Here are WST reports on what happened yesterday in Belfast:
Morning and afternoon sessions
Moody Dream Ended By Yuan
Teenager Stan Moody saw his hopes of extending his run at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open end as he lost 4-2 to China’s Yuan Sijun in the last 16, while former Crucible king Shaun Murphy was knocked out 4-2 by Chris Wakelin.
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Tour rookie Moody, who turned 17 last month, won three matches in this event to raise his hopes of a quarter-final clash with mentor Murphy, but both were knocked out in Belfast a round early. Two more wins would have made Moody the youngest ever ranking event semi-finalist, beating the record set by Paul Hunter at the 1996 Welsh Open, but the WSF Junior Champion will have to wait for another chance.
World number 45 Yuan is through to the sixth ranking quarter-final of his career and the 23-year-old will hope to reach his second semi-final – the other coming at the 2019 Gibraltar Open.
Yorkshire’s Moody looked in charge when he fired a break of 88 to lead 2-1, but Yuan hit back to take the next three frames with a top break of 57.
Meanwhile, Murphy was looking to continue his bid to win a fourth ranking title of 2023, but he was outplayed by BetVictor Shoot Out champion Wakelin. World number seven Murphy has been bringing two cues into the arena this week and today, for the first time, he swapped cues before the fourth frame. But it made no difference as world number 25 Wakelin progressed to his seventh career ranking quarter-final.
After sharing the first two frames, Murphy made a yellow-to-black clearance to lead 2-1. But he scored just two points in the last three frames as Wakelin took them all with top breaks of 55, 41 and 49.
“I felt I controlled the match well and put pressure on Shaun,” said 31-year-old Wakelin. “I haven’t been past the quarter-finals of a ranking event other than the Shoot Out in my career so far, but I won’t be going into tomorrow scared of getting to a semi or a final or lifting more silverware. I genuinely feel I should be in the later stages of tournaments and I think performances like today show that.”
Asked about Murphy’s decision to change cue, Wakelin replied: “I have nothing but admiration for Shaun and for the fact he is trying to pioneer something new in the sport – hats off to him. But I don’t think changing cue is the solution if you are struggling out there. There are other factors you can change. As soon as I saw him dipping into his case to get a different cue out, I was thinking that he hadn’t missed many balls, and it would take him a few shots to adjust to a new cue.
“It’s like putting Max Verstappen in Lewis Hamilton’s car and expecting it all to fit perfectly and drive the same. A cue is so personal, I don’t think swapping half way through a match is the solution now, though it could be in the future.”
Ricky Walden reached his first ranking quarter-final since the 2022 Scottish Open by beating Xing Zihao 4-1 with a top break of 134. “It has been a long time coming after a tough season for me,” said Walden, who will meet Jack Lisowski or Aaron Hill on Friday. “In the last few months I have gone back to my previous cue and I have got settled down with that now and it feels good. When I’m happy with my game I just enjoy the challenge of competing.”
Judd Trump is still on target to become the first player in a decade to win three consecutive ranking titles as he beat Ian Burns 4-2. Bristol’s Trump, who has already lifted the BetVictor English Open and Wuhan Open trophies this month, was out of sorts against Burns and his highest break was just 36, but he did enough to earn a last 16 tie with Noppon Saengkham on Thursday evening.
Joe Perry came from 3-1 down to beat Hossein Vafaei 4-3, making a break of 122 in each of the last two frames, setting up a match with Stephen Maguire. David Gilbert top scored with 127 in a 4-1 win over Lyu Hoatian and he now meets Rory McLeod. Barry Hawkins beat Jimmy Robertson 4-1 and he’ll now face Robbie Williams who saw off Zhang Anda by the same scoreline. All of these last 16 ties will be on Thursday night.
Heaven 17 For History-Chasing Trump
Despite battling fatigue, Judd Trump won his 17th consecutive match with a 4-3 defeat of Noppon Saengkham at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open as he continued his quest to become the first player in a decade to win three consecutive ranking events.
Trump is through to the quarter-finals in Belfast and will face Stephen Maguire on Friday at 7pm. Having already won the BetVictor English Open and Wuhan Open this month, he is looking to become the fifth player in snooker history, and first since Ding Junhui in 2013, to win three ranking titles on the bounce.
