The 2024 World Open qualifiers concluded yesterday evening. As usual, you will find all the detailed results on snooker.org. Ronnie qualified for the event by beating Alfie Burden by 5-3 in a hard fought match.

There weren’t that many surprises – outcome or scores – but there were some big ones:

• Liu Hongyu beat Jamie Clarke by 5-1. We know by now that Liu is very good, but the score is still surprising. Liu needed several snookers in the sixth frame, including at least one on the pink.
• Ryan Day beat Andrew Higginson by 5-4 from 4-1 down.
• Mark Selby was seriously pushed by the 19 years old rookie Xing Zihao. Mark won by 5-3, making two centuries, including a 130 in frame 5 … the 800th century of his career.
• Jenson Kendrick beat Anthony Hamilton by 5-3 in a match that featured a break over 50 in every frame bar the first. Ants is never easy to beat and I’m glad that Jenson gets something out of his professional experience this season. His first year was terrible and it must have been hard to take, especially as he became a father for the first time. After his win this week he came on social media with a picture of himself and his baby…
• Sean O’Sullivan beat Xiao Guodong by 5-1. I didn’t see the match but … Xiao made the only century of the match in frame 1, then lost all the close next five.
• Ishpreet Singh Chadha beat Stuart Bingham by 5-3. A very good result for the Indian player.
• Lukas Kleckers beat Jack Lisowski by 5-2. I’m very happy for Lukas and for the German fans who will have the opportunity to watch him play. The less I say about Jack the better.
• Ashley Hugill beat Anthony McGill by 5-1. Ashley is a very solid all-rounder but I can’t help wondering about Anthony’s motivation in qualifiers.

There were also some very close battles

• Aaron Hill beat Joe O’Connor by 5-4
• Joe Perry beat Martin O’Donnell by 5-4
• Noppon Saengkham beat Himanshu Jain by 5-4
• Ben Woollaston beat Ben Mertens by 5-4. That was hard fought. I like them both and I went through mixed feelings throughout that match!
• Adam Duffy beat Mark Davis by 5-4 … and I’m truly sorry for Mark’s biggest fan who is German 😢

Also …

David Lilley beat Scott Donaldson by 5-3 in the last match of the day. A match that finished one hour and 15 minutes after all the other ones. Both players have an AST over 30 seconds, but their shot time, towards the end, was more often than not over 45 seconds. Sorry but that’s preposterous. I know it’s important to them, I know they are under pressure but I’m also convinced that starting to ponder every shot for too long isn’t helpful. It’s mentally exhausting and rarely leads to the best decision.

And finally …

Mark Williams withdrew from the event to play exhibitions in Finland in front of big enthusiast crowds. Good on him. It was kept very quiet by WST though. No fuss at all, no big words, no threats to be thrown out of the game … I found out because only when Iulian Boiko replaced him and because there were pictures on social media. Yet these exhibitions were conflicting with one of WST events, didn’t they? No consistency here from the governing body and you have to wonder why. I don’t want to bring Willo any problems – maybe he asked permission and got it, maybe the fact that Robin Hull was involved in the organisation helped – and you know my stance: players being self-employed should be free to take the best offers, it’s for WST to come up with them if they want the best players in their events. It’s that simple. The hard capitalist that is Barry Hearn should know that better than anyone. But still … it only makes me wonder even more about the real reasons why WST got so worked up about the Macau one …

Other news …

Mink won the 2024 Women Snooker Belgian Open. The detailed report on that event is on the WPBSA web site. and all the detailed results are on the snookerscores web site.

Mohamed Shehab won the third – and last – of this season Middle-East Q-Tour events. The detailed report on that event can be found on the WPBSA web site and all the results are on snookerscores.net. Amir Sarkosh had won the previous two events of this series. I expect both players to be invited to this season Q-Tour playoff to be held in Albania. Both names will be familiar to those who regularly follow the IBSF events. Mohamed is 47 years old, Amir is 32 years old.

Vito Puopolo from Canada won the inaugural America Q-Tour event. The report on that was also shared by WPBSA. Vito is the reigning Canada Snooker Champion and he won the 2022 PABSA Pan-American Seniors Snooker Championship. As a result got an invite to the 2023 World Seniors Snooker Championship.