Yesterday, the 2023 British Open continued to deliver drama and unexpected results.

Here is the report by WST:

Singh Chadha Scores Huge Win Over Bingham

India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha secured the biggest victory of his fledgling career, beating 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham 4-2 at the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham.

Singh Chadha is in his rookie season on the World Snooker Tour, after coming through Asia-Oceania Q School earlier this year. He’s already made a strong start, having beaten Anthony McGill to qualify for the upcoming Wuhan Open. The Mumbai cueman also ran World Champion Luca Brecel close at the recent European Masters, before bowing out 5-3.

With the scores locked at 2-2, Singh Chadha’s brilliant win was sealed with breaks of 69 and 71. His reward is a last 32 meeting with former Crucible semi-finalist David Gilbert.

“I watched the whole of the 2015 World Championship and I just admired him throughout, because of the bottle he showed. I respect him a lot. He is a great player. To beat a World Champion is of great pleasure,” said 27-year-old Singh Chadha.

“I am just treating every match as if I was playing in India. I think that is helping a lot, especially this match, I was really confident before it. I had a different mindset going on and I was very positive. That helped a lot.

“I am taking small steps, but I want to set a benchmark when I leave the tour. Every match I am going to give it my all and you need to look out.”

Kyren Wilson made the 400th century of his career en route to an impressive 4-0 defeat of world number three Mark Allen. Wilson crafted breaks of 112 and 121 on his way to victory. Next up he faces another tough assignment against Barry Hawkins in the last 32.

Defeat for Allen ends his chances of usurping Ronnie O’Sullivan as world number one. The Northern Irishman needed to win the event to top the world rankings, meaning the Rocket will remain at the summit for the time being.

Robbie Williams scored a shock 4-1 win over four-time World Champion John Higgins to earn his place in the last 32.

It means he has now won both of his meetings with Higgins, having beaten him 5-4 at the 2020 German Masters. Williams crafted runs of 73, 91, 52 and 118 during today’s tie. He now plays Scott Donaldson.

Williams said: “John is such a classy player. Obviously one of the greatest of all-time. To be unbeaten against him, you have to celebrate these little victories when you can.

“I thought I would make a bit more of an effort in the off season and I have felt sharper as a result. I fancy doing some damage this season. I feel confident enough that I can win a tournament and that is a great mindset to have.”

The evening session saw the first of the last 32 matches get underway. Welsh three-time World Champion Mark Williams scored a 4-2 win over Gary Wilson in what was a repeat of the 2021 final. That sets up a showdown with China’s Ding Junhui in the next round.

Ding progressed with a 4-0 whitewash victory against Belgium’s Julien Leclercq, while Ali Carter beat defending champion Ryan Day 4-2 in a late night battle.

All the detailed results are on snooker.org as usual.

Also as usual a number of matches are “forgotten” by WST.

Chinese rookies He Guoqiang and Ma Hailong qualified for the last 16 round, but there’s not a word about it by WST. I’m sure that if it had been some UK rookie, worth being showcased, this would be the headline of this report…

I’m have been watching Ishpreet Singh Chadha since the start of the season. Actually, I already got interested in him before he turned pro. Some of his matches in the Asian Q-School were streamed and he caught my attention. He’s a very solid layer with a cool head. How far he will go, we’ll see, but he’s certainly as good as any of the UK Q-School qualifiers and actually better than most.

Also, WST has published the draw for the last 16 round:

Barry Hawkins/Kyren Wilson vs He Guoqiang
Graeme Dott vs Yuan Sijun/Hossein Vafaei
Ding Junhui vs Mark Williams
Hailong Ma vs Fan Zhengyi/Rod Lawler
Ali Carter vs Xiao Guodong/Sanderson Lam
Tom Ford/Jimmy Robertson vs Robbie Williams/Scott Donaldson
David Gilbert/Ishpreet Singh Chadha vs Si Jiahui/Mark Selby
Jack Lisowski/Matthew Selt vs Fergal O’Brien

Day 2 at the 2023 British Open brought quite a few unexpected results.

Here is the report by WST:

Marvellous Miah Stuns Trump

World number 113 Hammad Miah staged the shock of the season so far, defeating 23-time ranking event winner Judd Trump 4-3 at the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham.

