Who will be in Llandudno next week has been decided over the last three days and all the results are on snooker.org.
Hereafter are the reports shared by WST:
Evans Stuns Leclercq In Welsh Qualifiers
Reanne Evans enjoyed an impressive 4-1 victory over Julien Leclercq in the first qualifying round of the BetVictor Welsh Open, her second win on the pro tour this season.
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Evans, the 12-time World Women’s Champion, will meet Joe O’Connor on Wednesday afternoon with the winner to go through to Llandudno next week. She took the opening frame against former Shoot Out finalist Leclercq on the final black, then dominated the next two with a top break of 40 to lead 3-0. Leclercq pulled one back before Evans settled the result in frame five. Her last win on the pro tour came in December when she beat Amir Sarkhosh 5-3 in the Machineseeker German Masters qualifiers.
Tour rookie Liam Davies, age 18, took a step towards qualifying for his home tournament as he beat Antoni Kowalski 4-1 with breaks of 93, 134 and 51. Liam Pullen edged out Kreishh Gurbaxani 4-3 with a top break of 102. The deciding frame came down to the final black, and Pullen potted it to set up a tie with Robbie Williams. It was a good day to be called Liam, as Shoot Out finalist Liam Graham beat Iulian Boiko 4-3.
Dylan Emery won a Welsh derby against Duane Jones 4-2, while Ishpreet Singh Chadha top scored with 109 in a 4-0 whitewash of Baipat Siripaporn. Oliver Lines made a 136 in a 4-0 win over Ahmed Elsayed, while Stan Moody eased to a 4-0 success against Chris Totten.
Amateur Emery Knocks Out Lei
BetVictor Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan failed to make it to the final stages of the BetVictor Welsh Open, losing 4-3 in the qualifiers to amateur Dylan Emery.
China’s 21-year-old Lei won his first ranking title in December in Edinburgh, but misses out on the chance to chase more silverware in Llandudno. He’s also out of the race to win the £150,000 BetVictor Bonus, as he had climbed to third place behind Neil Robertson and Kyren Wilson but cannot now add to his tally.
Welshman Emery, age 23 from Caerphilly, is not on the pro tour but finished top of the 2024 Q School rankings so has earned a place in many ranking events. He compiled a superb break of 82 in the deciding frame to beat Lei and set up a match with Noppon Saengkham in Llandudno next week.
India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha enjoyed a superb 4-0 win over Ashley Carty, firing runs of 87, 83, 83 and 104, and his reward is a match with defending champion Gary Wilson on Monday.
Dominic Dale, playing his last season on the pro tour, beat Mitchell Mann 4-3, while Jimmy Robertson came from 3-0 down to beat Allan Taylor 4-3 with a top break of 109.
Reanne Evans couldn’t follow up her first round win over Julien Leclercq as she lost 4-0 to Joe O’Connor, while Andrew Higginson came from 3-2 down to edge out He Guoqiang 4-3.
In round one, Austria’s Florian Nuessle made the highest break so far, 143, as he beat Jiang Jun 4-3 t set up a tie with Liu Hongyu.
Brave Walden Earns Llandudno Spot
Ricky Walden beat Artemijs Zizins 4-2 to reach the final stages of the BetVictor Welsh Open, despite ongoing health problems which caused him to spend five days in hospital in Berlin last week.
Three-time ranking event winner Walden is due to have surgery to remove his gallbladder in the coming weeks, but during the recent Machineseeker German Masters, the same issue flared up and caused inflammation of his pancreas. In extreme pain, he withdrew from the tournament before his last 16 match and was rushed to hospital in Berlin, where he remained for five days. The pain is now under control, though Walden was clearly in discomfort today during his battle with Latvia’s Zizins.
Still, breaks of 81, 66 and 124 helped 42-year-old Walden to victory, and he goes through to Llandudno, just an hour away from his home in Chester. He will face Matthew Selt in the last 64.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh suffered a 4-2 defeat against Ben Mertens, a huge blow to his hopes of qualifying for the World Grand Prix. The Thai is in 32nd place in the Johnstone’s Paint One-Year Rankings, with only the top 32 at the end of next week’s tournament to earn a place in Hong Kong.
