Gary Wilson made the sixth maximum break of his career during a 6-3 victory over Artemijs Zizins in the qualifying round of the International Championship.
World number 17 Wilson made his perfect break in the final frame, having earlier scored runs of 133, 61 and 79. He becomes the tenth player to reach six official 147s and is now in line for the £5,000 high break prize.
It’s the 228th maximum in snooker history and 11th of the season, just four short of the record of 15 set last season.
Ali Carter top scored with 105 in a 6-0 defeat of Liam Graham, booking a place in the final stages in Nanjing in November. Michael Holt saw off Reanne Evans 6-2 with a top break of 110, while Aaron Hill won an all-Cork derby with Leone Crowley by a 6-1 scoreline.
The completed draw and match schedule for the final stages will be announced soon.
I really don’t have much to add. There were only two sessions yesterday and most matches went the way I expected them to go. Actually, all the matches except the last two on the day went to the highest seeded player. Indeed Louis Heathcote beat Jamie Jones by 6-2 and Oliver Lines beat Jordan Brown by the same score.
Louis has been in excellent form this season so far. According to Cuetracker he has won 15 of the 21 matches he has played so far, and if we look at “straight knock-out” events only, he has won 14 matches out of 18. That’s a 78% win rate in straight knock-out and, believe me, that’s a very, very high success rate. Therefore, even if Jamie Jones is currently ranked higher than Louis, the outcome of their match did not surprise me at all.
Oli Lines and Jordan Brown can both play at a very high standard, but both tend to be a bit inconsistent/unpredictable. No “shock” there either.
Scott Donaldson has withdrawn from the event, so the winner of the match between Mark Williams and Chatchapong Nasa or Zhou Jinhao will rceeive a bye to the last 32.
Details of how to watch the event will be announced soon.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 