Here is WST report about day 2 at the 2024 Xi’an Grand Prix Qualifiers
ONES BATTLES PAST MCGUIGAN
Crucible runner-up Jak Jones won the final three frames to snatch a trip to China from tour rookie Robbie McGuigan’s grasp, prevailing 5-4 in Xi’an Grand Prix qualifying.
Jones began last season’s World Championship as a 150-1 outsider. However, giant killing exploits saw him defeat the likes of Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham to make the title match. The Welshman was denied glory after a battling 18-14 loss to Kyren Wilson in the final.
McGuigan is entering his debut season as a professional after earning a tour card by winning this year’s European Amateur Championship. Breaks of 64 and 106 took him to the cusp of victory at 4-2, but Jones rallied to force a decider. The final frame saw Northern Ireland’s McGuigan come within one ball of triumph, but was denied on the black as Jones came through.
Former Shoot Out champion Chris Wakelin needed to produce some heavy scoring to see off Malaysia’s Rory Thor 5-4. The Englishman crafted runs of 112, 135, 74, 63 and 87 in the narrow win.
Pang Junxu scored a 5-2 win over returning professional Michael Holt, while Yuan Sijun beat Women’s World Champion Bai Yulu 5-1.
As so often this report only covers a fraction of what happened at the tables, and, in this case, off the tables as well.
Indeed Luca Brecel never showed up and nobody seems to know what happened. The last news WST had was that he was in the car, apparently at the euro tunnel. Now, this being the holidays period and thanks to Brexit, there might have been huge lines of vehicles caught there, stuck for hours. Hopefully nothing worse than that happened but for Luca it’s a mini disaster because he really need the ranking points this season.
All the results are on snooker.org as always.
Here is what caught my attention:
- Paul Deaville, an amateur, beat Wu Yize by 5-3. Paul was only in the draw because Stuart Carrington withdrew.
- 17 years old Gong Chenzhi beat Anthony Hamilton by 5-4 in a hard fought match. Gong is in his first season as a pro and beating the shrewd Sheriff of Pottingham is never easy.
- Willo duly qualified, whitewashing 19 years old Liam Graham … the lad scored a grand total of 86 points during the match.
- Former Seniors Champion, David Lilley, beat Louis Heathcote by 5-3.
- And in the last match of the day1 Daniel Wells beat Ali Carter by 5-4. Daniel’s highest break of the match was just 51… Ali had three breaks over 50, including a 98. Judging by the scores this wasn’t pretty … and Ali won’t be happy.
- It was already the next day actually… ↩︎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Yes it was a fine win by Deaville: it was a high-quality match. Gong did very well, winning on the final black. It looked as if he would be dragged down in a similar way to his match against Lawler in the World Championship. He’ll benefit a lot from that.
With Bai Yulu and Lei Peifan losing, there won’t be any Shaanxi players in Xi’an, which is a pity for the local supporters. It’s a magnificent venue, and but for a prior work contract I’d love to go there.