The 2024 German Masters qualifiers finished yesterday and, with a slightly longer format, there weren’t that many upsets. All the results are on snooker.org.
Upsets
Ding Junhui lost by 5-2 to Yuan Sijun, despite Yuan being docked the first frame after the interval because he was late. I didn’t see the match, and Yuan is a very good player but that scoreline is really surprising.
Jack Lisowski lost 5-3 to Zak Surety. Zak is a solid player and played solid snooker. Jack was his inconsistent self. Brilliant at times, missing unexpectedly at other times. After all these years, Jack still has no B-game. His collaboration with Ebdon has – so far - not bring any improvement, rather the opposite. Someone on social media said that Jack has a “potting brain”, but not a “snooker brain”. Nail on the head.
Stuart Bingham was beaten by 5-1 by Liam Pullen. Stuart was not able to build any substantial break until the last frame where he had a 58, and even that wasn’t enough. Liam punished his mistakes and scored heavily. He had four breaks over 50 in the match. He impressed me. Stuart was playing without his glasses. It’s not easy to get used to glasses when you never needed them until your mid forties. Glasses change your perception of distances. But then. playing in a blur is no good either…
Gary Wilson lost by 5-4 to Scott Donaldson. Not really a big upset. Scott is a very good player and Gary had maybe a bit of a hang-over after his Scottish triumph. That match was decided on the last black.
Ashley Carty beat Noppon Saengkham by 5-2. Now, like Gary, I think that Noppon suffered from some fatigue after his efforts in Edinburgh. He won the first frame, but wasn’t at the races at all for most of the match. From 4-1 down, Noppon pulled one back and made a break of 65 in the next, only for Ashley – who reached the Crucible in 2020 – to steal it with a 75!
Interesting matches …
Which matches are interesting is, of course, a matter of personal interests and preferences. Here are mine
Si Jiahui beat Lyu Haotian by 5-4 from 4-0 down. This was a case of ”the MSI changing the course of the match” if there ever was one. Lyu completely dominated the first four frames, he scored breaks of 83, 64, 89 and 112 to lead 4-0. Si completely turned the tables after the MSI, winning the five last frames with breaks of 123, 87, 98 and 103. It was a scoring fest, it was strange and fascinating.
Ben Mertens beat Rory Thor by 5-3. This match was as hard fought as it gets. The were on table 4 and I guess the conditions weren’t optimal. There was on one break over 50 in the match, a 51 by Ben in frame 1. Every frame was scrappy and close. It was hard work from start to finish. This is not the kind of match young players relish. Most of them can’t handle it. Ben only turned 19 last October. It’s a very, very good win for the lad.
He Guoqiang beat John Astley by 5-4. He is a bit older than Ben, he’s 23, but he is in his first season. Beating a solid, experienced player like John Astley, is a very good result. It’s all the most remarkable because He trailed by 3-4 and forced the decider by winning frame 8 on a re-spotted black. To do that you need a good head and solid nerves. BTW, that frame, frame 8, was the only one in the match that didn’t feature a 50+ break. Great entertainment and quality.
Tian Pengfei beat Reanne Evans by 5-4, from 4-2 down. Now, I wanted Reanne to win this one and she was absolutely gutted to lose. Despite the loss, I’ll say that this is probably the best she’s played in a ranking match on the main tour as a professional. Tian is a seasoned pro, a very good player. Reanne pushed him really hard. I hope this gives her some confidence. It should, and the fact that she was so upset is also a sign that she really believes that she could have won this one. That’s positive.
Exhibitions in China…
The Melco Style presents Macau Masters is underway, the group stage was played to a finish and all the results are on snooker.org. There, you will also find the links to two short videos showing the last balls of John Higgins 147, and Mark Selby’s 147. Yes, they were seriously at it. Higgins nearly made two 147 on the day, he missed the last black!
Note that the event is neither televised, nor streamed. The videos were filmed by fans in the audience.
We already know that Ronnie and Ding will play in the Wynn presents Macau Masters. This will start just after Christmas. But there are posts on Weibo hinting at a Lhasa Peak Showdown Exhibition, played on 31 December 2023 and 1st of January 2024 as part of the “Ding Olympic Games” feast. That’s all I found about it for now.
