The qualifiers for the 2023 English Open continued yesterday and this is the report shared by WST:

Pullen In The Right Direction

Tour rookie Liam Pullen won a knock out ranking event match for the first time, beating Ahmed Aly Elsayed 4-0 to reach the final stages of the BetVictor English Open.

Yorkshire’s 18-year-old Pullen qualified for the tour via Q Tour and showed glimpses of his potential during narrow 5-4 defeats to Oliver Brown and Jamie Jones in recent weeks. The former English under-18 champion now has a victory under his belt and can look forward to a trip to Brentwood for the season’s first BetVictor Home Nations event next month. Breaks of 70, 90, 55 and 74 were the highlights of an impressive performance from the teenager.

Six-time ranking event winner Stephen Maguire trailed Daniel Wells three times but recovered to win 4-3. Breaks of 130, 65 and 131 helped Maguire to win a high quality tussle.

Veterans Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty both suffered heavy 4-0 defeats. Hendry was up against Fergal O’Brien in a match where the combined age of the two players was 105. O’Brien came out on top with a high break of 69.  Doherty was whitewashed by Jackson Page, whose top breaks were 58 and 56.

Scott Donaldson edged out Long Zehuang 4-3 thanks to a run of 55 in the decider while David Lilley earned a 4-1 success against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. David Gilbert knocked in 103, 93 and 105 during a 4-1 defeat of Dean Young. Allan Taylor beat Jak Jones 4-3, coming from 52-0 down in the decider to take it with a break of 65.

Once again a very incomplete report … all the results can be found on snooker.org.

Mink was whitewashed by Cao Yupeng who was again in high scoring mode, with breaks of 66, 96, 83 and 71.

Ben Mertens who beat Shaun Murphy earlier this week was whitewashed by Zhang Anda. Ben didn’t play well and Zhang Anda, in the balls, is extremely reliable; he punished nearly every one of Ben’s mistakes . He won the first frame with a 101, then scored breaks of 59, 56 and 55 in the next three. As for Ben, maybe a bit of tiredness kicked in? He has so far got a very good season, and has beaten some top players. The Belgian players travel from Belgium for every match in the UK. The young players stay with their family, which has huge benefits: they aren’t lonely, they have the support they need and they are kept safe from temptations and bad influences. But, of course, it’s a lot of traveling and it’s tiring.

Thepchaiya Un-nooh, usually a heavy scorer, was beaten by 4-1, by David Lilley.

Lyu Haotian also played poorly by his recent standard, but mainly, Chris Wakelin who beat him by 4-1, played well and scored well. Chris transformation over the last year has been spectacular.

The Duffy v Sarkis match was a slow and extremely “painful to watch” affair. They were pulled off at 3-1, and they had already overrun the next scheduled match.

The last match to finish was the Matthew Selt v Alfie Burden one. Selt won by 4-2. It was Burden who had the best start, winning the first frame with a 65, that proved to be the only 50+ break of the match. Then came frame 2 … Selt broke off, never played another shot and won the frame. How? Well, Burden tried to nestle into the pack “from behind”, after bouncing from the top cushion. He failed 3 times to hit a red and because he wasn’t snookered on all reds, he lost the frame on the “three miss rule”. Burden was clearly affected by the incident.

I also watched a bit of the Hendry match… it was depressing. I will never tell a player when they should quit, as they have every right to continue to play if they so wish, but I found it hard to watch … and I was never a Hendry fan¹. It must be even worse for them.

In general, I have the feeling that conditions aren’t great. I’m not at all an “authority” when it comes to judging conditions, but there have been a number of shots I saw, played with side, that clearly didn’t yield the outcome the player expected…

1. Nor was I a Hendry “hater” BTW. I wasn’t following snooker when he was at his best. ↩︎

And we are in yet another qualifiers three days … this time for the 2023 English Open.

Here is WST report on day 1 (yesterday).

Si Edges Out Ursenbacher

China’s Si Jiahui rallied from 3-1 down to beat Swiss number one Alexander Ursenbacher 4-3 and qualify for the final stages of the BetVictor English Open.

Si enjoyed the finest fortnight of his career so far when he made the World Championship semi-finals at the end of last season. Only an inspired performance from Luca Brecel cost him a place in the final, as he lost out 17-15.

