For a – nice – change, the report by WST on what happened today in Nanjing is quite comprehensive:

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY FOUR

Judd Trump saw his remarkable record of reaching at least the quarter-finals of every event he has contested in 2024 come to an end as he lost 6-4 to Xu Si in the last 16 of the International Championship in Nanjing.

In a sequence going back to January, Trump had progressed to at least the quarter-finals of 15 consecutive tournaments, winning four of those, reaching two other finals and earning over £1.5 million. But that run came to an end in Nanjing as the world number one was beaten by China’s Xu, ranked 48 places lower.

It’s arguably the best result of Xu’s career so far and keeps a special week going for the 26-year-old as he made a 147 during his previous match against Ryan Day on Tuesday. He is through to the third ranking event quarter-final of his career – and second of the season having reached the same stage of the Xi’an Grand Prix in August. 

Two breaks of 76 helped give Xu a 2-0 lead, before Trump battled back to lead 3-2. The next two were shared, but 29-time ranking event winner Trump failed to score a point in the last three frames as his opponent finished superbly with runs of 104, 69, 58 and 68. 

“It was my mindset during the key moments that helped,” said Xu, who will now meet Gary Wilson. “In the last frame, I felt a bit of tension, but luckily things went well, and I didn’t leave any easy shots. Finishing the match felt really good. Sometimes you reach a point where you’re very nervous, and then suddenly you’re not nervous anymore.

“I feel there’s a much smaller gap now between myself and the top players. Recently, many Chinese players have been advancing to the latter stages of tournaments, which shows a significant improvement overall.“

Kyren Wilson now has the chance to slash Trump’s lead at the top of the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings, and the World Champion kept his fine form going with a 6-2 win over Barry Hawkins. Breaks of 80, 127, 85, 101, 117 and 60 helped Wilson win a one-sided match and continue his pursuit of a third title this season, having already landed the Xi’an Grand Prix and Northern Ireland Open.

Jackson Page scored an excellent 6-4 win over Pang Junxu and the 23-year-old Welshman is just one round short of his best run in a ranking event, having reached the semi-finals of last season’s World Open. Page top scored with 117, 68 and 72 as Pang failed to follow up on Tuesday’s win over Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Wuhan Open champion Xiao Guodong saw off Jack Lisowski 6-3, a result which could see him join the elite top 16 for the first time in his career and become a seeded player for the UK Championship later this month. China’s Xiao is now ahead of Neil Robertson in the “Race to York”, which means that Robertson will be heading for the qualifying rounds in Leicester. Breaks of 81, 89, 122 and 91 helped Xiao to beat Lisowski.

Chris Wakelin also has a chance of a top 16 berth if he can reach the final, and he got the better of a high quality contest against Mark Williams, compiling breaks of 72, 112, 98 and 88 in a 6-4 success. Ding Junhui reached his first ranking quarter-final of the season as he beat Jiang Jun with a top break of 109. John Higgins edged out Lyu Haotian 6-5, winning frame ten on a respotted black and the decider with a run of 68. Gary Wilson enjoyed a 6-3 win over Mark Selby, making breaks of 73, 54, 123, 80 and 52.

Thursday’s quarter-finals:
Chris Wakelin v John Higgins
Jackson Page v Xiao Guodong
Xu Si v Gary Wilson
Kyren Wilson v Ding Junhui

The afternoon match between John Higgins and Lyu Haotian was pulled off at 5-5. The players had to come back when a table became available in the evening.

All the detailed results are on snooker.org, as always.

As things stand currently, three of the eight remaining players will have to qualify for the 2024 UK Championship: Chris Wakelin, Jackson Page and Xu Si. Only Chris Wakelin can still “mathematically” join the top 16, at the expense of Xiao Guodong.

I watched the Trump v Xu Si match. Xu Si was the better player, he played really well and stayed calm. He’s quite slow going and that probably didn’t suit Judd Trump, especially if he has still not fully adjusted to the huge time difference. It’s hard to keep ones concentration when jet-lagged.

Regarding those the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers … it will be played, like last year, under a tiered format similar to the World Championship qualifiers. This means that 16 amateurs will join the field.

The WPBSA has “nominate” its qualifiers for this event:

WPBSA Qualifiers Announced for UK Championship

The WPBSA and World Snooker Tour (WST) have today revealed the elite amateur players who have qualified to compete at the 2024 UK Championship through recognised WPBSA pathways.

