Here is the report by WST on day 1 at the 2025 English Open Qualifiers

BetVictor English Open Day One

Jimmy White scored his second win of the season as he came from 2-0 down to beat Cheung Ka Wai 4-3 in the first round of the BetVictor English Open, setting up an intriguing clash with Luca Brecel. 

The first event in the 2025/26 BetVictor Home Nations Series got underway on Thursday in Brentwood. The non-televised phase runs until Sunday and then the top 32 seeds join the fray from Monday. 

After losing the first two frames, veteran White recovered to 2-2 with breaks of 50 and 57. He lost the fifth, but then nicked the sixth on the colours before dominating the decider with a top run of 41. The crowd favourite now meets Brecel in round two on Saturday morning.

Liam Highfield enjoyed a 4-2 victory over On Yee Ng, despite a record break of 137 from Ng in the second frame. Marco Fu, the fastest player on the tour this season with an average shot time of 15 seconds, needed just 59 minutes to beat Gao Yang 4-0 with breaks of 62, 79, 110 and 104. There was more success for Hong Kong as Wang Yuchen came from 3-2 down to edge out Florian Nuessle 4-2.

Pakistan’s Haris Tahir top scored with 127 in a 4-0 win over Michal Szubarczyk while Julien Leclercq beat Aidan Murphy 4-0 with runs of 115, 68, 58 and 104.  

As always, you will find all the detailed results on snooker.org

Amongst the results not reported on by WST …

• The first two matches to finish yesterday were won by two Chinese players, Huang Jiahao and Zhao Hanyang who beat Oliver Sykes and Connor Benzey respectively.
• Sunny Akani came back from 0-2 down to beat Oliver Brown, with a top break of 107.
• Liam Graham beat Antoni Kowalski by 4-1 in a match that was much closer than the score suggests. The last two frames in particular were hard fought and very close. Liam won them both.
• The match between On Yee and Liam Highfield could easily have gone the distance. On Yee lost the last frame on a score of 70-69 to Liam … having made a 69 break in that frame. She also scored the only century of in that match, her 137 in frame 2.
• Julien Leclercq missed the 14th red in a maximum attempt in frame 4 of his match against Aidan Murphy. Julien won that match by 4-0 with breaks of 115, 68, 58 and 104.