This is WST report on day 3 at the 2023 International Championship

Two-Ton Pullen Ditches Dott

Liam Pullen made two centuries during a 6-4 defeat of former World Champion Graeme Dott in the qualifying round for the International Championship.

Tour rookie Pullen, age 18, goes through to the final stages of the world ranking event, to take place in Tianjin in China in November.

The teenager from Yorkshire compiled breaks of 119, 51 and 101 in taking a 4-1 lead. After sharing the next two, 2006 Crucible king Dott won frames eight and nine to close to 5-4, and he led 45-0 in the tenth. But Pulled clawed his way back and snatched it with a brown-to-black clearance to cross the winning line.

Stuart Bingham eased to a 6-0 win over Xing Zihao, while Jimmy Robertson top scored with 118 in a 6-2 success against Anton Kazakov. Noppon Saengkham rattled in runs of 74, 69, 80, 67, 117 and 123 during a 6-3 defeat of Victor Sarkis.

Gary Wilson needed just 81 minutes to beat Mohamed Ibrahim 6-0 with breaks of 103, 89, 64, 103 and 94.

It’s worth noting that Dott started the match in the worst possible way, losing frame 1 on the “three miss rule” and it’s hard to know if and how that affected him. Never mind that incident, this is an excellent result from the young man against one of the hardest “positive match-player” there is in the game.

As usual the above report leaves a lot of matches out. All the detailed results are available on snooker.org.

Sam Craigie beat Rory Thor by 6-1. That match was much closer than the scores suggest and Rory lost the last frame despite scoring a 55 break in it.

Zhang And beat Arnie Ursenbacher by 6-3 in a hard fought match. Both had a 50+ break in the first frame but it was Zhang who prevailed. Zhang lead 4-0 at the MSI but Arnie didn’t give up: he won three of the last five frames but it was too much to do, too late against a “reliable” opponent.

Not mentioned either is Xiao Guodong win over Ishpreet Singh Chada. Xiao had three breaks over 50 in that match whilst Ishpreet Singh had none. The Indian player however is really good, tactically sound. If he can start scoring a bit more heavily, he will become seriously dangerous.

It is strange that Hossein Vafaei 6-1 win over Reanne Evans isn’t mentioned. Hossein had two centuries and two other breaks over 50 in that match. Reanne had a 53 and a 77. The 53 came in frame 4, a frame she lost by 68-67 …

Also “forgotten” is Mark Davis’ excellent 6-4 win over Rod Lawler. “Dark Mavis” played really well in that match: he made breaks of 61, 66, 91, 89 and 56. “Rod the Plod” himself scored breaks of 68 and 113. When I use Rod’s nickname, it’s just a bit of teasing. I quite like him actually. Yes, he’s slow, very slow, but he’s never negative and his break building skills are excellent. Watching him play can be a bit of a “zen” exercice”. Rod is just slow … on and off the table, and he’s a very likeable character as well.

This is WST report on day 2 at the 2023 International Championship:

Ford Edges Moody In Late Night Battle

World number 21 Tom Ford defeated WSF Junior Champion Stan Moody 6-4 with the clock just shy of midnight to make the final stages of the International Championship.

The qualifying round in Sheffield runs until Saturday this week, with all winners going through to Tianjin in China in November.

Leicester’s Ford had trailed tour rookie Moody 2-0 in the early stages, but turned the match around in his favour to come through with a hard fought victory. He crafted breaks of 72, 70 and 50 en route to the win.

Anthony McGill secured his spot in the final stages thanks to a 6-3 defeat of Alfie Burden. The pair were locked level at 3-3, but Scotland’s McGill took three on the bounce to ensure his progression.

Joe Perry’s difficult start to the season continued with a 6-3 loss at the hands of Dylan Emery. The Welshman top scored with 96 during this afternoon’s match.

Former UK Championship and Masters winner Matthew Stevens qualified courtesy of a 6-4 win over Lyu Hongyu, while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh eased to a 6-1 victory over Andrew Higginson.

As so often, a number of matches are missing from this report, most notably Cao Yupeng 6-0 win over Ashley Hugill. This is a tournament played in China, Cao is the only Chinese player who managed to qualify yesterday and he doesn’t deserve as much as one mention in the report. Sanderson Lam is another player who went through and is currently having a very good start of the season. Sanderson is from Chinese descend.

In general, Chinese players have always struggled for results in the qualifiers for their “home” tournaments. They probably feel added pressure. Those qualifiers should be scrapped, or played at or near the main venue, the week before the event proper. The fans would be able to watch “their” players “live”, and there is a higher probability that the “players on form” make it through to the venue as opposed to the “players on form a month before the event” make it through to the venue.

Also “forgotten” are David Gilbert 6-0 win over James Cahill, Stuart Carrington 6-4 win over Xu Si and David Grace 6-2 win over Jenson Kendrick.

After his defeat, Joe Perry, on twitter, admitted that he’s really struggling with the mental side of the game at the moment and expressed his hope to get over his issues in the near future. Indeed he didn’t look happy at all out there.

