Jackson Page remains determined to win a first title and he moved a step closer at the BetVictor Welsh Open with a 4-3 victory over in-form Chang Bingyu to reach the last 16.
Welshman Page, age 24 and rated among the best young British talent, admitted before this event that he is a long way from achieving his goals and wants to “be the best.” Last season he made significant progress, notably becoming the first player to make two 147s in the same match, but the current campaign has had fewer highlights.
Page whitewashed Luca Brecel 4-0 yesterday and followed up with an equally impressive win over Chang, who made four consecutive centuries in beating Shaun Murphy. From 3-2 down today, Page made a break of 101 to set up the decider. He missed a black to top corner early in the last frame, but China’s Chang then failed to pot an awkward red, bridging over other balls, and Page went on to make a crucial 48 to earn a tie with Jack Lisowski on Thursday in Llandudno.
“I played well, the missed black in the decider was probably my only real mistake in the whole match,” said Page, from Ebbw Vale. “I knew there was no way Chang could play as well as he did yesterday again. He is a hell of a player but I managed to get over the line today. I am putting a lot of work in. This season has been a bit frustrating, it hasn’t been great. I have had a kick up the bum recently from (manager) Simon to put an extra 10% in and hopefully that will pay off.“
Home favourite Mark Williams reached the last 16 of this event for the first time since a semi-final run in 2021 as he beat Martin O’Donnell 4-1 with top breaks of 60, 58 and 57. He now meets Barry Hawkins who enjoyed a 4-2 victory over Pang Junxu with a top run of 72.
Neil Robertson finished with back-to-back centuries, 100 and 118, as he beat Hossein Vafaei 4-1. Jak Jones, Crucible finalist in 2024, saw off Anthony McGill 4-2 with a top break of 63. He then headed for a birthday lunch with wife Inna and son Harri, who turns one today.
Jack Lisowski stayed in the race for the £150,000 BetVictor bonus – albeit still needing to reach the final to land that windfall – as he came from 3-1 down to beat Xiao Guodong 4-3 with a top break of 83. Rising star Wu Yize top scored with 82 in a 4-2 win over Joe O’Connor.
John Higgins edged a 4-3 win over Bulcsu Revesz in the last 32 of the BetVictor Welsh Open, before paying tribute to Jim Donnelly, the first Scottish player to compete at the Crucible, who sadly passed away this week.
Donnelly played at the Crucible in 1982 and achieved a highest ranking of 29th, before going on to become a coach. The Scot, who died at the age of 79, was also an influence on the early part of Higgins’ career.
“Jim was the part owner of the club in Wishaw, the Masters, when I first started playing,” four-time World Champion Higgins recalls. “My dad took me and my brother down. Jim ran coaching classes for 20 or 30 boys, he showed us how to hold a cue, how to play from the cushions, different little things like that. It’s a really sad loss and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.“
On the baize, Higgins has had a fine start to 2026, reaching the final of the Masters and the Players Championship, though he was denied the trophy both times. The 50-year-old is building towards another deep run this week and now meets Zhang Anda in the last 16 on Thursday evening.
From 2-1 down tonight, Higgins took the next two frames with breaks of 74 and 83. Promising Hungarian teenager Revesz won frame six with a fine run of 76, only for Higgins to dominate a scrappy decider.
“I was really impressed by Bulcsu, he played a good game,” Higgins added. “He has probably the best swagger there is in snooker and he is great for the game because we need more players from mainland Europe to follow Luca Brecel. Bulcsu is really improving and he’s certainly one to follow. I am trying to ride the bit of confidence I have for as long as I can.”
World number 2 Kyren Wilson is yet to reach a ranking event semi-final this season and that sequence continued as he lost 4-1 to China’s Zhou Yuelong. Wilson has won the invitational Masters and Shanghai Masters this term but remains outside the top 20 in the Sportsbet.io One Year Rankings. Zhou was runner-up in the BetVictor English Open earlier this season and if he can go all the way to the top prize this week he will also win the £150,000 series bonus.
Zhou now faces Sam Craigie, who reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time since the 2024 German Masters as he continued his recovery from a neck injury which could have ended his career. The former world number 33 was forced to miss the whole of last season after disc replacement surgery, but now hopes to work his way back up the rankings. After knocking out Elliot Slessor yesterday, he won another North East derby against Gary Wilson 4-1 with top breaks of 84, 72 and 111.