After sharing the first two frames, Thailand’s Saengkham made a break of 85 to lead 2-1, before Trump levelled with a 124. World number 23 Saengkham regained the lead with a run of 109 and he had match-winning chances in a fragmented sixth frame. It came down to a long safety battle on the colours, resolved when Trump double the brown to a centre pocket and added the blue for 3-3.
Saengkham had one more chance but missed a red to a top corner on 6 early in the decider, and his opponent punished him with 92.
“It’s very tough off the back of a couple of long weeks, I don’t know how I’m still going,” said world number three Trump, who won this title in 2018, 2019 and 2020. “It’s so draining playing this many games. Every day I wake up hoping I’m not flat and I’m still excited. I go out there hoping the crowd will help and I’m trying to do it for my family who have always supported me. There is not a lot left in the tank but I am trying to see out the week and then have a break.
“This might be the only time I get the chance to win three in a row because it’s hard enough to win one, let along two and then be in another quarter-final.
“I had to dig in tonight and luckily Noppon missed a couple of crucial balls and I got my chance in the end. When you’re in the winning habit it’s easier to make those breaks in the last frame.”
Jack Lisowski eased into his 27th ranking quarter-final, and ended Irish hopes, with a 4-1 win over Aaron Hill. World number 13 Lisowski, who has won all four matches so far this week by a 4-1 scoreline, rattled in runs of 116, 60, 61 and 83 to set up a match with Ricky Walden
“There was a good atmosphere tonight, it was great to play Aaron, he’s going to have a big future in the game,” said Lisowski. “The best of sevens are tricky because they can change so quickly so it’s good to be into the best of nines with an interval. Ricky Walden hits the ball so cleanly and I always enjoy playing him. Hopefully I can keep up my standard. The dream would be to win my first title against Judd in the final.”
Stephen Maguire earned his first ranking event quarter-final appearance since the 2022 World Championship by edging out Joe Perry 4-3. From 3-1 down, Perry battled back to 3-3 with a top run of 123, and he had a chance to snatch the decider from 40-0 down but missed the black to a top corner on 26. Maguire replied with 30 which proved enough.
David Gilbert, whose last ranking quarter-final came exactly a year ago, beat Rory McLeod 4-0 with a top break of 61. He’ll now meet BetVictor European Masters champion Barry Hawkins, who beat Robbie Williams 4-0.
Friday’s quarter-finals:
12pm
Jack Lisowski v Ricky WaldenNot before 2pm
Barry Hawkins v David GilbertNot before 7pm
Judd Trump v Stephen Maguire
Chris Wakelin v Yuan Sijun
Although Stan Moody rightly deserves praise for his run to the last 16 in this event and it’s a good thing that WST promotes young talents, the focus on him, whilst, at the same time, completely ignoring Xing Zihao who is also a rookie, only 18, and who reached the same round as Stan, once again shows how UK centric the whole WST is, and that its reporting focusses mainly on the UK/Irish players and readers. Xing lost by 4-1 to Ricky Walden in the last 16 and the match isn’t even mentioned in the above reports.
Judd Trump is fatigued and it’s only normal. The whole schedule in the last weeks is extremely demanding. Judd is 34, probably at the power of his strengths. He’s mature, experienced but still very young. Most older players will struggle with such a schedule as they need more time to “recover” after a massive effort. Snooker may not be the most physical sport, but sustaining ones concentration for long periods is mentally draining.
The typical schedule of the QFs means that Chris Wakelin and Yuan Sijun will be the only ones playing on table 2 today. As the semi-finals and final will be on table 1, this may put them at a slight disadvantage. Why not start at 10 pm, and have all QFs played under the same conditions?
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
From the WST report:
So, they did not completely ignore Xing, but they all but completely ignored him. Comparing this terse remark – and that’s all of the WST reporting on Xing I could find – to the space they dedicated to Moody, your long-held judgment regarding the WST stance and discrimination remains entirely valid.
Other than that, is it reasonably possible to schedule four best-of-9 matches consecutively on one day? I, for one, dread what the graveyard shift would look like were there one or two lengthier battles among the four.