All the detailed results are on snooker.org

The qualifying round for the 2023 International Championship started yesterday in Ponds Forge, Sheffield. This is the first time this season that fans have the opportunity to watch qualifying matches live. The matches are best of 11, which is a nice change from the best of 7 that has become the norm in most UK events.

Here is the report by WST on what happened yesterday:

Hawkins Scores Whitewash To Earn Tianjin Place

Barry Hawkins continued his superb start to the season by beating Andrew Pagett 6-0 to qualify for the final stages of the International Championship.

…

The qualifying round in Sheffield runs until Saturday this week, with all winners going through to Tianjin in China in November.

Hawkins captured the BetVictor European Masters title in Germany last month and is now on a streak of ten consecutive wins. He needed just 85 minutes to beat Pagett with top breaks of 52, 59 and 103.

Ryan Day made the fourth 147 of his career, as well as a 128, during a 6-1 victory over Mink Nutcharut. Ross Muir scored an impressive 6-3 defeat of Wu Yize, knocking in runs of 51, 92, 51, 68 and 112.

Jordan Brown recovered a 5-2 deficit to beat Sean O’Sullivan 6-5, taking a 35-minute deciding frame by potting brown, blue and pink.

Tian Pengfei came from 2-0 down to beat Stephen Hendry 6-3, while Stephen Maguire top scored with 80 in a 6-2 success against Peng Yisong. Long Zehuang came from 5-3 down to edge out Yuan Sijun 6-5, making breaks of 102 and 89 in the last three frames.

Matthew Selt recovered from the loss of the opening frame to beat Jimmy White 6-1, while Robbie Williams top scored with 135 in a 6-3 defeat of Ben Mertens.

One of the highlights of the day was … Day’s 147.

Day Makes Sheffield Maximum

Ryan Day crafted the fourth 147 break of his career during a clash with Thailand’s Mink Nutcharut at International Championship qualifying in Sheffield.

Welshman Day made the break in the fourth frame of the match to move 3-1 ahead. Day has now compiled two perfect breaks in 2023, having also made a 147 during last season’s Tour Championship.

It’s the 191st official maximum in snooker history and the second to be made this season, following Sean O’Sullivan’s 147 at European Masters qualifying. The break puts Day in line to take the £5,000 high break prize for the International Championship.

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

It may sound strange given he was beaten by 6-3, from 2-0 up, but yesterday was the best I saw from Hendry in a very long time. Recently, Hendry said that he retired mainly because he had lost all confidence. This lack of confidence was evident again yesterday. He started the match well. Ok, he still made mistakes, but he was playing ok. As soon as he lost a frame, there was a noticeable change in his demeanour around the table. He didn’t totally give up though, contrary what he often did in the last couple of years in his (first) pro career. He continued to try, which was good to see. Maybe the presence of a crowd helped him.

Although he was beaten by 6-3 by Jackson Page, I enjoyed watching Liam Graham. I believe that he is much better than most UK youngsters, notably better than some who for some reason are talked about a lot more than him.

Long Zehuang also impressed me. The rookie came from 5-3 down to beat Yuan Sijun and he looked very solid mentally in doing so.

Ross Muir scored heavily yesterday, in beating Wu Yize. I’m happy for him: there was a time when his career looked over as ocular migraine – a ver painful condition – prevented him to play to his full potential and even forced him to withdraw from matches on occasions.

Robbie Williams beat Ben Mertens by 6-3. Ben wasn’t at his best but there was more to it than that. Robbie Williams is typically the type of hard match player who will cause younger opponents problems. Most young players are “potters”, the hard-graft match play is not their thing. They have to learn that side of the game to succeed as pros, and hopefully Ben will learn from yesterday’s match. The young John Higgins was a notable exception, he was an all-rounder right from his beginnings, but … well, he’s a an exceptional player.

In other – anecdotic – news, Ronnie DID offer the Shanghai trophy to a friend

This guy is a long time close friend to Ronnie and the owner of a Chinese restaurant… You may have noticed him in the crowd, watching many of Ronnie’s matches live over the past years, notably during the Masters.

Ronnie won the 2023 Shanghai Masters beating Luca Brecel by 11-9.

Congratulations Ronnie!

Ronnie has now won this title four times in a row, and five times in total. He’s undefeated at this event since 2017. Since the event has become invitational, he’s won all the finals by the same score: 11-9.

Here are the detailed scores (source: snooker.org)

Luca was the heaviest scorer during the match, although it was Ronnie who made the highest break of the match, and of the tournament, the 143 he scored in frame 16.

Here is WST report on the first session:

Rocket Leads The Bullet

Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan emerged from the opening session of the Shanghai Masters final leading World Champion Luca Brecel 6-4.

The clash is a meeting between world number one O’Sullivan and the world number two Brecel. The last time they faced each other was at the Crucible last year, when Brecel scored a 13-10 win and went on to capture a stunning maiden world title. He rallied from 10-6 down in the final session of that match and will be hoping for a similar turnaround this evening.