Ursenbacher required Q School to return to the tour this season, but he seized the early initiative with breaks of 66 and 77 on his way to establishing a 3-1 advantage. However, Si hit back with three on the bounce, including a break of 76 in the sixth to earn his place in Brentwood next month.

Iran’s Hossein Vafaei put on a fine performance to brush aside Scottish rookie Liam Graham 4-0. Vafaei composed breaks of 99, 81, 84 and 79 on his way to the whitewash.

Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson held off a Pang Junxu fightback to qualify thanks to a 4-3 victory. The Wallsend cueman fired in breaks of 102 and 52.

China’s Wu Yize thrashed India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha 4-0, while Zhou Yuelong defeated Ben Woollaston by a 4-2 scoreline.

For once this WST report, incomplete as it is, isn’t focusing mainly on UK/Irish players. It’s about time! We had 32 players in action yesterday, 16 of them are from outside UK/Ireland and the majority of them are young players. Of those 16, 8 won their match. The level of the young non British/Irish players is at least as good as the level of their British/Irish rivals. There are a few uncompetitive players on tour, from various nationalities, but that is a reflection of the inadequacy of some qualification routes more than anything else.

All the results are on snooker.org as usual.

Julien Leclercq from Belgium beat Jiang Jun in no time. Julien’s game is very powerful but also still very rough. When it works, it’s deadly, and great to watch. Julien however will need to enrich his “weaponry” and develop a B game to progress as a complete pro.

Micael White completely outplayed Sam Craigie… without playing particularly well actually. Mark Davis beat Joe Perry by 4-1 in a battle of veterans; the score is misleading, it was a hard fought encounter, not a one-sided affair. It’s however worrying for Joe who did win his group in the first stage of the 2023 ranking CLS in July, but has won just one match since. The last match to finish was won by Lukas Kleckers who beat Mark Joyce in a deciding frame. It was another very hard-fought affair and it is a good, encouraging win for Lukas.

WST have meanwhile published the “program” for day 1 in Brentwood

Match Schedule Confirmed For Fabulous Opening Day In Brentwood

Local favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan, new World Champion Luca Brecel and defending champion Mark Selby are among an array of star names in the line-up for the first day of the BetVictor English Open at the Brentwood Centre next month, with the schedule now confirmed.

The world ranking event will run from October 2nd to 8th and will be staged at the Brentwood Centre in Essex for the second consecutive year. Matches on the opening day, Monday October 2nd, will include:

10am
Mark Allen v Mostafa Dorgham
Ding Junhui v Ma Hailong
Ryan Day v Ashley Hugill
Robert Milkins v Robbie Williams

Not before 1pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Andrew Pagett
John Higgins v Marco Fu
Ryan Davies v Bradley Cowdroy (English amateur wild cards)
Jack Lisowski v Matthew Stevens

Roll-on Roll-off
Mark Selby v Xing Zhao
Neil Robertson v Sanderson Lam
Ali Carter v Jamie Clarke

7pm
Luca Brecel v Stan Moody
Shaun Murphy v Liu Hongyu
Mark Williams v Ian Burns

Not before 8.00 pm
Judd Trump v Sean O’Sullivan
Kyren Wilson v Oliver Lines
Barry Hawkins v Anthony Hamilton

Yesterday was the last day of the 2023 Wuhan Open Qualifiers and this is WST report on what happened at the tables.

Higgins Secures Wuhan Place

Scotland’s four-time World Champion John Higgins thrashed Welsh youngster Dylan Emery 5-1 to qualify for the final stages of the Wuhan Open.

The 31-time ranking event winner endured a difficult campaign in 22/23, failing to go beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking competition. However, he has already improved on that this season, with a recent run to the semis of the BetVictor European Masters.

This afternoon’s victory over Emery was a routine one for Higgins, who fired in breaks of 61, 92, 115 and 57 during the tie. The Glaswegian is now set for a trip to Wuhan at the beginning of next month.

Hong Kong’s Marco Fu scored a thrilling 5-4 win over Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei. With the scores locked level at 3-3, the seventh frame came down to a black ball fight, which Fu eventually won to move 4-3 ahead. Vafaei forced a decider, but a crucial break of 86 from Fu saw him over the line.