The historic Triple Crown Series event will again feature a tiered format, which will see the top 16 seeded through to the final stages, to be held at the York Barbican from 23 November – 1 December 2024.

The remaining players will compete in the qualifying rounds in Leicester from 16-21 November, with 16 players set to progress and complete the last 32 line-up.

…

Details of how to watch online will be announced this week.

WPBSA Qualifiers

This season’s field will include up to 16 players to have earned their places through new pathway opportunities for elite performers through activities staged and coordinated by the WPBSA Group.

The 16 initially invited players are listed below:

WPBSA Q Tour UK/Europe

Winners from the world’s premier secondary tour to the World Snooker Tour so far this season:

• Andres Petrov – WPBSA Q Tour Europe – Event 1 winner
• Dylan Emery – WPBSA Q Tour Europe – Event 2 winner
• Zhao Xintong – WPBSA Q Tour Europe – Event 3 winner
• TBC – WPBSA Q Tour Europe – Event 4 winner
• TBC – WPBSA Q Tour Europe – Highest Ranked Player (not including the above)

WSF Championships 2024

Eligible players from the world’s largest international amateur tournaments:

• Yang Gao* – 2024 WSF Championship finalist
• Iulian Boiko – 2024 WSF Championship semi-finalist
• Daniel Womersley – 2024 WSF Championship semi-finalist
• Hamza Ilyas – 2024 WSF Junior Championship semi-finalist
• Oliver Sykes – 2024 WSF Junior Championship semi-finalist

WPBSA Q Tour Global

• Vinnie Calabrese* – WPBSA Q Tour Asia-Pacific – Event winner
• Matthew Scarborough* – WPBSA Q Tour Asia-Pacific – Event winner
• Igor Figueiredo – WPBSA Q Tour Americas – Event winner
• Habib Sabah Hamood – WPBSA Q Tour Middle East – Event winner
• Ali Gharahgozlou* – WPBSA Q Tour Middle East – Event winner
• Vladislav Gradinari – EBSA Under-16 Champion / Under-18 Finalist

*these players have declined their invitation

Any players who do not accept their place will be replaced by reserve players from the WPBSA Q Tour Europe Ranking List after Event 4.

I have no doubts that some people will object to Zhao Xintong invitation but I’m not one of them. He has served his ban, he has clearly worked hard to get himself back to form, he has won a “qualifying event” … he is in that list by right. It’s that simple.

Here is the report by WST

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY THREE

Pang Junxu produced a superb performance to defeat seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-4 at the International Championship in Nanjing.

It’s a first ever win over the Rocket for Pang in a match over the best of seven frames or longer. The victory sees him progress to earn a last 16 encounter with Jackson Page.

Pang, who was Rookie of the Year in 2021, is currently in red hot form. He arrived in Nanjing off the back of a run to the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open, which ended in a 6-4 defeat to World Champion Kyren Wilson.

After the opening four frames they were locked level at 2-2, before breaks of 85 and 73 saw Pang pull clear at 4-2. The Rocket didn’t back down and replied by taking the following two frames himself to restore parity at 4-4.

The ninth frame saw Pang embark on a 147 attempt. Having potted 15 reds and 14 blacks, he was left out of position with a long range cut on the 15^th black. Pang deposited it, but failed to follow that up with a difficult yellow on the side cushion, ending his run on 120.

He quickly recovered from the disappointment of missing out on the maximum by crafting a match winning 123 in the next to secure victory.

“I felt a bit tense going for the 147 and I didn’t get the position I wanted. It was unfortunate, I left myself with an almost impossible angle on the black, so I wasn’t sure how to take on that final ball,” said 24-year-old Pang.

“When he came back to level after I was leading 4-2, I didn’t feel much pressure. His comeback wasn’t really related to my own performance. I managed to finish the last two frames with single visits.

“I’ve faced him four times in pro tournaments and each time I lost by a close margin. In previous matches I held back quite a bit, but today I played more freely and went for my shots. It wasn’t scared. I approached the game as an opportunity to learn from him.“

Although Pang narrowly missed out on the perfect break, his Chinese compatriot Xu Si did achieve the feat of making a 147 in his 6-2 defeat of Welshman Ryan Day.

Xu is now in line to scoop the £5,000 high break prize and it is the 15^th perfect run to have been made in mainland China. Next up for Xu is the daunting prospect of meeting world number one Judd Trump, who battled past Joe O’Connor 6-4.

Barry Hawkins scored a 6-1 win over Neil Robertson to enhance his hopes of making it into the world’s top 16 and automatically qualifying for the UK Championship ahead of the seeding cut off, which comes at the end of this week.