Here is the automatic translation of the article (with some correction by me were there were obvious errors1):
Most notably and vey obviously, this will NOT be a table tennis tournament 😂 ↩︎
O’Sullivan will lead five major players to visit Hong Kong in March and join hands with Marco Marco for a decisive battle at the Queen Elisabeth Stadium
The “2024 Hong Kong International Snooker Stars Challenge” will be held at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium from March 25 to 26 next year. A total of five world-class players, including “Rocket” O’Sullivan, will take part in the competition. At the same time, Hong Kong snooker star Marco Fu will once again perform in front of the home audience. The six players will also attend the tournament this Saturday (23rd), and it is expected that relevant details of the competition will be announced.
The event invited O’Sullivan, who won the UK Championship for the historic eighth time last month, “quasi-god” Zhuo Linpu, “golden left hand” Williams, British star Lisowski and Chinese supernova Si Jiahui, will come to Hong Kong to meet the host player Marco Fu and compete for the championship. In addition to Lisowski and Si Jiahui, the other three foreign players will visit Hong Kong again after the “Hong Kong Snooker Masters 2022”.
Last year’s Hong Kong World Snooker Masters attracted more than 8,000 spectators, setting a record for the largest attendance in the history of snooker. Marco Marco’s 147 break against Higgins in the final game of the semi-finals became a classic scene of the tournament. The championship was won by O’Sullivan after defeating Marco. Six players, including Marco Marco , will attend the tournament press conference in Tsim Sha Tsui this Saturday. They will then transfer to Macau to compete in the ” 2023 Macau Snooker Masters Invitational Tournament” that will last for four consecutive days on Christmas
This event is scheduled right after the World Open, so Ronnie might actually be motivated to play in the event… as he’s due to travel anyway.
The first of the two “Macau exhibitions”, the Melco Style presents Macau Masters (Melco), will start tomorrow. and runs from 22 to 25 December 2023. The above link will get you to the event page on snooker.org. The six players involved in this event are: John Higgins, Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Theppy is traveling to Macau with his family.
Mark Williams, yesterday, shared a picture of himself in Hong Kong
Nothing in this picture is in focus, which isn’t that easy to do!
They have all arrived safely…
The second exhibition, the Wynn presents Macau Masters, is also available on snooker.org and will run from 26 to 29 December 2023. There are 8 players involved in this one: Jack Lisowski, Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Si Jiahui, Marco Fu, Ding Junhui and Ronnie.
A tremendous field of the world’s top stars will head to Llandudno in February for the BetVictor Welsh Open, with Robert Milkins to begin the defence of his title against Jamie Jones.
Running from February 12 to 18 at Venue Cymru on the beautiful North Wales coast, it will be the final event in the 2023/24 BetVictor Series, potentially with a £150,000 bonus on the line. Last season, Milkins scooped the jackpot by beating Shaun Murphy 9-7 in a thrilling final, which also earned him that huge bonus.
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First round matches involving the top 16 seeds, as well as the two Welsh wild cards, have been held over to the venue in Llandudno. They are:
Riley Powell v Liam Davies Robert Milkins v Jamie Jones Jack Lisowski v Oliver Brown Mark Williams v John Astley Neil Robertson v Jackson Page Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng Ding Junhui v Jenson Kendrick John Higgins v Mohamed Ibrahim Alexander Ursenbacher v Powell or Davies Judd Trump v Liam Highfield Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liam Graham Zhang Anda v Ahmed Aly Elsayed Ali Carter v Elliot Slessor Mark Selby v Yuan Sijun Shaun Murphy v David Grace Kyren Wilson v Ashley Carty Barry Hawkins v He Guoqiang Luca Brecel v Jiang Jun
Most of these matches will be played on the opening day, Monday February 12, with the schedule to be announced soon.
All other first round matches will take place at the qualifiers which run from January 25 to 27 in Barnsley. Notable matches include:
David Gilbert v Ken Doherty Gary Wilson v Mark Davis Si Jiahui v Stephen Maguire Stephen Hendry v Ross Muir Dominic Dale v Jimmy White Stuart Bingham v Marco Fu
The Welsh Open is one of the sport’s most historic ranking events having been ever-present on the calendar since 1992 – only the World Championship and UK Championship have been running for longer. It will be televised by BBC Wales, Eurosport, discovery+, CCTV5, Matchroom Live and many other broadcasters worldwide.
International Champion Zhang Anda registered a superb 4-2 win over player of the season so far Judd Trump and avenged a painful recent defeat to make the last 32 of the BetVictor Scottish Open in Edinburgh.
