Day three at Prestatyn and the competition is hotting up for the 16 places in the main draw in Glasgow. Click below to read what has happened so far in the morning session:
Morning Session
So far so good for seeded players
Of the eight matches taking place this morning, six of the seeded players have gone through to tomorrow’s final qualifying round with just Simon Bedford and Jin Long proving to be the exceptions.
First into the final round was Leicester’s Tom Ford who beat Peter Lines in under two hours early on. Having slipped 2-1 behind, Ford upped his game and produced a display of heavy scoring, highlighted by a century break to move into the lead. Next up is snooker legend Steve Davis tomorrow.
Soon to follow were Ricky Walden and Alan McManus who raced to 5-1 victories against their lower ranked opponents. Recent Belgian Open winner Walden carried on his good form against Mark Joyce who having levelled the match at 1-1, just lost out in a series of close frames which suggests that the match was closer than the scoreline suggests. Ricky will now meet Joe Swail for a spot in Glasgow.
McManus meanwhile had it all his own way against Paul Davies other than in frame four when Davies hit a 109 break to briefly halt his momentum. He will now play fellow veteran Anthony Hamilton tomorrow.
Michael halts the Whirlwind
With eight wins from his first eight qualifying matches before today, Jimmy White will have been confident of making nine but Michael Holt had other ideas as he beat the Londoner 5-3. In an absorbing contest it was White who struck first, coming out and hitting breaks of 83, 40 and 58 to move into a 3-0 lead in no time.
Holt however, known for his suspect temperament in the past, hit back in magnificent style, making two century breaks as he wrapped up a 5-3 win. This is a really impressive result for Michael and it should be a big boost for his confidence as he hopes to reclaim his spot in the top 32 this season.
Having more luck than Jimmy however was 1991 world champion John Parrott who secured his first win of the season in a close run match with Atthasit Mahitthi, coming through 5-4. The match was of a consistently high quality as almost every break had at least a fifty break in but despite Mahitthi’s best efforts, Parrott’s experience proved to be too much in the end. He now meets fellow world champion Ken Doherty for a place in Glasgow tomorrow.
Bedford run continues
One seed to fall however was Redcar’s Mike Dunn who slipped to a 5-2 defeat against Simon Bedford. This means that Bedford who started back in the first qualifying round is now just one win away from reaching the TV stages in Glasgow and will have earned a useful number of ranking points already this week. Unfortunately for him however he plays double world champion Mark Williams tomorrow in what is arguably the toughest draw that he could have had.
Round Three
John Parrott 5-4 Atthasit Mahitthi 70(54)-33, 95(95)-6, 24-95(52), 11-105(76), 105(86)-30, 5-66, 78(74)-0, 46-59, 76(70)-35
Michael Holt 5-3 Jimmy White 0-123(83), 1-77(40), 9-68(58), 102(102)-0, 84(45,39)-14, 105(105)-6, 61-28, 56-42
Ricky Walden 5-1 Mark Joyce 62-57, 30-51, 66(43)-51, 104(78)-0, 79(42)-30 63(63)-54(54)
Jimmy Michie 5-2 Andy Lee 71(60)-8, 97(51)-25, 66(36)-46, 6-89(89), 83(34)-14, 42-56, 87(53)-8
Gerard Greene 4-5 Jin Long 7-83(64), 62(51)-52, 4-84(84), 71-37, 42-55, 118(70)-14, 72(37)-53, 53-79(39), 2-62
Tom Ford 5-2 Peter Lines 73(40)-37(35), 62-69, 25-59, 84(50)-0, 100(100)-30, 85(58)-8, 66-37
Mike Dunn 2-5 Simon Bedford 25-65(65), 58-28, 67(42)-0, 5-71, 26-61(41), 37-69(56), 0-126(102)
Alan McManus 5-1 Paul Davies 69(36)-23, 90(58)-0, 69-16, 0-113(109), 63(44)-1, 73(36)-36