This is WST report on what happened on the first day at the 2024 International Championship, other than Ronnie’s win over Mink Nutcharut this morning.
Defending champion Zhang Anda, who won his first ranking title at this event a year ago, was pushed all the way by India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha before scraping a 6-5 victory. China’s Zhang made a 131 to lead 3-2 but later saw a 5-3 lead vanish at 5-5. The decider lasted 35 minutes and Zhang took it with a 39 clearance to earn a second round tie with David Grace.
John Higgins came from 3-0 and 4-2 down to beat Ben Woollaston 6-4, as breaks of 117, 64 and 81 helped the Scot to take the last four frames. Mark Selby, who beat Higgins in the recent British Open final, also enjoyed a fine comeback from 4-2 down, beating Jamie Clarke 6-4 with runs of 112, 114 and 70 in the last four frames.
Wuhan Open champion Xiao Guodong top scored with 130 in a 6-0 whitewash of Ricky Walden while Ding Junhui made a 124 in a 6-0 win over Reanne Evans. World Champion Kyren Wilson was another 6-0 winner, beating Mitchell Mann.
China’s Xu Si won a thrilling battle with Stan Moody by a 6-5 scoreline, taking frame ten with a 43 clearance and the decider with an 83. Matthew Stevens came from 5-3 down to beat amateur Simon Blackwell 6-5, making a 140 total clearance in frame nine. Pang Junxu edged out Elliot Slessor 6-5 with a 58 in the decider, while Si Jiahui earned a 6-4 success against Andrew Pagett.
All the detailed results can be found on snooker.org
As you can see, today’s matches were a mix of held-over matches, and round 2 matches.
Surprisingly, there were withdrawals from three players who had already won their first round match: Anthony Hamilton, Mark Davis and Zak Surety, offering a free passage to round 3 to Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams and Chris Wakelin. I’m not sure why those players withdrew.1
All of the held-over matches were won by the highest seeded player. Still, some of the very young wildcards gave a good account of themselves.
As mentioned in the above report, Ishpreet Singh Chadha pushed the defending champion all the way. So much so that this match, scheduled in the morning session, had to be pulled off and only finished in the evening.
Other than Ronnie’s match, which I enjoyed thoroughly, I watched the Mark Selby v Jamie Clarke match. I like both players, so I didn’t really care who won that one. That said, I still found it hard to watch because it brought back all the frustration I used to feel supporting Jamie Clarke when he was still an amateur trying to get on tour. Time and again, Jamie started brilliantly, playing really well, only to apparently succumb to pressure when the chips were down. I’m not trying to belittle Mark Selby’s win here, we all know what a competitor he is. He was there to do a job and did it well. It was just that uncomfortable “déjà vu” feeling …
Also worth nothing … THIS … reported by Phil Haigh
Ronnie O’Sullivan match delayed ‘for safety reasons’ at International Championship
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s game against Mink Nutcharut at the International Championship had to be delayed ‘for safety reasons’ due to the size of the crowd in Nanjing.
The Rocket beat the women’s world number one 6-3, making two centuries, including a brilliant 132 in the final frame.
The 48-year-old tends to attract the biggest crowds in the sport all over the world and that was certainly the case at the South New City National Fitness Center.
The amount of spectators wanting to get in to see O’Sullivan vs Mink meant that the match on the main table in the morning session had to be cut short and the main event started nearly an hour late.
World Snooker Tour posted on social media: ‘Due to the amount of spectators, for safety reasons the afternoon session has been delayed until 2:50pm.’
Eurosport commentator David Hendon explained during the match: ‘It actually started nearly an hour late because there was such a lot of people to get in, the previous session had to be curtailed. They had to get everybody in, it took a while.’
The previous contest on the main table was defending champion Zhang Anda facing Ishpreet Singh Chadha, which was dragged off with Zhang leading 5-4 and the pair will return later to complete the game
…
But yeah… snooker would be better without him, he? 2
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
ROS aftermatch:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5097055123145968
There were some extremely tense matches, perhaps reflecting some edginess on the opening day of such a large event. Although we can’t really classify best-of-11’s as a ‘long format’, there is time for momentum to change, and there were several wins for players who had been 3-0 or 3-1 behind. I enjoyed Xu-Moody, Jiang-Sarkhosh, Pang-Slessor and Zhang-Chadha, which probably should all have gone the other way, but for lack of expreience.