Trump staged a stirring fightback win over Zhang in the final of this season’s BetVictor English Open. Having trailed 7-3 he notched up six frames on the bounce to emerge a 9-7 victor. This time Zhang prevailed after an imperious performance.
The aftermath of that defeat saw Zhang regroup and bounce back with a sensational maiden ranking crown at the International Championship in Tianjin. He beat the likes of Ding Junhui, Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan en route to the title match. There he scored a momentous 10-6 win over Tom Ford, which included a 147, to secure silverware.
Despite that, Zhang still faced a daunting task taking down Trump today, who he hadn’t beaten since the 2016 World Open. The Ace in the Pack came in to the encounter favourite, given his scintillating form which also saw him pick up silverware at the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open and the Wuhan Open.
Zhang put on a near faultless performance this afternoon, compiling breaks of 71, 114, 82 and 81 on his way to the win. Next up he faces either World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui or former Shoot Out runner-up Julien Lecrercq.
World Champion Luca Brecel came through a 4-3 victor after finding himself 3-2 down against Blackpool’s James Cahill.
Brecel has been living life dangerously so far this week, after his delayed flight nearly caused him to miss his opening round tie with Iulian Boiko. Staring down the barrel of defeat today, Brecel pulled off a brilliant clearance of 36 which culminated with a tough black along the top cushion to make it 3-3. The Crucible King then burst over the line in style with a sublime 133.
Victory puts Brecel in a strong position to qualify for the World Grand Prix, only the top 32 on this season’s money list will earn a place and Brecel would have missed out if he had lost today.
“I think yesterday I felt good and today I was much better. It was an improvement. I was one ball away from getting knocked out, I made a good clearance and then I had a good last frame,” said 28-year-old Brecel.
“It is going to happen all of the time. Nobody is going to win every game easily when they win a tournament. You saw it at the UK Championship when Ronnie O’Sullivan should have lost to Robert Milkins. I think Judd Trump does it all of the time, he wins a lot of deciders.
“The more you are up for it the more pressure you are going to feel. There are ups and downs to it. I’m enjoying it now and I’m up for the challenge. When I get a chance I feel good among the balls and I think my long game is pretty good as well. All things considered it has been quite a good start.”
Scotland’s Liam Graham secured his second match win as a professional, after defeating Ben Mertens 4-2 to make the last 32. Graham was handed a bye through the first round, when Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrew from the event. Today’s win sees Graham take full advantage and he now faces Sanderson Lam.
John Higgins earned his progression with a 4-1 win over He Guoqiang, while Jimmy White scored an impressive 4-3 win over Jimmy Robertson.
Zhang played extremely well in beating Trump indeed. That said Trump wasn’t at his best but the way Zhang was playing I’m not sure it was a factor.
Luca Brecel dodged a bullet again. Both him and James Cahill were far from their best for the best of the first six frames. It was overall an awful match. but then, all of sudden, with his back against the wall, Luca found something and finished brilliantly.
Liam Graham indeed won his second match as a professional, beating Ben Mertens whose recent lack of form worries me. Young Liam was all worked up about Ronnie’s “disrespectful” withdrawal, but maybe he should listen to what Shaun Murphy had to say and reflect on the fact that he’s now in the third round of a ranking event for the first time when he would probably be at home by now with empty pockets if a healthy Ronnie had showed up.
In that same piece, Shaun also hints at an unusual interest in the coming AGM and players wanting changes to the contract. Of course the recent “Macau” affair has something to do with it. I recently mentioned that WST isn’t consistent after they didn’t react to the recent exhibition in Finland … well I wasn’t the only one finding this “double standard” strange. Indeed Mark Selby spoke out … as reported by Phil Haigh.
Mark Selby says Finnish exhibition ‘blew my mind’ after Macau drama
Mark Selby played Neil Robertson in a huge exhibition in Finland on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)
Mark Selby admits he is confused that he was allowed to play in an exhibition in Finland during the Shoot Out after he was among five players blocked from competing in an exhibition in Macau during the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season.
Selby was a late replacement for Luca Brecel in the exhibition in Tampere, Finland on Saturday, taking on Neil Robertson in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000.
It looked to be a superb event and showed that there is great interest in snooker in the region, but Selby couldn’t work out why it was allowed to go ahead when another event caused such a fuss.
WST said the five men would be in breach of the players’ contract if they played in Macau, which ended up being a decision they didn’t have to make as the event was postponed until December.