The thrilling encounter came down to the final black and Miah’s reward sees him face China’s Ma Heilong in the last 32. Defeat for 2019 World Champion Trump means his barren spell in ranking events continues, the last time he picked up ranking silverware was over a year ago at the 2022 Turkish Masters.

The first four frames this afternoon were played at a phenomenal standard. Miah fired in breaks of 126 and 101, with Trump compiling runs of 125 and 124 to leave the pair level at 2-2. Trump then moved 3-2 ahead, before Miah took a tense sixth to force a decider.

The last frame came down to the final ball, but a loose safety from Trump gave Miah a long range black, which he deposited to secure one of the biggest wins of his career.

Victory for Miah marks a high point since a dramatic return to the tour two years ago. During the pandemic he ended up stranded in Uzbekistan on the way home from a holiday in Dubai due to travel restrictions and he narrowly made it back to compete in Q School, where he regained his professional status. He now finds himself in the last 32 of a major event having beaten one of snooker’s modern greats.

Miah said: “In the city there were 300 Russian Billiards clubs and there was only one snooker table. After going to many of these clubs I asked the locals and nobody knew what snooker was. Eventually I met this guy from Tatarstan and he took me to this club. I got the hunger back.

“I appreciate just playing snooker. I want to enjoy it like every person who goes to the club to play. This is my escape now and isn’t my life. This is the way I am trying to look at it so I can enjoy it more. I need to give myself a positive outcome from playing snooker so I don’t want to think of it as work.”

Jack Lisowski’s blockbuster meeting with Shaun Murphy also went right down to the wire, he also prevailed on the final black to earn a 4-3 victory.

Lisowski is competing on home turf this week in Cheltenham and is seeking what would be a momentous maiden ranking title. Trailing 62-0 in the decider he appeared to be set for the exit, but he cleared with a brilliant 63 break to turn the tie on its head and claim victory. Next up he faces either Matthew Selt or Zak Surety.

“It was an amazing match and great to beat Shaun, who was pretty much the player of last season. He played well today so it shows my game is in good shape,” said 32-year-old Lisowski. “I pulled off a really nice break in the decider and to do that under pressure is what you practice for so it is a great feeling.”

Si Jiahui scored a shock 4-1 defeat of 2010 World Champion Neil Robertson. China’s Si enjoyed a stunning run to the semi-finals of last season’s World Championship and showcased some of his best snooker again this afternoon. He fired in breaks of 66 and 107 on his way to victory. Next up Si faces either Mark Selby or Tian Pengfei.

Welsh three-time World Champion Mark Williams secured a hard fought 4-2 win over former UK Champion Stephen Maguire, while recent European Masters winner Barry Hawkins beat Robert Milkins 4-1.

As usual all the detailed results are available on snooker.org

I missed all the action yesterday, as I had to travel from my island to Athens and back for some medical treatment. It was nothing serious, but it needed to be done and I came back home late, and rather exhausted. Hopefully, I can catch up with some of the matches later, but for now, obviously I can’t comment on anything that happened yesterday.

That said, Miah has always been an excellent player and I have always wondered how and why he hasn’t done more in the game. Maybe he has to work outside snooker to sustain himself and his family? I’m not sure.

I was very pleased to see that Julien Leclercq is through to the next round with a very good win over Jamie Jones. Ben Mertens though was beaten 4-0 by Yuan Sijun.

What I wrote yesterday about Stan Moody getting the main television table attracted a lot of comments on social media, some agreeing with me, some disagreeing. I do stand by what I wrote, especially as young Stan is not at all the best young rookie on tour judging by his results so far. He is actually the only amongst the British and Chinese rookies who hasn’t won/drawn a match yet this season. Of course he’s very young and precisely, because of that, I do believe – strongly – that putting him under the spotlights is not helpful at all. In addition to that, I wonder if that decision to put Stan on the main table would have been taken if the defending champion had been Judd Trump or Ronnie instead of Ryan Day. I have serious doubts about it… and I’m probably not alone. That’s extremely unfair for Ryan.

There was an interesting comment by Michael Waring about this whole situation. It’s in the comments section. I agree with Michael, and what he describes – offering a variety of events, some targeting specific populations – is one of benefits snooker could get if they ditched the current rigid ranking system in favour of an ELO type rating system.