Hawkins crafted breaks of 77, 50, 80 and 51 on his way to victory. He now faces World Champion Kyren Wilson, who made three centuries in a thrilling 6-4 win over Wu Yize.

Australia’s Robertson is now relying on other results to remain in the automatic qualifying spots for York. Hawkins must reach the semi-finals to surpass him, while Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong just needs to make the quarters. Xiao scored a 6-2 win over world number three Mark Allen today and now plays Jack Lisowski.

Chris Wakelin was a 6-3 victor against Shaun Murphy, while Chinese legend Ding Junhui whitewashed Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei 6-0. They now face Mark Williams and Jiang Jun respectively. 

All the detailed results are on snooker.org

Ronnie’s defeat is the big story of the day but … but in fact his match versus Pang was high quality from both, albeit Ronnie appeared tired towards the end. Here are the scores:

I honestly can’t brand this a “shock”.

Pang has shown his quality over the last couple of years and Ronnie has struggled this season. I did expect this match to be a difficult one for Ronnie and so it proved to be.

Here is the last frame of the match shared by Eurosport on their Youtube channel

It starts with Ronnie missing a long red, but during the course of the match he had knocked his fair share of similar balls in. Ronnie didn’t play badly at all. The main factor was that Pang was excellent, very consistent, and, particularly towards the end, he showed how solid mentally he has become.

Here ares some pictures shared by various sources on the Internet

Regarding the other results…. Ronnie is was not the only highest seed to lose today. In fact, 9 of the 16 matches played today were won by the lowest seed.

• Zhang Anda, the defending champion, went out beaten 6-1 by Lyu Haotian and incredibly it isn’t even mentioned in the above report. This is seriously wrong.
• Mark Allen, seed 4, lost to Xiao Guodong (6-2)
• Shaun Murphy, seed 9, lost to Chris Wakelin (6-3)
• Ali Carter, seed 12, lost to Jackson Page (6-4)
• Si Jiahui, seed 13, lost to Jack Lisowski (6-5)
• Neil Robertson, seed 15, lost to Barry Hawkins

and that’s to mention only the fate of the “top 16” seeds who went out today….

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

1. Either the reasons weren’t given or, likely, I missed something… ↩︎
2. say those who hate him… among them a significant number of gamblers who lost bets … ↩︎

Ronnie has beaten Mink Nutcharut by 6-3 to progress to round 2 at the 2024 International Championship in Nanjing. I was a good and enjoyable match.

Here is the report by WST:

Ronnie O’Sullivan returned to the World Snooker Tour after a seven-week absence and battled to a 6-3 first round win over women’s world number one Mink Nutcharut at the International Championship in Nanjing.

O’Sullivan’s last appearance on the circuit was a 4-2 defeat against He Guoqiang at the English Open in September, but the 48-year-old looked sharp today as he compiled two centuries and four more breaks over 50 setting up another meeting with China’s He in the last 64 on Monday. 

Nutcharut, the 2022 World Women’s Champion, threatened a huge upset when she took the opening frame on the colours, before seven-time Crucible king O’Sullivan recovered to take the next four with runs of 124, 89, 61 and 53. Thailand’s Nutcharut battled back to 4-3, only for O’Sullivan to claim the last two frames with breaks of 69 and 132.

World number five O’Sullivan wrote on X: “An absolute privilege to play such a talented opponent. Thank you for the game and good luck in the future.” And in a post-match press conference he added: “Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see more of Nanjing because I hear it is a very beautiful city. All the players love being in China because the people treat us very well and make us feel special.” 

O’Sullivan was also asked a recent meeting with legendary actor Jackie Chan and added: “We have spoken a few times on the phone and we have mutual friends. This was the first time we he had met, he’s a lovely guy.“

Here are the scores for this match:

Ronnie wasn’t at his absolute best but he played much better and looked much happier than the last time we had seen him on the baize. Mink played well too, she really did. This was the best I remember seeing her play actually. Ronnie’s praise is absolutely genuine. When the match finished the camera was on the two of them and it was obvious how Mink felt happy and valued despite the defeat. Ronnie turned to the crowd and invited them to applaud her. Here is a short footage of the end of the match, shared by WST on Weibo:

And here some images of the match, shared by WST on Weibo and on their website

Ronnie was wearing a classy white shirt. That was a nice change from the usual all black attire. I loved it!

Here are short videos shared by Eurosport on their YouTube channel: