The 2024 British Open Qualifiers were played over the last four days. Hereafter you will find the reports by WST. All detailed results are available on snooker.org as always.
Fab Fu Continues Fast Start
Marco Fu came from 3-0 down to beat Stephen Maguire 4-3 in the qualifying round of the British Open, earning a place in the final stages in Cheltenham in September.
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It has been a tremendous start to the season for Hong Kong’s 47-year-old Fu as on Tuesday he beat Chris Wakelin 5-3 to qualify for the Wuhan Open. In those two matches he made five centuries and three more breaks over 50. After losing the first three frames against Maguire, Fu stormed back to take four in a row with runs of 140, 81, 104 and 54.
Jackson Page came from 2-1 down to beat Elliot Slessor 4-2 with a top break of 86, while Pakistan’s Haris Tahir edged out Ken Doherty 4-3, taking the last two frames with breaks of 65 and 81.
Amateur Ryan Davies, who earned a place in the event as a Q School top-up, edged out Jimmy Robertson 4-3 in a dramatic finish. In the deciding frame, Robertson cross-doubled the final pink but then missed a tricky black playing with the rest, and left Davies the chance to tap it in for victory.
Jimmy White could not build on yesterday’s fine win over Anthony McGill as he lost 4-2 to Liam Davies. Jack Lisowski made a 72 in the deciding frame to beat Liam Highfield 4-3.
Dikme Denies Szubarczyk First Win
Michal Szubarczyk narrowly missed out on his first win as a professional, losing 4-3 to German amateur Umut Dikme in the qualifying round of the British Open.
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Szubarczyk, at 14 the youngest ever pro player, made breaks of 82 and 75 in taking a 3-2 lead. But Dikme, who earned a place in the event having finished top of the Q School rankings, came from 58-22 down to steal frame six on the colours, then won the decider with a run of 55 to book a place in the final stages in September.
Ryan Day won this title in 2022 but fell at the first hurdle this time, losing 4-2 to former World Champion Stuart Bingham who compiled breaks of 102, 56 and 75. Belgium’s Ben Mertens came from 3-1 down to beat Liam Pullen 4-3 with a top run of 76.
Former Rookie of the Year He Guoqiang eased to a 4-0 win over Farakh Ajaib while Chang Bingyu compiled breaks of 118, 93, 64 and 70 in a 4-2 win over Kreishh Gurbaxani.
Bai Books Cheltenham Spot
Bai Yulu secured a place in the final stages of the British Open with a 4-2 victory over Artemijs Zizins – who let slip a chance of a 147.
Two-time World Women’s Champion Bai can look forward to a trip to the televised stages at Cheltenham Racecourse in September. It’s her sixth win over a male player since she joined the pro tour at the start of last season.
The Chinese 21-year-old took the opening frame with a break of 67, then Latvia’s Zizins was on target for a maximum break in frame two until he missed the 14th black on 105, with the remaining balls in the open. Bai took the next two frames for 3-1, and despite losing the fifth, she wrapped up the result in the sixth with a run of 80.
Robbie McGuigan top scored with 85 in a 4-2 win over Lyu Haotian, while Stan Moody saw off Zhou Yuelong 4-2 with breaks of 55, 66, 80 and 97. Sam Craigie, recently returned from a long absence due to a neck injury, scored his first pro win in 16 months by beating Yao Pengcheng 4-1.
Leone Crowley scored his first pro win with a 4-0 defeat of Hatem Yassen, while Matthew Selt fired runs of 99, 71 and 62 in a 4-0 victory over David Gilbert.
Evans Continues Perfect Start To Season
Reanne Evans made it two wins from two so far this season as she beat Lan Yuhao 4-1 to qualify for the final stages of the British Open.
Last Sunday, the 12-time World Women’s Champion earned a place at the Wuhan Open with a fine 5-4 victory over David Lilley in the qualifying round, making a break of 61 in the deciding frame. And she followed up today with a comfortable success against 16-year-old tour rookie Lan, compiling runs of 53 and 88. She’s in the draw for the last 64 in Cheltenham in September.
Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan top scored with 102 in a 4-0 win over Mateusz Baranowski while Long Zehuang edged out Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3, coming from 51-5 down to snatch the decider with a 57 clearance. Robert Milkins, who could be in danger of tour relegation at the end of this season, enjoyed a much-needed 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi.
Some nice videos are available on WST YouTube Channel …
Now some thoughts and genuine questions …
Two of the four women involved have won their opening match. That’s the same ratio as their male fellow players, 50%. It has taken some time but I have the feeling that, slowly, they are getting there, they are progressing. Now the big question is: does playing on the Women’s tour as well as on the main tour help them, or does it hold them back?
It’s the start of the season and some players are not (yet) sharp. and it’s to be expected. One such player is Julien Leclercq. What worried me watching Julien yesterday is not the lack of sharpness though … he looked dispirited, unhappy. Of course, I don’t know what is going on in his private life, nor do a have a “right to know”.
I hope it’s just a phase, a temporary dip in form or motivation. He’s a huge talent and mainland Europe needs to be better represented on the main tour. The current organisation of the tour, with all qualifiers played in the UK, hugely favours British players. WST justification is that they are the majority. And , yes, that’s true, but, to a large extend, they are the majority BECAUSE of that organisation. Many of them would struggle to live as expats, far away from family. It would put them massively out of their comfort zone … if only because very few of them speak anything but English.
I KNOW that I wrote all this before and I will continue to write it until things change … or until … well, I’m 70 … I may not live to see it, if it ever happens, he? That’s about how optimistic I am about WST willingness to make the tour actually fairer and truly international.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
First of all let me mention Bulcsú Révész’ 4-1 win over Robbie Williams, which ended with a very nice century in the 5th frame (it’s also on YouTube). I’m not the one who will bend over backwards for centuries, but it was nice to see him getting into a good flow after what sometimes appeared a see-saw match.
Very happy about Bai Yulu, she seems to be the real deal and also very pleased about Evans: I was really giving up on her. The one I’m disappointed in is Mink: I had very high hopes for her, but it’s just not getting any better. Very interesting question about the use of the women’s tour. I’m certainly no fan of the women’s tour and while anything competitive might be good for practice, it can’t be helpful to get used to the idea that a miss for example won’t lead to a loss of the frame, because on the tour it often does. Also it might lead to the acceptance of a lower standard, because it’s enough for a victory there. But I’m very curious what others think.
Finally now I read Milkins is in danger of relegation, Ronnie is projected to need to qualify for the World’s, falling out of the top 16 by the end of the season. How are these projections done? OK, there are the points from the previous season, but players can do really well in this one and win everything, no? Or is the prediction based on that they lose everything?
That projection, the provisional end of season ranking, is done the way we do it at snooker.org. Here it is snooker.org provisional end-of-season rankings. So? What do we do? We remove all the points acquired in the season before the last one because those points will be taken off during the current season. In the present occurence that season is the 2023/24 season. After that, as events are played we add the points gained during the current season.
In Ronnie’s case for instance he won five events in 2023/24, including two very lucrative ranking events: the UK and the World Grand Prix. He also made the final of the Tour Championship. That alone amounts to 410000 pounds and points that he will lose during the course of this season and are therefore taken out when the projected end-of season rankings are computed. Last season Ronnie barely played after Christmas, so he didn’t “gain” many points to “replace” them. Fortunately he reached the SFs at the Crucible. It could have been much worse.
Thank you. That you use points from last season I guessed and otherwise points are added according to actual results? Hope I got to right now.
Yes, that’s right.