Also, yesterday, the random draw for the next round has been made. Here is how it looks at the time of writing:

Graeme Dott vs Daniel Wells/Ashley Carty
Si Jiahui vs Tian Pengfei/Mark Selby
Tom Ford/Ashley Hugill vs Jimmy Robertson
John Higgins/Robbie Williams vs Scott Donaldson
Ryan Day/Thor Chuan Leong vs Ali Carter
David Gilbert vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha/Stuart Bingham
Matthew Stevens vs Fergal O’Brien
Fan Zhengyi/Ross Muir vs Rod Lawler
Xiao Guodong vs David Grace/Sanderson Lam
Yuan Sijun vs Hossein Vafaei
Ding Junhui/Liu Hongyu vs Julien Leclercq
Jack Lisowski vs Matthew Selt/Zak Surety
Gary Wilson vs Mark Williams
Ma Hailong vs Hammad Miah
Oliver Lines vs He Guoqiang/Muhammad Asif
Barry Hawkins vs Kyren Wilson/Mark Allen

The 2023 British Open got underway yesterday at the Centaur in Cheltenham. Many big names were in action as the round 1 “held-over” matches were scheduled on this first day.

Here is the report by WST:

Pistol Remains In The Hunt As Bullet Drops Out

Mark Allen is still in contention to dethrone Ronnie O’Sullivan from the top of the world rankings after a 4-1 defeat of Anthony McGill, but World Champion Luca Brecel’s chances of reaching pole position ended on day one of the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham.

World number three Allen was Player of the Year last season after winning three ranking titles, including the UK Championship. Following O’Sullivan pulling out of this week’s event, Allen now knows he needs to win the tournament to become world number one.

Next up Allen faces a tough assignment against world number eight Kyren Wilson in what is a repeat of the 2018 Masters final, which Allen won. Wilson earned his progression thanks to a 4-1 defeat of Martin O’Donnell.

It was McGill who claimed the opener this afternoon, before Allen took control. Breaks of 57, 81 and 94 moved the Northern Irishman 3-1 ahead and he took a 41-minute fifth to get over the line.

“It would tick a box as one of my career goals is to get to world number one. I’ve got a long way to go before I start thinking about that. There are a lot of matches ahead of me. If I was in the final here on Sunday, it might be bittersweet to do it without Ronnie in the event,” said 37-year-old Allen.

“It was a horrible draw for Luca playing Ding in round one here. It doesn’t get much tougher than that. He is another one that I’m sure at some point this season will get to world number one. I hope that we have a back and forth battle and go for it between us and Ronnie. It is up to us to stamp our authority on that world number one spot.”

Brecel faced a blockbuster clash with China’s Ding Junhui, knowing he just had to win two matches to put himself in line for the world number one spot.

Ding had led 3-0, but Crucible king Brecel came roaring back to force a decider. However, it was the 14-time ranking event winner who took it to win 4-3 and end Brecel’s ambitions of topping the rankings.

Australia’s 23-time ranking event winner Neil Robertson is searching a first individual in over a year, but he got off to a strong start this week with a 4-1 defeat of Welshman Jamie Clarke. Robertson fired in breaks of 55, 77, 50 and 70 on his way to victory this afternoon and now faces Si Jiahui tomorrow.

Judd Trump survived a scare to beat Anton Kazakov 4-2. The Ukrainian crafted a fine break of 86 to take the opener and then claimed the second to secure a surprise 2-0 lead. However, Trump made contributions of 67, 67 and 116 on his way to turning the tie around and emerging victorious.

Defending champion Ryan Day whitewashed Sean O’Sullivan 4-0 to book his progression, while four-time World Champion Mark Selby beat fellow Leicester cueman Ben Woollaston 4-2.

Shaun Murphy beat Rebecca Kenna 4-1 to set up a mouthwatering clash with Jack Lisowski in the last 64. Lisowski defeated Joe O’Connor 4-3 to make it through.

The truth is that Luca was pretty poor at the start of the match, probably still tired after making it to the final in Shanghai on Saturday. Ding typically struggled to finish the job, but eventually did it this time.

As usual, many matches are not reported on in this report. All detailed results are available on snooker.org.