They did lose out, though, as they had already withdrawn from Northern Ireland and so spent that week neither playing in Belfast nor Macau.
However, Selby and Robertson were happily able to play in Tampere on Saturday and the Jester from Leicester admits he doesn’t see the difference as a ranking event was going on in Swansea at the same time.
Asked if there were any issues with being allowed to play in Finland, Selby said: ‘No. Which is strange. It absolutely blew my mind, you know, because it was still clashing with the Shoot Out, which was no different to what we were doing with Macau, but apparently it got passed.
‘I don’t know. I’m fed up of caring about it, to be honest.’
World Snooker Tour were approached for an explanation on the situation but declined to comment.
It was suggested by six-time world champion Steve Davis on the BBC during the coverage of the UK Championship that Macau was a non-starter because it was due to be televised, which would unquestionably be in breach of the players’ contract.
However, part-organiser of the Macau event Victoria Shi told Metro.co.uk that the exhibition was never intended to be televised or streamed.
There is certainly some confusion among players over what they can and cannot do outside of professional events and that is causing unrest.
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In cheerier news for the sport, Selby said the Finnish exhibition was a great success and hopes that it can encourage more events and bigger tournaments to be staged in the country.
‘The venue was amazing with 2,000 people,’ he said. ‘There’s great appetite out there in Scandinavia.
‘I was speaking to Robin Hull, who put on the event, he was a former player himself and he was saying he was surprised it’s taken so long for snooker to go out there.
‘With Eurosport helping, it’s been very popular over there for years. Some of the boys are going out there in May for an eight-man event and hopefully we can get a tournament out there at some point.
‘They’ve got the crowds which is good. What we’re trying to do is hopefully the launchpad for getting a tournament out there. We’re trying to promote it out there and if WST see the crowds that we’re getting then they can get a tournament on there and it could be another Germany in the making.
‘We’ve been to Germany for the last four or five years and the crowds are always great there so hopefully Finland can be another one.’
As you can read it was by no means a “small” exhibition. Last year I went to Bulgaria for a couple of exhibitions with Ronnie and Jimmy and it was the same: massive crowds.
WST isn’t making enough efforts to bring more events in mainland Europe. Of course, Brexit – that Hearn supported – has made things even more complicated and difficult. Still it’s a crying shame.
Ukraine’s Anton Kazakov scored his first win of the season, beating Long Zehuang 4-1 to qualify for the final stages of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open.
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Kazakov, age 18, turned pro last year after winning the WSF Junior Championship and found the going tough in his debut season, winning just two matches. But he impressed today in a comfortable victory, his top break 63, and Kazakov is through to the last 64 of a ranking event for the first time. He can look forward to a trip to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast for the world ranking event which gets underway this Sunday.
Germany’s Lukas Kleckers came from 3-1 down to edge out Andrew Pagett 4-3, making breaks of 84 and 101. Jackson Page whitewashed Liam Graham 4-0 while Alfie Burden made a vital colours clearance in the deciding frame to beat Mostafa Dorgham 4-3.
Veteran Dominic Dale rolled back the years in a 4-1 win over Allan Taylor, firing breaks of 57, 55, 136 and 101. Former European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi beat Liu Hongyu 4-2 with a top run of 84. Dylan Emery came from 2-0 down to beat Martin Gould 4-3 in a high quality contest, knocking in breaks of 64, 56, 100 and 53.
I was very happy to see Anton Kazakov win yesterday. The young man clearly works hard and is improving. His situation can’t be easy, he’s from Ukraine. He hasn’t got much success in his first year as a professional, but yesterday he got a good win and I hope that he can build on that success.
Mostafa Dorgham is a very good player, a bit “old school”. He lost yesterday, to the vastly experienced Alfie Burfen, but he showed a lot of quality. Snooker in North Africa is improving and well supported, including women snooker which might surprise many given that Islam is the dominant faith in the area.
The Fan Zhengyi v Liu Hongyu match was a good one as well. No century, but five breaks over 50. Liu made a 63 in the lat frame and it wasn’t enough… Fan won on experience, aided by a superior safety game.
One surprising omission in the above report is the 4-2 win by Zak Surety over Joe O’Connor.
This is a three days exhibition, two matches per day. It started yesterday.
The exhibition is not streamed nor televised – only people at the venue can watch it – and those involved don’t need to play, or chose not to play in the NI Open Qualifiers.