Last year’s runner-up Martin O’Donnell will not be in Llandudno this time as he lost 4-0 to Wang Yuchen, whose top break was 112. Yuan Sijun, a semi-finalist in Germany, continued his fine form as he beat Amir Sarkhosh 4-0 with a top run of 115. Jimmy White narrowly missed out as he lost 4-3 to Scott Donaldson.
Welshman Jamie Clarke secured his place with a 4-2 defeat of Louis Heathcote, as did Stan Moody who edged out Anthony Hamilton 4-3. Moody made a 134 in frame five, and later a vital 52 in the decider. That result is a blow to Hamilton’s chances of avoiding relegation at the end of the season, having been ever present on the tour since 1991.
Hong Kong’s Marco Fu top scored with 87 in a 4-0 defeat of David Grace while Austrian amateur Florian Nuessle edged out Liu Hongyu 4-3. Welshman Matthew Stevens enjoyed a 4-1 success against Hammad Miah.
So, we finally get to learn what happened to Ricky Walden in Berlin. Ouch! Gallbladder problems can be extremely painful and all credit to Ricky for competing this week.
There are far too many matches for me to even try to comment on everything so just a few observations about the results:
- As much as I’m pleased with Reanne winning her first match, I can’t help but wonder, and worry about Julien Leclercq current lack of form. Having retained his tour card after his first two years as a pro, he’s done very little so far this season. Ben Mertens, on the other hand, is doing well.
- Iulian Boiko once again lost narrowly, having led by 3-2. His confidence must be shattered. Maybe he needs to put his cue down for a bit, and get help for the mental/emotional side of things. Given the situation in his country, none of us knows what he may be going through. He may be facing challenges that are way more important than a game of snooker.
- I’m not sure what’s going on, if players are getting that much better or if the conditions are more “favorable” recently but I can’t remember seeing so many 147 in any previous season.
Anyway… here is the most recent one as shared by WST on their YouTube channel
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Maximums since 2000:
2025 — 5 (as of Feb. 10, 2025)
2024 — 14
2023 — 11
2022 — 11
2021 — 8
2020 — 9
2019 — 9
2018 — 12
2017 — 8
2016 — 10
2015 — 6
2014 — 8
2013 — 6
2012 — 11
2011 — 9
2010 — 7
2009 — 2
2008 — 7
2007 — 6
2006 — 3
2005 — 2
2004 — 2
2003 — 3
2002 — 1
2001 — 3
2000 — 6
Maximums in the 20th century and the decades thereafter:
1900s — 37
2000s — 35
2010s — 86
2020s — 58 (as of Feb. 10, 2025)
Source: cuetracker.net, after 216 Maximums played. Last, #216: Xu Si, at the 2025 Welsh Open.
Now that I had a bit of time thinking about the above, what does it all mean?
Yes, the current haul – 11 maximums so far this season – is high by historical comparison, and there’s still a bit of a season left. So, the intuition that there are “more than…” is certainly not incorrect.
Are players getting better? A players today so much better than O’Sullivan 10 years ago, Hendry 25 years ago? I must say, I doubt that.
Are conditions so much better? Mostly I hear complaints about humidity, and that certainly hasn’t changed for the better, what with climate and all. Pockets are shaped at times slightly more accepting, slightly less at other times, and that should even out over time. I doubt that, too.
So, what’s going on? I suspect it’s just a numbers game. There are now considerably more players with the required skills, AND the self-confidence, to go for a maximum. That appears to be confirmed by the surprisingly high (to me) number of younger players with at least one maximum to their name – even though they haven’t had that long a career in snooker to look back to.
There are two things to add, perhaps. It appears there is much more money riding on maximums, and even more money on two maximums in a series of tournaments. So, that certainly provides a motive. Also, going for a maximum is, let’s not kid ourselves, on top of a demonstration of extraordinary skills, a vanity exercise, and a way to intimidate opponents. So, maybe the current crop is more into vanity and domineering than earlier generations? Yeah, given the past crop of greats, I doubt that, too.
I do worry about Boiko too, but maybe snooker is what he does for a living and can’t just suspend it like that.
@Monique https://www.wst.tv/news/2025/february/07/147s-record-could-be-smashed-this-season/