One match that’s not reported on is Barry Hawkins trashing of young Stan Moody on the main television table. Barry, who won the 2023 European Masters end August, scored breaks of 78, 60, 70 and 68, in a complete demolition of his young opponent. Now, why on earth, was this match on the main table when, Ryan Day, the defending Champion was also in action in that same session, as was Mark Selby who faced Ben Wollaston? Somehow I can’t help but think that this decision would never have been taken it it wasn’t to showcase Stan Moody, Shaun Murphy’s protégé. If I’m right, then it backfired spectacularly. This match was as one-sided as it gets and only showed how far away young Stan is from the required professional level. It’s good to showcase young talents, but it only works if they are good enough to give their more experienced opponent some decent opposition. If they are totally outplayed, and can’t show anything, it’s not good for the viewers, and not good either for the youngster whose confidence might seriously suffer from the experience.

Yesterday was the last day of the 2023 International Championship Qualifiers. Only six matches were player, but somehow WST managed to “forget” two of them in their report, including the one won by a Chinese player, Pang Junxu. Pang beat Zak Surety by 6-3. The other omission was Daniel Wells 6-2 win over Liam Highfield.

Walden Set For Tianjin

Saturday 23 Sep 2023 08:09PM

Ricky Walden, who won the International Championship in 2014, booked his place in this year’s event with a 6-1 thrashing of Jun Jiang.

Three-time ranking event winner Walden will be among a strong field heading for Tianjin in November. He knocked in breaks of 88 and 75 today in a comfortable victory.

Scott Donaldson top scored with 125 in a 6-4 defeat of Louis Heathcote while Crucible quarter-finalist Jak Jones beat Aaron Hill 6-2 with top runs of 99, 96, 88 and 124. Oliver Lines came from 3-0 down to beat Lukas Kleckers 6-4, making breaks of 76, 69, 65 and 94.

… and it should be Jiang Jun not Jun Jiang. Chinese players have been around for a long time. It’s 20 years since Ding Junhui turned pro. Ding Junhui not Junhui Ding. You would expect them to know it by now, that the family name comes first. But no … they just don’t care I suppose.

All the results are available on snooker.org

It’s another painful defeat for Lukas Kleckers who was 3-0 up. This kind of things seem to happen to him too often to be just hard luck. Lukas seems to struggle to close matches up. Maybe he should see someone to help with the mental side of this sport. He’s obviously good enough technically.

Tomorrow, the 2023 British Open will start. It’s an ITV event but it will be shown on Eurosport/Discovery in mainland Europe. We have some brutal matches in store tomorrow:

• Ding Junhui v Luca Brecel
• Jamie Clarke v Neil robertson
• Mark Allen v Anthony Mc Gill
• Ben Woollaston v Mark Selby
• Joe O’Connor v Jack Lisowski

Some of the big hitters were in action yesterday in Sheffield and here is the report by WST:

Top Seeds Secure Tianjin Spots

Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby eased to a 6-2 victory over Muhammad Asif in the qualifying round for the International Championship, on a good day for the top seeds as four other players ranked within the world’s top 16 all booked places in Tianjin in November.

Selby recovered from the loss of the opening frame to take six of the next seven, making top breaks of 75 and 102. Mark Williams fired runs of 118 and 112 during a 6-0 whitewash of Rebecca Kenna.

Jack Lisowski top scored with 86 in a 6-3 win over He Guoqiang, while Mark Allen compiled runs of 124 and 113 in a 6-2 defeat of Ma Hailong. Kyren Wilson saw off Adam Duffy 6-3 with a top run of 74.

Lyu Hoatian made an 84 in the decider to edge out David Lilley 6-5, while breaks of 138 and 134 helped Elliot Slessor beat Hammad Miah 6-2.

As usual all the detailed results are available on snooker.org

As usual some results are missing in the report: Fan Zhengyi beat Mostafa Dorgham by 6-2, and Jamie Jones beat Ashley Carty by 6-4. This last match finished well past midnight UK time.

I wouldn’t say that Mark Selby “eased” past Muhammad Asif. Yes the end result looks one-sided but Muhammad made Mark really work for it, particularly after the MSI.

He Guogiang showed good stuff in his match against Jack Lisowski. Both players had three breaks over 50. What made the difference was Jack’s superior safety game. He won all the close frames.

Willo’s match was more like a walk in the park than an actual match … unfortunately. It’s always nice to watch Willo in full flow, but he had very little opposition, especially before the MSI.