“Every win and all the ranking points are really important now,” said Craigie. “I am trying my best to get back to where I was. The injury is fine now, I only get aches and pains when I do too much practice. When I came back to playing, I was practising eight to ten hours a day and it was hurting. So I have to limit it now to three or four.
“I am grateful to have this chance. For the first six months after surgery there was no sign of being able to play snooker. I remember being in the kitchen, getting down over the bench with my cue and I just couldn’t do it. That was frustrating because I had expected the recovery to be quicker. By the end of next season I want to be in the top 32, because I was just about there before the injury. I feel that’s a realistic goal, but it is tough. I had a year off and the standard has gone up even in that time, it’s crazy.”
World Champion Zhao Xintong remained on course for three consecutive ranking titles – having already won the World Grand Prix and Players Championship this month – as he beat Stan Moody 4-2 with top breaks of 83 and 122. Stuart Bingham beat David Gilbert 4-2 and has now won all 13 meetings between the pair. Zhang Anda earned a 4-2 success against Liam Pullen.
Before I comment on anything else, there is this, that really, really annoys1 me: why can’t World Snooker have some basic courtesy, and make the effort to spell the non British players’ names correctly, at least for those in languages that use the latin alphabet. It’s BulcsúRévész not Bulcsu Revesz. Is it really that hard?
I have known for a long time that Bulcsú is a special talent. I saw him play in exhibitions in Budapest first as a young kid2, later a a teenager. Even as a kid, he had that swagger about him. He wasn’t intimidated at all, he relished being “on stage”.
He was beaten yesterday, only just, by John Higgins who, as you read, was full of praise. John also said that the sport needs more players from mainland Europe. He’s right, but for that to happen, snooker has to move away from its deeply UK centric structure/organisation. There has to be no more than 3 events in the UK, and the “World” championship has to “travel” around the World … Most global sports have their flagship event traveling, why can’t snooker do the same? One aspect that prevents snooker to develop as a global sport is its culture of “nostalgia”. This HAS to change. Nostalgia keeps you from evolving, and growing. The history of the sport is important, but its evolution is even more important, the future depends on it. And preserving history isn’t the same thing as cultivating nostalgia, the first is important as I said, the second leads to slow death.
I find it very easy to do accents, of course it slows down the writing a bit, but the automatic correction is a lot worse. 😱
Bulcsú started playing a lot better than in the beginning of the season, but he will lose his card at the end of this one, which is sad given that he looks like just about having found his game. I hope that if he doesn’t get it back in Q-School, he will be able to do the Q-Tour, but it probably involves a lot of money.
I’m not sure about travelling the Worlds, after all the tennis grand slams are at the same place too. But while there should be more tournaments in mainland Europe, unfortunately only the Saudis are pouring money into organising tournaments which offer as much money as the Worlds with a Home Nation format, and that I don’t find good at all besides some money-winning by players.
Loading...
Yes but the tennis grand slams are four events – that btw are equal when it comes to “reward” – not just one. One in the UK, one in the US, one in Australia, and one in France, Europe. On top of that, the yearly ATP grand final “travels” every year. In snooker all majors are played in the UK. The venue for the “biggest” of them, the World Championship, is a small theatre in a provincial city. When there are two tables in use, there is barely enough space for the tables. Some players, notably Neil Robertson, have complained about it. Neil said that he can’t “walk into the shot” as he uses to do. If any sports body wants to develop their sport in an area where it’s not part of the main culture, they must accept to put money into that development. WST has not done that, they were greedy. The people in Europe who organised the PTCs were contractually bound to pay WST a certain amount for the right, no matter how it went. They usually went “out of pocket” despite very reasonable, sometimes even big attendances, especially on final days.
Loading...
Having the World Championship travel around from venue to venue would kill it as an event, stone-dead, no matter how often you claim otherwise. Of course there should be more events in mainland Europe, and the way WST has neglected this market is shameful, but they need to develop themselves rather than diminishing an existing event.
Oh, and dismissing Sheffield as a “provincial city” is extremely patronising.
Loading...
I love Sheffield, I really do, but it’s hardly a metropolis, is it? I wasn’t patronising, I was stating a fact. As for taking the world championship around the world, it would elevate its status, not diminish it. Does moving the Olympic games around diminish their status? Would you rather have them every 4 years in Olympia, Greece, a city with less than 7000 inhabitants just because that where they started?