Liam Highfield compiled breaks of 66 and 104 on his way to a 5-1 defeat of Jimmy White, while Mark Davis defeated tour rookie Liam Graham by a 5-1 scoreline.

Why the headline is about John Higgins totally expected win over a youngster rather than about Marco Fu’s defeat of Hossein Vafaei is beyond my understanding… somehow. Of course I know why: Higgins is a top player, a household mane and a multiple World champion, and British. But in terms of what actually happened at the table, Marco’s win was the feat of the day. Marco has struggled with serious eyes issues, issues so serious that it seemed they could force him out of the game he loves. But Marco is a fighter. He completely changed his game. He plays faster than he used to do, he delivers the shot much more quickly after getting down on the shot. In the past he used to be down on the shot, sighting the balls – object ball and cue ball – for a rather longer time. He attacks more as well, trying to avoid being dragged in long frames. Yesterday, all those changes paid off and I was very happy to watch it.

This was the only match I watched actually. The report as usual “ignores” some of the matches. All the results are on snooker.org as usual. Beating Ricky Walden by 5-3 is a good result for Ian Burns.

As I wrote in my previous post, yesterday I was on the road and I saw nothing at all of the snooker action. The two young Belgians were playing and I will certainly watch their matches sometime later this week.

He is the report by WST:

Mertens Conquers Magician

Belgian 18-year-old Ben Mertens secured a superb 5-2 win over 2005 World Champion Shaun Murphy to make the final stages of the Wuhan Open.

World number 72 Mertens first showcased his talent in 2020 when he became the youngest player to win a match at the World Championship, aged 15. Liam Davies has since eclipsed that record.

Mertens has enjoyed a strong start to this season, having made the last 32 of the BetVictor European Masters and qualified for the Cazoo British Open, after a win over Louis Heathcote.

Mertens made a break of 117 on his way to taking the first two frames this evening. Murphy hit back with two on the bounce to restore parity at 2-2, but it was Mertens who made a crucial burst for the finish. Contributions of 57, 70 and 65 saw him emerge a 5-2 victor.

Judd Trump earned his place in Wuhan with a comprehensive 5-1 win over Germany’s Lukas Kleckers. The 2019 World Champion fired in breaks of 87, 57,82 and 79.

Welshman Daniel Wells defeated compatriot Matthew Stevens 5-1 to seal his qualification, while Graeme Dott beat Belgian Julien Leclercq 5-3 in a hard fought contest.

I was very happy to find out that Ben had beaten Shaun Murphy, but I wasn’t overly surprised. Indeed Shaun has the type of open attacking game that suits Ben. It’s the type of snooker he loves to play. I’m disappointed that there are no post-match quotes by Ben in this report. Ben speaks English rather fluently, he’s certainly more than capable to give a good post-match interview.

Julien lost to Graeme Dott but it was hard fought. Dotty had work to beat him. Graeme Dott is seriously under-rated, by fans and by pundits. You don’t make it to the final at the Crucible three times, you don’t become a World Champion beating Ebdon of all people if you aren’t very, very good AND equipped with an iron will to win. Julien should learn a lot from this match.

As usual, a lot of matches are missing from that report. You will find all the results on snooker.org.

There were a lot of one-sided matches yesterday. Xiao Guodong beating Alexander Ursenbacher by 5-0 still surprised me. Not the fact that Xiao won, but the score. Then, it seems that Xiao was in high scoring mood … he had a break over 50 in each of the last four frames of the match. That said it’s bit worrying for Alex. He hasn’t won a single match in a straight knockout tournament this season so far.

Here is the report by WST:

Williams Comes Through Petrov Test

Mark Williams pulled away from 2-2 to beat Andres Petrov 5-2 and qualify for the final stages of the Wuhan Open.

…

Estonia’s top player Petrov made a break of 90 as he came from 2-0 down to 2-2, but three-time Crucible king Williams took the last three frames with a top run of 59 and he’ll be heading to China for the final stages of this new world ranking event next month.

BetVictor European Masters champion Barry Hawkins extended his winning streak with a 5-1 defeat of Louis Heathcote, compiling runs of 76, 77 and 75. Jack Lisowski needed just 56 minutes to beat Jenson Kendrick 5-0, firing breaks of 108, 61, 81 and 97.

