The quarter-finals in Brentwood yesterday delivered two big “upsets” although I’m not sure we can still speak about upsets as the quality of the lower ranked players has surged, and even more so when we look at the quality of non-British contingent. So here are WST reports on QF day in Brentwood:
Wu Yize scored one of the biggest wins of his fledgling career after scoring a 5-3 defeat of world number one Judd Trump to make the semi-finals of the BetVictor English Open in Brentwood.
Chinese 20-year-old Wu has established himself as one of the sport’s brightest young stars since a Rookie of the Year season in 21/22. He’s gone on to qualify for the Crucible in 2023 and make the semi-finals of the 2023 Wuhan Open, where he lost to Trump.
Victory today avenges a gut-wrenching recent defeat for Wu. He led Trump 4-0 at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, before going down 5-4. It proved to be a massive win for Trump, who went on to capture the £500,000 top prize.
After losing to Trump in their first three meetings, Wu finally landed a win over the 2019 World Champion this afternoon. Wu made a fine 108 in the opener this afternoon, before the first four were ultimately shared to leave them 2-2 at the mid-session.
When play resumed, two on the bounce moved Wu one from a momentous win. Trump reduced his arrears with 56 in the seventh to make it 4-3, but a break of 62 in the eighth got Wu over the line. He now faces either Mark Selby or Ishpreet Singh Chadha in the semis.
“This game was very important to me. I wanted to beat him today, because we have played against each other three times previously and I hadn’t won. Last time in Saudi Arabia, I felt winning a game like this was just around the corner,” said former World Under-21 Champion Wu.
“I have always had this goal of winning a ranking event in mind, but when you are actually on the table, you can’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just take it one step at a time and do your best in the moment. No matter which opponent I face tomorrow, I will have more rest time than them.”
Trump said: “I think Wu was the better player and he is deservedly through to the semi-finals. He stands a better chance of doing well than me.
“I hope Wu can fulfil his potential. He has been knocking on the door for a while. I hope he wins and that he can put on a good show in the semi-finals.”
Chris Wakelin secured a place in his third ranking event semi-final after a 5-2 defeat of world number three Mark Allen.
Former Shoot Out champion Wakelin made the final of last season’s Northern Ireland Open, but succumbed to a heavy defeat against current world number one Trump.
Wakelin came back from the brink yesterday evening after trailing Pang Junxu 3-0, but rallied to secure a massive 4-3 win. He now goes up against Barry Hawkins or Neil Robertson to make it two his second title match in a full format event.
Wakelin said: “It has been really tough. Every round I’ve played a difficult opponent but that is the nature of life on tour these days. In all honesty I’m still never going to be fancied over top 16 players in other people’s eyes, but I know my game is so much stronger than a lot of people think. I’ve put in a lot of work behind the scenes and I’m in a good place personally. If I play my best then I am going to win.”
India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha scored a famous 5-4 victory over his hero Mark Selby to clinch a place in the semi-finals of the BetVictor English Open in Brentwood.
Singh Chadha becomes the first player from his country to make the semi-finals of a ranking tournament since Aditya Mehta reached the last four of the 2013 Indian Open.
The Mumbai cueman gave up a career as a professional gamer in the world of E-Sports to chase his dream of competing on the World Snooker Tour. Singh Chadha achieved that goal two years ago when he successfully negotiated Asia/Oceania Q School.
Coming into this week Singh Chadha’s previous best in ranking competition was the last 32. However, wins over Simon Blackwell, Graeme Dott, Jak Jones, Hossein Vafaei, He Guoqiang and now Selby have seen him make a breakthrough run to the last four. He now faces China’s Wu Yize.
It had looked as if it would be a comfortable evening for Singh Chadha when breaks of 73 and 114 helped him into a 4-1 advantage.
Typically, four-time World Champion Selby refused to give up and roared back into contention. Trailing 4-3 and with his opponent starting to falter, Selby piled on the pressure with a break of 96 to force a decider.
Selby had opportunities to complete the comeback in the final frame, but couldn’t convert them. Singh Chadha eventually got his chance after depositing an incredible opening red. He held himself together with a break of 41 to win on the final black.
It was an emotional victory for Chadha, who showed his relief at the table after depositing the last ball. Meanwhile his mother, who has moved to Sheffield with him to pursue his career, was in tears in the stand.
“I was expecting him to come back, even though I was 4-1 up. I knew it was far from over, because I was playing Mark Selby. I have watched so many of his matches. I’ve not missed any of his world finals. I watched every single frame, even though it can get boring when he is playing safety. I just love watching him and he is my favourite snooker player.”
Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Indian Number One
SINGH CHADHA WINNING INTERVIEW
Singh Chadha added: “This will always be in my memory. It is my biggest win so far and my biggest result in a ranking event. I am very happy and I will see what will happen next.
“I think some qualities from gaming have really helped me in snooker. I can handle pressure much better when I’m playing well. I was known to win deciders in India as well and I am happy to have won this game.
“I am so happy I could win in front of my mum. I wouldn’t be playing snooker if it wasn’t for her. She has given me so much freedom to do whatever I want. So much has hard work has gone in. There have been so many sacrifices from her to let me live my life.”
Neil Robertson secured his first semi-final appearance of the season with a 5-1 demolition of world number 17 Barry Hawkins.
The Thunder from Down Under is fighting to force his way back up the rankings after a torrid 23/24 campaign which has caused him to currently be ranked 26th in the world. If he wins the event he will return to the top 16 and dislodge Scotland’s John Higgins.
Hawkins leaves Brentwood having fallen just shy of knocking Higgins out of the top 16 himself, with the four-time World Champion having occupied that elite tier for the first time since 1995. The Hawk needed to win this evening to move up one place in the rankings and dislodge the Scot.