Loading...
But it is not about Neil.
Loading...
Let’s hold the Worlds somewhere outdoors, so that Neil can walk into his shot.
Loading...
Don’t be silly. The simple truth is that the Crucible is a great arena when there is just one table, but when you put two tables in there, and the partition, it’s too small. Players don’t have much room around the table and cameramen don’t have much room to manoeuvre either. In addition to that, the floor has to be reinforced every year so that it doesn’t collapse under the weight of the two tables. IF it’s technically feasible, for the World Championship to stay there, the floor should be rebuilt, larger and more stable. I’m not 100% sure it is actually technically feasible but IF it is, it would be at the expense of the number of seats … that is already well below the commercial demand. Nostalgia isn’t going to grow the sport, quite the opposite. The alternative to that would be to have just one table right from the start but that would lengthen the event and increase the costs … unless the format is shortened. None of those “alternatives” are appealing. All those shortcomings of the venue as it currently exist are the reasons why a “rebuilding” is actually planned.
Loading...
Well, in tennis for a very long time Wimbledon was “the thing” despite the grass’ very limited appeal for most of the players, but the other GSs caught up, but it takes time. I haven’t watched much lately, but if the ATP final gained in importance that’s good news. But tennis also experimented with tournaments (Super9s, masters), so this kind of thing takes time. Maybe cities could organise their own tournaments and make them big, I’m not sure that traveling around is the solution, but maybe. What is unfortunate though is the way the Saudis can throw money into a tournament and claim it’s the 4th major or a mini world championship, when it’s just a lucrative average event. I know I sound with it like Cato and Carthage, but it bothers me. Also a big snooker event does not have to be held in a big , so Sheffield is not a metropolis, so what? If medium cities tried to make themselves famous about an important snooker tournament, it would be a lot better, than putting everything into a capital or so.
Loading...
Well, it’s Barry Hearn who forced the change from a point based ranking system to a money based ranking system. I understand why he did it, he did it to to push sponsors to throw more money into events as to make them more important and to secure the participation of top players. It worked but doing so, he also opened the door for “sports-washing” countries like Saudi Arabia.
The problem is certainly not Sheffield. It’s a great city. The Botanic garden is wonderful. The parks and fountains are beautiful. Walking along the Severn is relaxing and peaceful Because it has universities, there are many young persons there who like to go out but don’t have that much money. So you have a choice of affordable but very decent eateries. If the Crucible can be rebuilt in the same spirit as it is now, just a bit bigger, it would be great. But it would also be great if the World Championship actually traveled around the world.
Loading...
I find it difficult to do accents when I’m using a phone to tweet. I’m sure there is a way…
Yesterday’s matches were competitive – there was only one 4-0, in a match completely ignored by WST’s report. The star performeres from the first round – Chang Bingyu and Gary Wilson – weren’t able to follow it up. Sometimes, a great performance only adds pressure of expectation in the next round, and their opponents played well.
Loading...
Tweets on the phone is one thing – and yes switching alphabetical sets might be unpractical when tweeting – but surely they don’t write their reports on their phone? If they use a laptop, which they probably do, and can take some time on redacting these reports that are not “instant things”, there is no excuse.
Loading...
Well, I find it difficult to do accents
Loading...
Comments are closed.
Discover more from Ronnie O'Sullivan
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
I find it very easy to do accents, of course it slows down the writing a bit, but the automatic correction is a lot worse. 😱
Bulcsú started playing a lot better than in the beginning of the season, but he will lose his card at the end of this one, which is sad given that he looks like just about having found his game. I hope that if he doesn’t get it back in Q-School, he will be able to do the Q-Tour, but it probably involves a lot of money.
I’m not sure about travelling the Worlds, after all the tennis grand slams are at the same place too. But while there should be more tournaments in mainland Europe, unfortunately only the Saudis are pouring money into organising tournaments which offer as much money as the Worlds with a Home Nation format, and that I don’t find good at all besides some money-winning by players.
