Mink Nutcharut and Bai Yulu both progressed to the second round of the BetVictor English Open with victories in Brentwood on Friday.
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Thailand’s Nutcharut earned her first win of the season as she came from 2-1 down to beat Robbie McGuigan 4-2, earning a meeting with Michael Holt on Sunday.
Reigning World Women’s Champion Bai edged out fellow Chinese cueist Liu Wenwei 4-3 with top breaks of 74, 76 and 56. She now faces Ricky Walden on Sunday.
Performance of the day came from Chang Bingyu as he rattled in runs of 133, 60, 133 and 134 to beat Leone Crowley 4-0 in just 43 minutes. Liam Pullen continued his fine recent form with a 4-1 win over Lan Yuhao, setting up a tie with his friend Stan Moody.
Poland’s Mateusz Baranowski top scored with 131 in a 4-3 win over Steven Hallworth, while Mitchell Mann came from 3-0 down to beat Ian Burns 4-3 with a top break of 82.
I can’t really comment on other matches as yesterday I watched Mink and Bai and I had other commitments in the evening1. I was very happy to discover that Ben Mertens also progressed with a 4-0 win over Ashleigh Hugill. Ben made three breaks over 50 in that match but none by themselves decisive. Indeed, the frames scores suggest that the match was much closer than the match score suggests.
The second round of qualifying matches starts today and and will be played to its conclusiontomorrow.
Yes… a photoshoot of course, at a musical event ↩︎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 