Other than the one above, I found no pictures on Weibo either, so, clearly, they are keeping a low media profile, likely at WST request. These are the results from yesterday: Williams 4-0 Trump, O’Sullivan 4-1 Ding Junhui.
Today Ronnie will play two matches: his opponents will be Jack Lisowski and Mark Williams.
Tomorrow Juss trump will play two matches, against Ding Junhui and Jack Lisowski.
In other news …
According to Weibo, the CBSA has nominated their 4 wildcards for the International Championship: Gong Chenzhi, Bai Yulu, Wang Xinzhong and Wang Xinbo. These are the players that were also chosen for the Wuhan Open.
This is what happened yesterday in Leicester, as reported by WST … and if Matchroom.live is to be believed it happened in Gibraltar as well where , apparently, table 2 can be found 😎
Stevens And Hamilton Through
Matthew Stevens kicked off his 30th season as a professional by qualifying for the second stage of the BetVictor Championship League ranking edition at the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Tuesday.
Stevens, a former UK Championship and Masters winner, finished top of Group 15 after winning his opening two matches, leaving him in an unassailable position going into his final contest.
The Welshman opened his account with a 3-1 victory over Allan Taylor before a hard fought 3-0 win against Duane Jones, which culminated in Stevens claiming a 46-minute third frame on the black.
The top seed in the group, 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham, had been held to a 2-2 draw by Jones before suffering a 3-1 defeat to Taylor, who highlighted his victory with a break of 129.
It meant Bingham was unable to win the group heading into his final encounter with Stevens, who went into the match safe in the knowledge he had already done enough to qualify. Bingham won 3-1 and finished third behind Taylor.
“I was a bit in and out today,” Stevens said. “I started well in my first match but I was lucky that Duane struggled against me and let me off the hook, which made the difference in the end. But all in all, I felt okay.
“We’ve got tournaments coming up so I’ll carry on playing now and try and put some graft in.”
Experience told in Group 28 as 52 year-old Anthony Hamilton secured qualification for the last 32 stage.
Hamilton, the 2017 German Masters champion, completed a 3-0 whitewash over Chinese tour debutant Xing Zihao by successfully obtaining the three snookers he needed in the last frame before winning it on a re-spotted black.
Hamilton, who had made a 116 break against Xing, added a second century, 110, during his 2-2 draw with Australian Ryan Thomerson. The group’s other results left the veteran needing just a point from his last match with Belgian Ben Mertens and he duly took a 2-0 lead before Mertens hit back to force a 2-2 draw, finishing off with a 131 total clearance.
I mainly watched table 2. The Sheriff was his reliable self – he’s always been a good scorer – and totally deserved to win the group. Ben Mertens probably celebrated with Luca Brecel until the day before yesterday … he was quite out-of-sorts. He produced a mixed bag of excellent pots and unexpected mistakes. He saved his best for last, but it was too late. Xing Zihao played better that I expected after Lewis’ comments. He’s obviously very young and not at all accustomed of the professional environment but he showed some really good stuff.
This what awaits us today:
Chris Totten is taking the last spot in Group 17 (table 1). The spot was still “TBA” when the draw was published and was probably destined for the Africa Champion, provided they could make it.
In other news… we finally know a bit more about the outcome(s) at the exhibition tournament in Shanghai, as this appeared on twitter
Here is the said clearance (obviously an amateur video)
And another one, probably recorded by the same person, showing Judd at the table … playing a fantastic last red
The exhibition tournament in Shanghai was played to a conclusion yesterday but I have no clue who won it, neither who played who, nor what the match scores were. It seems that the format was best of 11. I’m not sure if the final was longer.
Anyway…
Here is a short video showing Ronnie thumping in a fantastic final black
From what I understood, reading the comments on that video, this was during Ronnie’s match v Marco Fu, and to avoid going 3-0 down. Marco then won the next two frames to go 4-1 up, only for Ronnie to win five on the bounce for a 6-4 victory.
I also found a few pictures
One of those shows Ronnie being 3-0 up on Judd Rump, and at the table. And it’s nice to see Zhou Ying refereeing. Since she got married, she rarely referees outside China, if ever.
Thanks to Silvry who found the crucial information on Instagram: Ronnie won the event, beating Judd Trump by 6-5 in the Final.
And some off-math pictures shared by Robbie
And, while Ronnie was at the other side of the world, Stephen Hendry shared a video where Ronnie answers the fan’s questions, and they have a relaxed chat:
It’s really enjoyable.