The problem for Xing Zihao is that nobody knows anything about him. Even I haven’t seen much of him. He’s settled quite well in the UK – better than I expected. He’s originally from Jinhua in Zhejiang Province (close to Si Jiahui’s home town). He studied in Yushan under Roger Leighton. In the CBSA tour qualifiers, he beat Gong Chenzhi, Lin Shuai, He Guoqiang and Lei Peifan – a pretty decent series of wins! He’s a great potter, but the rest of his game is work in progress.
The media tend to concentrate on players who are well-known. Unfortunately that means we get the same information repeatedly, and then there are these gaps. But it makes it easier for their research.
Nobody knows him because he’s not talked about, most notably by WST. He’s won more than Moody this season but WST is not bigging him. That’s my point. It’s nothing against young Stan, but there are rookies on tour that are more deserving than him but are not “advertised” simply because they are not British … or Shaun Murphy’s protégé.
Thanks. That’s more information about Xing in one single paragraph than I have seen in all my snooker reading. And the real problem is that the rampant discrimination in snooker is making that dearth of information possible – and worse.
Let’s not forget that the discrimination against non-UK players is just a slice of the goings-on. Much has been said about how women are put at a severe disadvantage in terms of funding and training opportunities (etc.). Much, but not nearly enough, I would add. And then, just look at the ongoing NI Open. There hasn’t been – as long as I watched – a single female referee on the TV table. I got a glimpse of several on the “lower” tables, but…
That’s still not all: Do you know of an openly gay player on the Main Tour? I don’t, even though, statistically speaking, there should be a handful at any given time. So, either they are so deep in hiding no one knows about them (which would be bad enough), or they are driven out by homophobic behavior before they have a chance to make a splash.
All in all, I say, snooker has more problems than a street dog has fleas, from match fixing via royal mutiny to the rampant addiction to betting outfits and their piles of cash, and discrimination is the most egregiously under-reported. It’s a testament to Monique’s wisdom and dedication to fairness and humanity, she won’t give up on pointing it out. It’s also a huge part of what makes this place stand out.
Thank you Grump. We do not always agree, but that’s part of normal life. I respect your opinions and you respect mine. That’s what matters. During my years on tour (2010-2016) I knew of one openly gay player. I never observed aggressive or humiliating behaviours towards him.
You’re welcome, Monique, and let me return the compliment.
Of course, you won’t likely get to observe such behavior, since this is prone to happen whenever there are no, or only like-“minded”, other persons around. And, of course, you (carefully, and quite rightly) did not mention the man’s name, which isn’t widely known. At least, I found no reporting on it. It’s probably for the better for him, but a bad sign for snooker.
There are a lot of young Chinese players, so obviously the Chinese snooker association is doing something right. I suppose that with all the talk how young people don’t play snooker in the UK, the great enthusiasm about a young British player is understandable. That Murphy is trying to help his development, it a nice thing, no need to hold it against him.
I’m not holding it against him at all but Murphy has always been close to the “authorities”, and on the board himself. My point is that there are young players who are as deserving as Stan Moody but don’t get the same exposure simply because they are not British and the protégés of some British top player. And, yes, I know, Murphy now lives in Ireland … but he was born in England and lived most of his life there and is English.
The schedule is somewhat impacted by having to remove a table and reconfigure the arena. Similarly, they will remove a table tonight in preparation for the semi-finals, which will probably have 3-sided seating. It’s likely 10am starts don’t give them enough time.
What is slightly strange is the ordering of the Q-final matches. It doesn’t exactly follow the ordering of the L16 matches yesterday. Nodoubt they are wanting the two youngest players (Wakelin and Yuan) to be on Table 2, favouring the older ‘more familiar’ names. Despite the rankings, Wakelin and Yuan have both won tournaments in 2023.
Relegating the younger ones to table 2 – yes, that’s a way to look at it. Putting the Chinese (one out of eight players) into the one (one out of four) match not played on the main table, would be another. I am less than enthusiastic about either “reason” for that choice.
It would appear, Yuan has yet to reach a ranking final. Maybe this time…