The first round of the 2024 British Open continued yesterday in Leicester.
Hereafter is WST report on the day:
ROBERTSON CONTINUES STRONG START
Australia’s Neil Robertson extended his undefeated start to the campaign with a 4-1 win over Welshman Andrew Pagett at Unibet British Open qualifying in Leicester.
Former World Champion Robertson is in need of a strong season after enduring a torrid time last term, which saw him slump to 27th in the world rankings. However, having already qualified for the final stages of the Wuhan Open and the Xi’an Grand Prix, it has been a successful week for the 23-time ranking event winner. He top scored with a run of 62 in today’s victory, which sees him seal a spot in Cheltenham for the final stages in September.
Scotland’s returning professional Chris Totten scored a fine 4-0 win over the legendary Jimmy White. Totten crafted breaks of 63, 64, 86 and 87 en route to victory.
China’s Zhou Yuelong beat compatriot and former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi 4-2, while Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei beat Mostafa Dorgham 4-1.
All the detailed results are on snooker.org
Once again only four matches reported on although twelve were actually played.
The match of the first session was certainly the one opposing Ricky Walden and Liu Hongyu. It was good snooker and incredibly tense. Both of them gave it absolutely everything they had. Also worth a mention is Xu Si’s 4-2 win over Ken Doherty. Ken had breaks of 60 and 63 in the frames he won, but Xu Si was the heaviest scorer with breaks of 120 and 97.
Mark Joyce, now an amateur, replaced Stuart Carrigton and made the most of it: he beat Xing Zihao in another hard fought match that went to a deciding frame. Mark Joyce is never easy to play against, and, in my opinion, not very easy on the eye either but he’s not out there to be pretty, he’s out there to try to win.
Anton Kazakov from Ukraine replaced Martin Gould and he too made the most of the opportunity. He beat Ahmed Aly Elsayed by 4-3 … at nearly 1 am this morning.
The other matches yesterday were pretty one-sided.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Isn’t it a bit too early to speak about relegation? The season has hardly started. I will never understand these predictions. OK they look at the existing points, but is the assumption that the player will not win any matches this season? 🤷😯
It’s early days but, on the provisional end of season ranking list, he’s only 6000 points away from the relegation zone and, unlike most of those right “behind him” hasn’t qualified either for Wuhan or Xi’an.
I think my main problem is that I don’t understand how the provisional list treats competitions not yet played. 🤷
Look at it this way: to make the “end of season list” at the start of the new season, all points earned in the season before last are taken off. So at the start of this season 2024/25, the initial “end season provisional rankings” list was created by subtracting all the ranking points from 2022/23 from the current ranking tally for each “current” player. Luca earned a lot of points in 2022/23, and very little in 2023/24. Hence he “fell” from being a top 16 player to being a mere 6000 points ahead of the player ranked 65. And he’s not qualified for either Xi’an or Wuhan, meaning that in two or three months time he might well find himself in the relegation zone.
Absolutely, but he might win the UK and the Worlds, so it is little arbitrary. 😁
I wouldn’t say it’s arbitrary. This is the current situation. Nobody suggests that he can’t retrieve the situation but he needs a good season, and IMO, he needs some good results soon otherwise the pressure will only mount.
David Hendon said in his latest podcast that Luca Brecel could be relegated (by ranking points) at the end of the season. What do you think about this, Monique? I was very surprised to even consider this.
Ironically, the new tiered draw structure might make things more difficult for him – he’ll potentially have to beat stronger opponents to get any ranking points.
WST have put themselves under pressure, by awarding ITC’s, specifically to Ken Doherty. Do they go to anyone who has won the World Championship?
Actually, I don’t expect him to get relegated. I’m sure he will come to his senses and have a decent run in a tournament somewhere. Players who get relegated are the ones who find it difficult to string 2 or 3 wins together. Brecel is much better than that, and will probably find enough form some week or other.
Well, I wasn’t. The thing is … Luca tends to go walkabout after every big success. He’s always been this way. However, as Lewis wrote, he’s likely to “wake up” at some point this season and he’s plenty good enough to retrieve the situation when he does.
But that’s exactly the reason I was very surprised to hear David Hendon talk about that. Luca’s character is well known. If he’d get closer he would put the work in or just play well out of instinct. I think he’s got pride as well as a World Champion, he might not practice enough now, but I’m sure he would then, at least some intensive sessions right before important tournaments.
*…get closer to relegation…
Ricky Walden was very lucky – he had a decisive fluke in the deciding frame. Nevertheless, Liu Hongyu probably has enough points from last season to survive, even after a poor start to this season. However, Xing Zihao probably doesn’t have that luxury. He missed a straightforward chance to win against Mark Joyce. Amir Sarkhosh did well to come back from 3-0 behind. He’s a competent player, but it’s very tough to win at this level. Despite the late finish, Kazakov actually won 4-2, not even the full 7 frames!