The 2026 English Open round of 16 was played to a conclusion yesterday in Leicester and it brougth a few surprises, as so often with this short format.
Welshman Liam Davies scored a stunning 4-1 win over World Champion Wu Yize to make the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time at the BetVictor English Open.
Davies has enjoyed a dramatic turnaround in fortunes this year. He ended last season by falling off the circuit, but bounced back immediately with success at Q School to regain his professional status.
The 20-year-old scored a landmark win over Ding Junhui in front of his home fans at the Wuhan Open last month and also defeated Barry Hawkins en route to the last 32 of the British Open last week. Now he has earned a maiden quarter-final berth.
Davies crafted a break of 105 en route to a 3-0 advantage. He then missed a black with a chance to secure the whitewash and Wu pounced to make it 3-1.
With the balls in difficult positions in the fourth, Wu embarked upon a potentially remarkable clearance to come from behind in the frame. He unexpectedly missed the green and Davies got himself over the line for a famous win and earn a quarter-final against compatriot, friend and practice partner Mark Williams, who beat Barry Hawkins 4-1.
“A couple of months ago I was in Q School wondering if I could really do this. Then I have a few wins and come to the first tournament feeling like a different player. I got a few wins and confidence behind me and now I’m playing on stages like that and beating the World Champion,” said world number 86 Davies.
“You find out a lot about yourself at Q School. Especially at my age, everyone needs time to get used to the tour. There are basically all your idols in one room and you walk in there. You have so much pressure to win and keep your tour card. Falling off and coming back on, that pressure has just gone.
“For me this is like a dream. You are waiting to wake up all the time. It is such a great feeling and doing my family and friends proud is really good.”
…
2024 World Champion Kyren Wilson scored his first ever win over four-time Crucible king Mark Selby, prevailing 4-3 to make the last eight.
Wilson came into the match having lost all eight of his previous meetings with fellow Englishman Selby. However, breaks of 84 and 52 helped him to victory this afternoon. It books a quarter-final against Ding Junhui, who beat Joe O’Connor 4-1.
Wilson said: “It just shows you how hard he is to beat. He’s been going from tournament to tournament and decider to decider, in brilliant form. Regardless of the head-to-head, it is a brilliant result against an in-form player.
“It feels like we’ve played so much snooker already this season. We have spent a long time away from home, but it is early doors. Any tournament is so hard nowadays, I’d love to go on and win but we are only in the quarter-finals.“
2019 World Champion Judd Trump battled to a narrow 4-3 win over Anthony McGill and now faces Shaun Murphy, who edged to a 4-3 defeat of Pang Junxu.
Essex cueman Ali Carter kept his hopes alive of a win on home turf with a 4-2 win over Gong Chenzhi. He now faces Zhou Yuelong, who beat Yuan Sijun 4-2.
You will find all the detailed results, and the schedule for today’s matches, on snooker.org … as always.
What I certainly saw yesterday is definite proof that the gap in quality/ability between the top players and the players further down the rankings has shrunk, significantly. This is why in the first sentence of this piece I used the word “surprise” rather than “shock”. There are very few results nowadays that I would see as “shocks”. And, yet, five of the eight players who remain in contention for the title are in the top 16 and we have two “mammoth” clashes to savour today: Ding Junhui v Kyren Wilson in the afternoon and Judd Trump v Shaun Murphy in the evening. I don’t expect too many lengthy safety battles in that last one! Other than young Liam Davies, the lowest ranked player in the field is Zhou Yuelong, ranked 22d , who faces Ali Carter ranked 21st. Young Liam, who is Welsh, will face another Welsh player, the legendary alleged “has-been” Mark Williams1.
but … as we would say in French “Méfiance! Il a de beaux restes, Willo!” et il ne fera pas de cadeaux! ↩︎