Robertson has already secured some huge wins this week, including a 4-1 defeat of Shaun Murphy. Today’s win sees the 2010 World Champion notch up another impressive result ahead of tomorrow’s semi-final with Chris Wakelin.
“I feel as though this season is a complete reset. I’m forgetting all of the things I’ve done in the past and this is part two of my career now,” said 23-time ranking event winner Robertson.
“Chris is a greatly improved player from a few years ago. He was always around 50 in the world, but he has come on really well. He is getting to the later stages of tournaments more regularly and got a good win over Mark Allen. I expect a really tough contest but it is something I’m going to embrace.”
Wu’s father was in the crowd as well. He’s now settled with his son in Essex. Wu’s practice base is now at “The Grove”, managed by Django Fung. The poor man was going “through all the rainbow colours”1 .
Whoever from Wu or Chadha goes through, it will be a good thing for the sport. One is a very young, very talented player, the other one is from India, the land where it all started.
The Neil Robertson of old is back, swagger included. He will face Chris Wakelin who is a quality player who probably should have done more through his career so far, but has been held back by mental health struggles. Chris deserves every credit for the way he’s coped with his issues and been open about his struggles.
Whatever happens today, we will have a very interesting final tomorrow.
On another topic, now that we know why Ronnie is so low and inconsistent, it’s time to drop the criticisms about attitude and blabla … . He will need time to get over this and his focus will not be on snooker for some time. Understandably. How much time? It’s impossible to tell.
Belgian/French expression … “il passe par toutes les couleurs de l’arc en ciel” meaning he goes through the whole range of emotions, from joy to pain, to fear, to hope… etc. ↩︎
Does anyone know if the referee of Allen-Higgins was an Indian?
John Pellew was the referee of the Allen v Higgins.
hahaha! John is as Welsh as can be. He would be completely nonplussed if asked if he’s Indian 😄
Sorry! I didn’t mean this match!
I can’t remember which match it was.
If you mean the same referee officiating on the Si v Boiko match today, yes, he’s Indian and his name is Junaid Ahmed.
Yes, I think he’s it. He must have had a match on the tv table last week. But I can’t remember.
I didn’t ever see him before and just thought it was a coincidence that he would be introduced to the main tour circuit at a tournament at which an Indian player then performs well as well. But I guess I’m wrong and he has been around for some time.
The QFs delivered two big shocks, Monique. 🙂
Those were no shocks for me, having seen how they played in previous rounds. Trump never looked sharp neither did Selby. I think they got that far partly on reputation.
I spoke to Wu Yize’s father briefly after one of their matches last weekend. It was a very interesting decision to leave the hotbed of Sheffield, which has been the base for almost all Chinese players since 2016. Liu Hongyu has also done quite well with a similar approach
Ishpreet Singh Chadha’s mother also accompanies her son. We have seen time and again that having a family member present is helpful (perhaps vital) for players to do well – for instance Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson reached their peak, supported by their brothers. It’s just yet another disadvantage that overseas players normally have to cope with.
Wu Yize comes from Lanzhou in Gansu province. It’s not a heralded province, but there are some local sponsors who are keen on snooker, and several tournaments have been organised. Wu (the only player to have emerged from there) is very much the flag-bearer. All this probably allows the Wu’s to set up their independent base.
The semi-final line-up is quite extraordinary. It’s possible that some of the top players are a bit jaded after some serious travelling. It was also noticeable how bad the tables have been playing – I don’t think they have been re-clothed since last weekend, which is far too long with over 60 matches played on the 4 tables in the last 5 days.
Thank you for this feedback Lewis. Very interesting.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Does anyone know if the referee of Allen-Higgins was an Indian?
John Pellew was the referee of the Allen v Higgins.
hahaha! John is as Welsh as can be. He would be completely nonplussed if asked if he’s Indian 😄
Sorry! I didn’t mean this match!
I can’t remember which match it was.
If you mean the same referee officiating on the Si v Boiko match today, yes, he’s Indian and his name is Junaid Ahmed.
Yes, I think he’s it. He must have had a match on the tv table last week. But I can’t remember.
I didn’t ever see him before and just thought it was a coincidence that he would be introduced to the main tour circuit at a tournament at which an Indian player then performs well as well. But I guess I’m wrong and he has been around for some time.
The QFs delivered two big shocks, Monique. 🙂
Those were no shocks for me, having seen how they played in previous rounds. Trump never looked sharp neither did Selby. I think they got that far partly on reputation.
I spoke to Wu Yize’s father briefly after one of their matches last weekend. It was a very interesting decision to leave the hotbed of Sheffield, which has been the base for almost all Chinese players since 2016. Liu Hongyu has also done quite well with a similar approach
Ishpreet Singh Chadha’s mother also accompanies her son. We have seen time and again that having a family member present is helpful (perhaps vital) for players to do well – for instance Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson reached their peak, supported by their brothers. It’s just yet another disadvantage that overseas players normally have to cope with.
Wu Yize comes from Lanzhou in Gansu province. It’s not a heralded province, but there are some local sponsors who are keen on snooker, and several tournaments have been organised. Wu (the only player to have emerged from there) is very much the flag-bearer. All this probably allows the Wu’s to set up their independent base.
The semi-final line-up is quite extraordinary. It’s possible that some of the top players are a bit jaded after some serious travelling. It was also noticeable how bad the tables have been playing – I don’t think they have been re-clothed since last weekend, which is far too long with over 60 matches played on the 4 tables in the last 5 days.
Thank you for this feedback Lewis. Very interesting.