And who these days still doesn’t look up the scores of a final the other day if they haven’t seen the match yet and only then watch it back. So that’s why I’m not sure about grouping. We complain about our local pro-ams getting abolished and rightly so, but many tournaments are not that far way. The Chinese fans also do get more and more exhibitions with Ronnie and a handful of other players, but do we even have already enough WST tournaments in China to group them and wouldn’t grouping make the tour even more UK-centric at this moment in time?
I agree with the concept of grouping events, from all different angles (not least environmental footprint), and have suggested ways to do this whilst preserving freshness. If we had a China-series, we could also have a Europe-series, so it does open up possibilities for increasing globalisation. But also, if several tournaments are scheduled back-to-back, the efficiency can come from abolishing qualifiers, so everyone gets to go to the block. The Chinese players would welcome that: they wouldn’t have the agony of losing a qualifier match in Leicester for an event running a few hundred miles from their parent’s home. The same is true of Europe: you can’t have an event in Lommel without Ben Mertens and Julien Leclercq.
So you think these 4 Asian ranking events we have this season would be sufficient to form such an Asian-series, Lewis?
Christian: I would expect two trips to China each season: in the autumn and in the spring. Perhaps each would comprise two regular tournaments, plus a ‘filler’ in between (something like a Shoot-out, 6-Reds or even Doubles). There has to be some variety, or it’s not marketable. In the future I would hope to have events in Thailand and India, perhaps even Australia, which could open up the possibility of a longer series. But a 3-week trip is long enough. Most importantly, it has to be financially viable even for low-ranked players who might not be winning a match. For regular players, it’s efficient in travelling expense, and also recovery time.
Just three months into his professional career, promising rookie Liu Hongyu reached his first ranking event semi-final with a 5-2 victory over China’s greatest ever player Ding Junhui at the BetVictor English Open.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I would like to believe that Moody got on the TV table due to Barry Hawking being the first winner in the season, who at least got some exposure and against Brecel it is also logical: had he drawn Ronnie, he would have played on the TV table too. I think he did well against Brecel and had his first century on the tour, so I don’t see that the exposure hurt him in the end. This blog seems to care a lot about the young players, so he is one and it should not be held against him that Murphy has a soft spot for him.
Of course, if there is a “China-series” grouping together Chinese tournaments, they will have to ensure that even early losers can continue practicing as it was a problem at one point. And I personally am happy with the streaming and if it limits the number of tables, the problem it causes should be solved some other way. Actually I’m considering cancelling the Eurosport-subscription, because I was mighty pissed that the British Open here could be seen only on ITV and that meant TV table only. It was very annoying.
I would say that a young player shouldn’t be thrown onto the main table in a first-round match – let them win a match first, being aware of the prospect of a showcased second-round. It was fortunate that Stan Moody played well – he might have again been annihilated 5-0 in 1 hour. It was a huge risk to take with a young player’s career.
As always, a lot of people are clobbering Ding Junhui on social media (and even some broadcast media), but I think that match must have been very difficult for Ding, given the way the draw shaped up. He’s also got the Wuhan Open on his mind, where he is the figurehead. Liu Hongyu had already played Ding and done well (he lost 4-3 last week), which must have helped him enormously. My biggest worry for Liu is that he is so small that ultimately he will be at a disadvantage. Ironically, he’s playing Zhang Anda in the semi-final. Zhang has always been a highly skilful player, with the obvious limitations. He’s been extremely successful in CBSA events, but underperformed in the UK. In China, he’s probably regarded as a similar level to Xiao Guodong.
Everybody is talking about scheduling issues. I met several players in Brentwood who were talking about two completely separate issues: match scheduling (two matches per day, 11pm starts, etc.) and the calendar (travel to Wuhan). Aside the difficulties WST have faced reintroducing events in China (which was never going to be easy), this is a problem ultimately caused by the 4-table limit. They shouldn’t have signed that stupid streaming contract. If we had 6 tables in Brentwood (as in Crawley) it would have made a difference. If they had 8 tables in Wuhan they could start the tourmanent on Tuesday. Some players have ‘given up’ matches, primarily because of exhaustion; other players have withdrawn from Wuhan or Belfast. The damage caused by this must surely lead to changes, if anything can.
As to young Stan:
Yes, he lost all his matches so far – all against top-50 players. And, in most of them, he made it a match, judging from the results.
Liu, before the English Open, lost all his matches against top-50 players, won against players ranked lower than that.
With He, the picture is mixed. He lost to Muir 0:5, and some weeks later beat Slessor, and thereafter narrowly beat Kyren Wilson.
All in all I’d say, all three deserve our attention, and all three should be safeguarded against the devastation the main tour can wreak, and has wrought, upon young talent. So, I hope they all get proper counsel to navigate towards a stable, long-term development.
Having seen parts of Stan’s match against Brecel, I was impressed, not just by his talent, but by what seemed like a fine balance between cockiness and prudent caution. I found that extraordinary in a person of his age. He needs to adjust to the main tour, which means exposure, but not too much. No idea how to strike that balance, really, but… fingers crossed.
So at the moment we have 4 Chinese events. 1 Invitation event and 2 ranking events over a period of 2 months and the World Open. If you group the first 3, then snooker’s main (TV) audience in raw numbers can pretty much watch over a period of 3 weeks throughout the whole year deciding matches of tournaments of the sport they like live or attend the whole tournament in person and then at another one months later. To some extent following a sport is also about witnessing deciding moments of tournaments as well as attending in person, but 95% won’t see any other final matches live but just on replay. And who these days still doesn’t look up the scores of a final the other day if they haven’t seen the match yet and only then watch it back. So that’s why I’m not sure about grouping. We complain about our local pro-ams getting abolished and rightly so, but many tournaments are not that far way. The Chinese fans also do get more and more exhibitions with Ronnie and a handful of other players, but do we even have already enough WST tournaments in China to group them and wouldn’t grouping make the tour even more UK-centric at this moment in time?
I agree with the concept of grouping events, from all different angles (not least environmental footprint), and have suggested ways to do this whilst preserving freshness. If we had a China-series, we could also have a Europe-series, so it does open up possibilities for increasing globalisation. But also, if several tournaments are scheduled back-to-back, the efficiency can come from abolishing qualifiers, so everyone gets to go to the block. The Chinese players would welcome that: they wouldn’t have the agony of losing a qualifier match in Leicester for an event running a few hundred miles from their parent’s home. The same is true of Europe: you can’t have an event in Lommel without Ben Mertens and Julien Leclercq.
So you think these 4 Asian ranking events we have this season would be sufficient to form such an Asian-series, Lewis?
Christian: I would expect two trips to China each season: in the autumn and in the spring. Perhaps each would comprise two regular tournaments, plus a ‘filler’ in between (something like a Shoot-out, 6-Reds or even Doubles). There has to be some variety, or it’s not marketable. In the future I would hope to have events in Thailand and India, perhaps even Australia, which could open up the possibility of a longer series. But a 3-week trip is long enough. Most importantly, it has to be financially viable even for low-ranked players who might not be winning a match. For regular players, it’s efficient in travelling expense, and also recovery time.