Meanwhile, in Leicester, the 2023 ranking CLS week 2 is about to start and here is today’s program, as shred by WST:
WST can’t get a thing right at the moment it seems … unless Barry Pinches, who already qualified for stage two, is tasked to replace Alex Ursenbacher in the afternoon session.
PS… they realised their mistake and corrected it. Still … it’s careless 😏
The players invited to the new Macau Snooker Masters are excited for the opportunity to play in the event this December, with Judd Trump saying: ‘Christmas is going to be very special this year.’
There will be £150,000 on offer to the winner, with Trump battling it out with Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui, Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Marco Fu and Si Jiahui for the big top prize.
The eight-man tournament is to be held at the Wynn Palace in Macau from 25-29 December, an unusual time for a snooker event, but one that slots in when they players won’t be involved in World Snooker Tour competitions.
World Snooker Tour confirmed that the Macau Masters is unsanctioned meaning the players won’t be able to play if it is streamed or broadcast, so don’t expect to watch the action over Christmas dinner.
Nevertheless, it will be a glamorous event at the Wynn Palace hotel, with Trump joking he is looking forward to winning some money back from the place after spending plenty at Wynn in Las Vegas.
‘Whenever I go on a holiday to Vegas, I always spend my money on the Wynn Hotel, so it will be nice to earn some money back here. Christmas is going to be very special this year.’
O’Sullivan added: ‘It’s a fantastic place. So excited to come here and play at such a big event in one of the best hotels in the world. I’m sure it’s going to be a fantastic event with so much support from the people.’
The Rocket enjoyed a trip to Asia for a huge event last year when he won the Hong Kong Masters, beating Marco Fu in the final in front of a world record snooker crowd of 9,000.
‘The whole experience was perfect,’ he told SportsRoad. ‘I also want to say hello to the Hong Kong fans, and I hope to see you all in Macau at Christmas and play exciting games again.’
Ronnie O’Sullivan beatMarco Fu to win the Hong Kong Masters in October 2022 (Picture: Getty Images)
Chinese snooker has obviously been hit hard by the recent match-fixing scandal which has seen 10 players banned, with two for life.
However, O’Sullivan feels recent World Championship semi-finalist Si could win the world title within four years and thinks China is still a serious force at the top level.
‘In another three or four years’ time, he might win the tournament, it’s just experience,’ O’Sullivan said of the 20-year-old.
‘I’ve seen a lot of Chinese players practise a lot and they want to become the best. Some are so strong now, so the future is now and it will only get stronger.’
A couple more videos have emerged, notably one showing how much Ronnie appreciated the gym at the venue!
2023 Macau Masters launch
Ronnie loves the gym…
Whilst Judd loved the piano…
Some of the players have now moved to Shanghai for this exhibition event. It was initially supposed to happened on June, 30, but has now been moved to July 1 and 2, now played over two days.
I haven’t found pictures so far, but I found this video, showing the reception Ronnie got as he was introduced in the arena.
Impressive crowd welcomes Ronnie in the arena.
But that’s not all… Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski were involved in an exhibition mixing Chinese Pool and Snooker (I hope I got that right).
Here are the relevant posts on weibo … (as automatically translated)
This is the poster…
And some pictures from the action…
Ding also announced a “Fashion Show” that actually is not exactly what we expect when we read “Fashion Show”. Here is the explanation found on weibo …
Accompanied by some promotional images …
On a personal note … as you can see after years of deprivation because of covid, things are moving in China and Asia in general and there is a huge appetite for snooker there. WST doesn’t sanction the Macau Masters and maybe there are contractual reasons behind this decision. But it’s a shame. It will be a fantastic promotion for snooker, a sport I feel in under threat, having to compete with pool – actively promoted by Matchroom – and Chines Pool (Heyball) in Asia. Snooker I feel could do with all the exposure it can get.
And yes, I’m back on weibo as China has eventually discovered that both Belgium and Greece are countries where people have phones… 😎 … but I still can’t post. I need to register my phone for verification purposes. I tried to use the same (Belgium) phone, I used to successfully resuscitate my account … no joy. I’m told to use a “local” phone. So I tried to use our Greek mobile, as I’m living in Greece … same result. Any clue anyone?
International Champion Zhang Anda registered a superb 4-2 win over player of the season so far Judd Trump and avenged a painful recent defeat to make the last 32 of the BetVictor Scottish Open in Edinburgh.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 