International Champion Zhang Anda registered a superb 4-2 win over player of the season so far Judd Trump and avenged a painful recent defeat to make the last 32 of the BetVictor Scottish Open in Edinburgh.
Trump staged a stirring fightback win over Zhang in the final of this season’s BetVictor English Open. Having trailed 7-3 he notched up six frames on the bounce to emerge a 9-7 victor. This time Zhang prevailed after an imperious performance.
The aftermath of that defeat saw Zhang regroup and bounce back with a sensational maiden ranking crown at the International Championship in Tianjin. He beat the likes of Ding Junhui, Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan en route to the title match. There he scored a momentous 10-6 win over Tom Ford, which included a 147, to secure silverware.
Despite that, Zhang still faced a daunting task taking down Trump today, who he hadn’t beaten since the 2016 World Open. The Ace in the Pack came in to the encounter favourite, given his scintillating form which also saw him pick up silverware at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open and the Wuhan Open.
Zhang put on a near faultless performance this afternoon, compiling breaks of 71, 114, 82 and 81 on his way to the win. Next up he faces either World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui or former Shoot Out runner-up Julien Lecrercq.
World Champion Luca Brecel came through a 4-3 victor after finding himself 3-2 down against Blackpool’s James Cahill.
Brecel has been living life dangerously so far this week, after his delayed flight nearly caused him to miss his opening round tie with Iulian Boiko. Staring down the barrel of defeat today, Brecel pulled off a brilliant clearance of 36 which culminated with a tough black along the top cushion to make it 3-3. The Crucible King then burst over the line in style with a sublime 133.
Victory puts Brecel in a strong position to qualify for the World Grand Prix, only the top 32 on this season’s money list will earn a place and Brecel would have missed out if he had lost today.
“I think yesterday I felt good and today I was much better. It was an improvement. I was one ball away from getting knocked out, I made a good clearance and then I had a good last frame,” said 28-year-old Brecel.
“It is going to happen all of the time. Nobody is going to win every game easily when they win a tournament. You saw it at the UK Championship when Ronnie O’Sullivan should have lost to Robert Milkins. I think Judd Trump does it all of the time, he wins a lot of deciders.
“The more you are up for it the more pressure you are going to feel. There are ups and downs to it. I’m enjoying it now and I’m up for the challenge. When I get a chance I feel good among the balls and I think my long game is pretty good as well. All things considered it has been quite a good start.”
Scotland’s Liam Graham secured his second match win as a professional, after defeating Ben Mertens 4-2 to make the last 32. Graham was handed a bye through the first round, when Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrew from the event. Today’s win sees Graham take full advantage and he now faces Sanderson Lam.
John Higgins earned his progression with a 4-1 win over He Guoqiang, while Jimmy White scored an impressive 4-3 win over Jimmy Robertson.
Zhang played extremely well in beating Trump indeed. That said Trump wasn’t at his best but the way Zhang was playing I’m not sure it was a factor.
Luca Brecel dodged a bullet again. Both him and James Cahill were far from their best for the best of the first six frames. It was overall an awful match. but then, all of sudden, with his back against the wall, Luca found something and finished brilliantly.
Liam Graham indeed won his second match as a professional, beating Ben Mertens whose recent lack of form worries me. Young Liam was all worked up about Ronnie’s “disrespectful” withdrawal, but maybe he should listen to what Shaun Murphy had to say and reflect on the fact that he’s now in the third round of a ranking event for the first time when he would probably be at home by now with empty pockets if a healthy Ronnie had showed up.
In that same piece, Shaun also hints at an unusual interest in the coming AGM and players wanting changes to the contract. Of course the recent “Macau” affair has something to do with it. I recently mentioned that WST isn’t consistent after they didn’t react to the recent exhibition in Finland … well I wasn’t the only one finding this “double standard” strange. Indeed Mark Selby spoke out … as reported by Phil Haigh.
Mark Selby says Finnish exhibition ‘blew my mind’ after Macau drama
Mark Selby played Neil Robertson in a huge exhibition in Finland on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)
Mark Selby admits he is confused that he was allowed to play in an exhibition in Finland during the Shoot Out after he was among five players blocked from competing in an exhibition in Macau during the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season.
Selby was a late replacement for Luca Brecel in the exhibition in Tampere, Finland on Saturday, taking on Neil Robertson in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000.