Yes but the tennis grand slams are four events – that btw are equal when it comes to “reward” – not just one. One in the UK, one in the US, one in Australia, and one in France, Europe. On top of that, the yearly ATP grand final “travels” every year. In snooker all majors are played in the UK. The venue for the “biggest” of them, the World Championship, is a small theatre in a provincial city. When there are two tables in use, there is barely enough space for the tables. Some players, notably Neil Robertson, have complained about it. Neil said that he can’t “walk into the shot” as he uses to do. If any sports body wants to develop their sport in an area where it’s not part of the main culture, they must accept to put money into that development. WST has not done that, they were greedy. The people in Europe who organised the PTCs were contractually bound to pay WST a certain amount for the right, no matter how it went. They usually went “out of pocket” despite very reasonable, sometimes even big attendances, especially on final days.
Having the World Championship travel around from venue to venue would kill it as an event, stone-dead, no matter how often you claim otherwise. Of course there should be more events in mainland Europe, and the way WST has neglected this market is shameful, but they need to develop themselves rather than diminishing an existing event.
Oh, and dismissing Sheffield as a “provincial city” is extremely patronising.
I love Sheffield, I really do, but it’s hardly a metropolis, is it? I wasn’t patronising, I was stating a fact. As for taking the world championship around the world, it would elevate its status, not diminish it. Does moving the Olympic games around diminish their status? Would you rather have them every 4 years in Olympia, Greece, a city with less than 7000 inhabitants just because that where they started?
But it is not about Neil.
Let’s hold the Worlds somewhere outdoors, so that Neil can walk into his shot.
Don’t be silly. The simple truth is that the Crucible is a great arena when there is just one table, but when you put two tables in there, and the partition, it’s too small. Players don’t have much room around the table and cameramen don’t have much room to manoeuvre either. In addition to that, the floor has to be reinforced every year so that it doesn’t collapse under the weight of the two tables. IF it’s technically feasible, for the World Championship to stay there, the floor should be rebuilt, larger and more stable. I’m not 100% sure it is actually technically feasible but IF it is, it would be at the expense of the number of seats … that is already well below the commercial demand. Nostalgia isn’t going to grow the sport, quite the opposite. The alternative to that would be to have just one table right from the start but that would lengthen the event and increase the costs … unless the format is shortened. None of those “alternatives” are appealing. All those shortcomings of the venue as it currently exist are the reasons why a “rebuilding” is actually planned.
Well, in tennis for a very long time Wimbledon was “the thing” despite the grass’ very limited appeal for most of the players, but the other GSs caught up, but it takes time. I haven’t watched much lately, but if the ATP final gained in importance that’s good news. But tennis also experimented with tournaments (Super9s, masters), so this kind of thing takes time. Maybe cities could organise their own tournaments and make them big, I’m not sure that traveling around is the solution, but maybe. What is unfortunate though is the way the Saudis can throw money into a tournament and claim it’s the 4th major or a mini world championship, when it’s just a lucrative average event. I know I sound with it like Cato and Carthage, but it bothers me. Also a big snooker event does not have to be held in a big , so Sheffield is not a metropolis, so what? If medium cities tried to make themselves famous about an important snooker tournament, it would be a lot better, than putting everything into a capital or so.
Well, it’s Barry Hearn who forced the change from a point based ranking system to a money based ranking system. I understand why he did it, he did it to to push sponsors to throw more money into events as to make them more important and to secure the participation of top players. It worked but doing so, he also opened the door for “sports-washing” countries like Saudi Arabia.
The problem is certainly not Sheffield. It’s a great city. The Botanic garden is wonderful. The parks and fountains are beautiful. Walking along the Severn is relaxing and peaceful Because it has universities, there are many young persons there who like to go out but don’t have that much money. So you have a choice of affordable but very decent eateries. If the Crucible can be rebuilt in the same spirit as it is now, just a bit bigger, it would be great. But it would also be great if the World Championship actually traveled around the world.
I find it difficult to do accents when I’m using a phone to tweet. I’m sure there is a way…
Yesterday’s matches were competitive – there was only one 4-0, in a match completely ignored by WST’s report. The star performeres from the first round – Chang Bingyu and Gary Wilson – weren’t able to follow it up. Sometimes, a great performance only adds pressure of expectation in the next round, and their opponents played well.
Tweets on the phone is one thing – and yes switching alphabetical sets might be unpractical when tweeting – but surely they don’t write their reports on their phone? If they use a laptop, which they probably do, and can take some time on redacting these reports that are not “instant things”, there is no excuse.
Well, I find it difficult to do accents