O’Sullivan is aiming for a fourth straight Shanghai Masters title and will require five more frames to do that in tonight’s concluding session. The winner of this best of 21 final will earn a £210,000 top prize.

When play got underway this afternoon O’Sullivan took the opening frame, before a sublime break of 134 from Brecel saw him restore parity at 1-1. Despite that moment of magic, it was the Rocket who took the following two frames to lead 3-1 at the mid-session.

After the break, Brecel imposed his break building power on proceedings and fired in contributions of 75, 98 and 103 to take three on the bounce and earn a 4-3 advantage. The tie then swung back in O’Sullivan’s favour, with the seven-time World Champion taking three in a row, including a break of 75, to end 6-4 in front.

And the report by WST on the second session

Rocket Extends Shanghai Dominance

Rocket Extends Shanghai Dominance

World number one Ronnie O’Sullivan won a fourth straight Shanghai Masters title, beating World Champion Luca Brecel 11-9 in a thrilling final.

The Rocket is unbeaten in the city for seven years, with his last defeat coming at the hands of Michael Holt back in 2016. The Englishman’s winning streak in the event now stands at 19 matches.

O’Sullivan won the title in consecutive years between 2017 and 2019, beating Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins and Shaun Murphy in the respective finals. He has a total of five Shanghai Masters crowns to his name, having also been victorious in 2009, and is the standout player in the tournament’s history.

Today’s final was the latest edition of what could become the defining rivalry in modern snooker. Earlier this year 28-year-old Brecel produced a devastating burst to beat O’Sullivan 13-10 from 10-6 behind at the Crucible, where he would go on to capture his maiden world title. O’Sullivan got his revenge today and now leads the head-to-head standings between the pair 4-2.

Victory sees O’Sullivan pocket the £210,000 top prize with Brecel earning £105,000 as the runner-up. However, with the event being an invitational tournament it doesn’t count towards the world rankings and seven-time Crucible king O’Sullivan’s lead over world number two Brecel remains a slender £5,000.

O’Sullivan has had to show his battling qualities this week, most notably rallying from 5-2 down to beat John Higgins 6-5 in the quarter-finals. He needed to dig deep again in the afternoon session today, emerging 6-4 ahead after trailing 4-3.

The opening frame of the evening saw Brecel apply pressure with a break of 65 to make it 6-5. O’Sullivan immediately restored his two frame cushion by winning the 12th, but it was Brecel who then crafted breaks of 55 and 56 to head into the mid-session all-square at 7-7.

When play resumed O’Sullivan produced a devastating burst for the finish line. He fired in breaks of 143 and 120 on his way to three in a row, leaving him one from the title at 10-7.

The 39-time ranking event winner had opportunities to get over the line in a dramatic 18th frame, but Brecel eventually extended the tie with a stunning table length double on the final black to make it 10-8.

The Belgian then strung together 83 to pull with a single frame at 10-9. The 20th frame was another tense one, but this time O’Sullivan did get the job done on the blue to secure the title.

“I just tried hard. I mentally thought that plan A was to go out there, dominate and score breaks. Plan B was to keep my focus and emotions in check. I tried not to lose it out of frustration. It was one of those tournaments. I was well below par, but in moments I played alright when I had to. I wasn’t on auto pilot, everything was a bit of a struggle from start to finish,” said 47-year-old O’Sullivan.

“When you are in the sweet spot and hitting the ball well it feels like an easy game. It feels like you can do what you want on the table. When you aren’t, you get scared of even coming to the table. It is frightening. This game can be so difficult some days and others it can be so easy. I’ve gone two or three years without feeling that I’d missed a ball. I was flying. There were some balls out there that I was missing and I was laughing to myself.

“I’m not surprised Luca has done as well as he has. He’s not a surprise World Champion. He’s got an amazing gift to play this game. The performance he put on in Sheffield was unbelievable. He has improved a lot as a player and he loves the game. He has his girlfriend here with him and they seem to be having a great time. I wish I was at his stage of his career. He is a young man with a lot of years ahead of him. Snooker is getting bigger in China so it is a good time to be a professional snooker player.”

Meanwhile here are some pictures shared on twitter and Weibo

What this shows is that when Ronnie is fully up for it, he’s still a formidable player. This week he showed an iron will to win. He has won everything there is to win in his sport, he has broken almost every record. He is 47 years old and this season is his 32d as a professional, so it is understandable that he finds it hard to get fully motivated for every event, and we should accept that. But this is an elite tournament, played in a city he loves, in front of a huge, enthusiast crowd for every match. This is the kind of event that gets his juices flowing. We should enjoy those moments as we don’t know how many more the future will bring. Thank you Ronnie!

Here is the last frame of the match as shared by ES on YouTube

And this is what Ronnie had to say on twitter after the match:

Wow, what a few days!! To win my fifth Shanghai Masters is something I’m really proud of. And to have won playing such a talented player in Luca, means a lot. Thank you to all the fans and everyone out here for your support, it doesn’t go unnoticed. ❤️