It looked to be a superb event and showed that there is great interest in snooker in the region, but Selby couldn’t work out why it was allowed to go ahead when another event caused such a fuss.
WST said the five men would be in breach of the players’ contract if they played in Macau, which ended up being a decision they didn’t have to make as the event was postponed until December.
They did lose out, though, as they had already withdrawn from Northern Ireland and so spent that week neither playing in Belfast nor Macau.
However, Selby and Robertson were happily able to play in Tampere on Saturday and the Jester from Leicester admits he doesn’t see the difference as a ranking event was going on in Swansea at the same time.
Asked if there were any issues with being allowed to play in Finland, Selby said: ‘No. Which is strange. It absolutely blew my mind, you know, because it was still clashing with the Shoot Out, which was no different to what we were doing with Macau, but apparently it got passed.
‘I don’t know. I’m fed up of caring about it, to be honest.’
World Snooker Tour were approached for an explanation on the situation but declined to comment.
It was suggested by six-time world champion Steve Davis on the BBC during the coverage of the UK Championship that Macau was a non-starter because it was due to be televised, which would unquestionably be in breach of the players’ contract.
However, part-organiser of the Macau event Victoria Shi told Metro.co.uk that the exhibition was never intended to be televised or streamed.
There is certainly some confusion among players over what they can and cannot do outside of professional events and that is causing unrest.
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In cheerier news for the sport, Selby said the Finnish exhibition was a great success and hopes that it can encourage more events and bigger tournaments to be staged in the country.
‘The venue was amazing with 2,000 people,’ he said. ‘There’s great appetite out there in Scandinavia.
‘I was speaking to Robin Hull, who put on the event, he was a former player himself and he was saying he was surprised it’s taken so long for snooker to go out there.
‘With Eurosport helping, it’s been very popular over there for years. Some of the boys are going out there in May for an eight-man event and hopefully we can get a tournament out there at some point.
‘They’ve got the crowds which is good. What we’re trying to do is hopefully the launchpad for getting a tournament out there. We’re trying to promote it out there and if WST see the crowds that we’re getting then they can get a tournament on there and it could be another Germany in the making.
‘We’ve been to Germany for the last four or five years and the crowds are always great there so hopefully Finland can be another one.’
As you can read it was by no means a “small” exhibition. Last year I went to Bulgaria for a couple of exhibitions with Ronnie and Jimmy and it was the same: massive crowds.
WST isn’t making enough efforts to bring more events in mainland Europe. Of course, Brexit – that Hearn supported – has made things even more complicated and difficult. Still it’s a crying shame.
2 thoughts on “The 2023 Scottish Open and more about exhibitions and double standards”
Actually I think it’s to Liam Graham’s credit to value the experience of playing a great player, plus all the disappointment of his family and hundreds of snooker fans in Edinburgh. Had he said: “it’s great Ronnie withdrew because I get £3000 that I couldn’t have won for myself”, I wouldn’t have been impressed. He’s comes over as an intelligent, well-spoken, ambitious and brave young man.
Of course Ronnie has let a lot of people down, but it can’t be helped because he’s clearly too ill to be able the play the match.
I agree Lewis, it’s good to want to earn it as opposed to be gifted it. It was just not necessary, nor right, to brand it “disrespectful” and “the things he does”. I agree about ambitious and brave, not about intelligent and well spoken.
International Champion Zhang Anda registered a superb 4-2 win over player of the season so far Judd Trump and avenged a painful recent defeat to make the last 32 of the BetVictor Scottish Open in Edinburgh.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Actually I think it’s to Liam Graham’s credit to value the experience of playing a great player, plus all the disappointment of his family and hundreds of snooker fans in Edinburgh. Had he said: “it’s great Ronnie withdrew because I get £3000 that I couldn’t have won for myself”, I wouldn’t have been impressed. He’s comes over as an intelligent, well-spoken, ambitious and brave young man.
Of course Ronnie has let a lot of people down, but it can’t be helped because he’s clearly too ill to be able the play the match.
I agree Lewis, it’s good to want to earn it as opposed to be gifted it. It was just not necessary, nor right, to brand it “disrespectful” and “the things he does”. I agree about ambitious and brave, not about intelligent and well spoken.