Yesterday at the 2025 Welsh Open saw the conclusion of the “first round” at the venue and yet another withdrawal from Ronnie. 😥
Here are the reports shared by WST:
Morning and afternoon sessions
Shaun Murphy crashed out of the BetVictor Welsh Open with a 4-3 defeat against world number 75 Ma Hailong, a result which dents his hopes of an automatic spot at the Crucible in April.
Murphy won the Johnstone’s Paint Masters last month, his greatest moment for a decade, but his record in ranking events over the past two seasons has been patchy and as it stands he is 19th in the Race to the Crucible with just four more counting events to come. If he’s not able to climb into the top 16 in that list by the end of April’s Sportsbet.io Tour Championship, he will face the qualifying rounds in Sheffield.
From 2-0 down today, Murphy made breaks of 127, 100 and 82 to lead 3-2. But China’s 21-year-old Ma hit back with a break of 77 for 3-3, then built a 71-0 lead in the decider. Murphy kept fighting and got the two snookers he needed on the last red, but could only watch in despair as Ma fluked the red when attempting safety to clinch his best win on tour. He goes through to the last 32 to face Ryan Day.
Murphy said: “I thought when I got the two snookers that I might get an opportunity but it wasn’t to be. I have lost here and in Berlin in deciding frames without getting a chance. It was a really good match, Ma was excellent and I can only praise him. I had two centuries and an 80, I tried my best and I lost.“
Barry Hawkins, runner-up in two ranking events this season, also fell at the first hurdle, losing 4-1 to Sanderson Lam. “It’s a big scalp for me to beat a top 16 player,” said Lam. “I much prefer playing in venues like this with a big crowd, it brings the best out of me. My big ambition this season is to get to the Crucible, that’s my dream. I’m enjoying snooker, playing well and putting a lot into practice.”
World Champion Kyren Wilson narrowly avoided defeat against Marco Fu, winning 4-3 by making his 500th career century in the deciding frame. Fu came from 3-1 down to 3-3 with breaks of 79 and 139 and had first chance in the decider but potted just one red before missing the brown to a baulk corner. Wilson, winner of three ranking titles already this season, punished him with a 103, becoming the 14th player to reach the landmark of 500 tons.
Matthew Selt thrashed Ricky Walden 4-0 with a top break of 102, a huge result in the race to qualify for the World Grand Prix as Selt is now up to 31st and, as it stands, would make it to Hong Kong. “That was one of the biggest matches I have played for a few years so it was great to be fully focussed all the way through. Getting into the World Grand Prix is the goal this week. I’ll be watching the other games now and hoping everyone else in the race loses! When I got here I had no chance of winning, I worked with my coach Chris Henry and I was hitting the wrong side of the white and the object ball, so I have to give credit to Chris for fixing what I was doing wrong.”
Day remains in the same race thanks to a 4-2 win over Ben Mertens, though he must reach the quarter-finals to have a chance. David Gilbert made a break of 100 in the decider to edge out Jordan Brown 4-3. Matthew Stevens earned a 4-2 success in a Welsh derby against Crucible runner-up Jak Jones.
Wu Yize, runner-up at both the BetVictor English Open and BetVictor Scottish Open this season, needs to reach another final this week to have a chance of winning the £150,000 BetVictor Bonus, and he came from 3-1 down to beat Scott Donaldson 4-3.
Hossein Vafaei overcame a mystery injury to reach the last 32 of the BetVictor Welsh Open with a 4-2 victory over Fan Zhengyi.
Iran’s Vafaei first noticed the injury in his neck before last week’s BetVictor Championship League and it has got steadily worse, spreading through his shoulder, left arm and into his hand. But he has battled through the pain and tonight’s victory could be crucial to his season as it keeps him on track to qualify for next month’s World Grand Prix in Hong Kong.
“I thought about pulling out but I have to play for the people who support me, even if I am struggling they want me to win,” said Vafaei, who made a top break of 73 tonight as he set up a meeting with Ali Carter. “I have been to the doctor but he just gave me pain-killers which didn’t really help. Tonight I was losing control of my bridge hand, it was just dropping down and my shoulder felt very heavy. Hopefully I can visit my doctor in Iran and they will be able to find out what’s wrong and get me ready for the rest of the season.
“I’m proud and happy to win tonight. I haven’t had a good season, it’s hard to find a balance between snooker and the rest of your life. Sometimes you lose form and then you have to start again from zero. I just want to finish the season well.“
Luca Brecel remained in the hunt for a first individual title since his Crucible triumph 21 months ago as he beat Stuart Carrington 4-2. From 2-0 down, Brecel won four frames in a row with top runs of 96 and 99.
Chris Wakelin recovered a 3-1 deficit to beat Michael Holt 4-3, making a vital 54 in the decider. Wakelin now meets Jack Lisowski, who raced to a 4-0 win over Joshua Cooper in 52 minutes with breaks of 100, 106 and 111.
Hossein’s injury “sounds” very much like “nerve damage” to me going by the symptoms he describes. This kind of injuries are very painful and take time to heal. More often than not, there isn’t much that can be done other than resting. Ricky Walden was whitewashed by Matthew Selt which came as no surprise given Ricky’s recent health issues1. I’m wishing Ricky the best and, if I were Matthew Selt, I wouldn’t boost too much about that win yesterday.
Ma Hailong got lucky in the end and Murphy’s facial expression was priceless when that fluke went in but overall Ma deserved the win. He was a huge “underdog” in that match but showed great resolve throughout and played some really good stuff as well. Credits to Shaun for giving his young opponent the praise he deserved.
Luca Brecel was at his entertaining best once he got going. The crowd was clearly enjoying that match. He’s a maverick, he can be massively infuriating at times, but when he does play like he did yesterday evening he’s probably the most entertaining player on tour from the casual viewer’s point of view.
One result that I didn’t expect is Jak Jones 4-2 defeat to Matthew Stevens. Jak made breaks of 137 and 123 in the two frames he won, Matthew highest break of the match was 67, he hasn’t done anything of note for ages … but he won that match. I didn’t see how he managed that feat so I can’t comment but I’m slightly nonplussed to put it mildly.
Kyren’s match versus Marco Fu was a very high quality affair. Kyren sealed it with a 103 break that was the 500th century of his career. Marco remains a quality player and would probably be ranked much higher if it wasn’t for the recurrent eyes issues he suffered in recent years.
- He was forced to withdraw from the 2025 German Masters due to illness and is due to undergo gallbladder surgery ↩︎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
“One result that I didn’t expect is Jak Jones 4-2 defeat to Matthew Stevens.”
Stevens sits at #58 in the provisional End-of-Season list. Maybe he realized that’s too close to relegation for comfort, and that he has to put in some extra effort. I’ve long thought of Stevens as a pretty smart player, but not one exactly bursting with ambition.
…
After two calmer days, seismic activity appears to be picking up again since last night. And I so hoped this thing would be over soon.
Thank you for your concern. Yes we had a few stronger quakes early this morning. Some realise though that it might go on for weeks and reopened their business. In 2011/12 something similar happened. It lasted for 14 weeks. It’s not a comfortable situation but, really, there is nothing we can do except staying alert and ready in case of danger.
I can’t begin to imagine how draining that must be.
They are now increasingly talking about an “earthquake swarm”. Yes, swarms can go on for quite a while. On the other hand, swarms don’t produce a “big one”. So chances are Santorini will survive this episode without large-scale damage.