Jamie Jones came from 3-1 and 4-3 down to beat Liam Pullen 5-4, making a break of 70 in the decider. Pang Junxu top scored with 100 in a 5-1 win over Stan Moody.

Ishpreet Singh Chadha continued his impressive start to his debut pro season as he edged out Anthony McGill 5-4. The Indian cueman made a 105 earlier in the match, and in a tense deciding frame he converted excellent pots on the blue, pink and black to snatch victory.

This will be short one as I’m on the road today…

As usual a lot of matches are “ignored” in the above report. You will find all the results on snooker.org

The McGill v Singh Chadha match is the only one I followed from start to finish yesterday. It was an excellent match and Singh Chadha totally deserved the win. Snooker was born in India, and we had some very good players from India in the past, notably Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta. They should have done better but the truth is that they didn’t settle in the UK, Pankaj in particular was very unhappy, terribly homesick and eventually he decided that it wasn’t worth it. Singh Chadha has a lot of potential. Let’s hope that he can be happy and adapts to this new life, so very different from what he’s used to in his country.

This is WST report about yesterday at the 2023 Wuhan Open qualifiers:

Milkins And Bingham Earn Wuhan Spots

Robert Milkins and Stuart Bingham were among the victors on day two of qualifying for the Wuhan Open, earning places in the final stages of the new world ranking event to take place in China next month.

…

Welsh Open champion Milkins saw off Zak Surety 5-2 with a top break of 52, while former Crucible king Bingham fired runs of 70, 73, 92 and 78 in a 5-3 success against James Cahill.

Aaron Hill made the highest break of his career so far, 145, as he scored a superb 5-0 victory over Joe Perry. The Irish youngster also compiled runs of 64 and 89.

Sanderson Lam continued his fine start to the season as he beat Tian Pengfei 5-3 with a top break of 132. Stuart Carrington knocked in breaks of 107, 111, 79 and 54 as he beat Fan Zhengyi 5-1.

Fan Zhengyi never really settled as Stuart Carrington played very well and kept him cold for most of their match. It was pretty much “one mistake will cost you the frame” type of game. Fan made a 98 in the only frame he won. The last frame was the only one that didn’t feature a break over 50.

No mention in the above report on Cao Yupeng blitz 50 victory over his young compatriot Jian Jung. Although Cao’s AST wasn’t particularly impressive – nearly 27 second per shot this was a very fast match.

Regarding the Sanderson Lam match this happened in the last frame: Tian led by 51-34 with only the colours left. Lam snookered him behind the black and Tian failed to escape 12 times, after which he needed snookers.

Hammad Miah beat Andy Hicks by 5-3. This was a good match. Both players were fluent and they scored well: breaks of 88 and 61 for Hicks, 53,91, 51 and 73 for Miah.

No mention either of Yuan Sijun’s 5-1 win over Ross Muir. Yuan had 4 breaks over 50 in that match, Muir had none.

Elliot Slessor inflicted a 50 defeat to David Lilley, restricting his opponent to just 78 points in total.

Martin O’Donnell beat David Grace by 5-2. It was 2-2 at the MSI and, at that point, David had been the heaviest scorer of the two, with a couple of breaks over 50. Martin though won all three after the MSI, with a couple of breaks over 50 of his own. That match had no rhythm and that probably suited Martin more than David as he’s a rather slow cautious player naturally.

Two matches were pulled off as they over-ran.

Zhang Anda beat Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Americas’ Champion, by 5-3 from 0-3 down. It was actually a very close match. Ahmed is a very methodical player with an AST over 36 seconds. The match was pulled off at 4-3 to Zhang.

The last match to finish – 13 minutes past midnight in Leicester, 2:13 am at my place – saw Xu Si beat Anton Kasakov by 5-3 from 2-3 down when the match was pulled off. The score at that point could have been worse for Xu: indeed Xu required snookers on multiple occasions in frame 2 but eventually won it on a re-spotted black. Anton, is only 18, from Ukraine, but somehow his style of play reminds me of players from the past … a very past past actually. He can score – he had a 103 and a 74, the only two breaks over 50 in the match – but he’s very, very slow with an AST over 42 seconds! He tends to be quite defensive as well. It’s bizarre considering how young he is.