Updated Projected Seedings
After the spectacular scenes in Berlin and Blackpool during the last couple of weeks, snooker returned to Sheffield today for the first day of the 2011 Welsh Open qualifiers. Click below for all of the day’s results…
Welsh Open 2011 – Day One Results:
Liam Highfield 4-2 Joe Delaney
Andrew Pagett 1-4 Kuldesh Johal
James McBain 4-0 Justin Astley
David Morris 4-2 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Igor Figueiredo w/o Paul Davies
Liu Chuang 4-2 Anda Zhang
David Gilbert 2-4 Jak Jones
Michael Judge 4-1 Reanne Evans
Michael White 4-2 Adam Wicheard
Kurt Maflin w/o Jimmy Michie
Kyren Wilson 0-4 Jamie O’Neill
Ben Woollaston 4-0 Liu Song
Paul Davison 4-2 Dermot McGlinchey
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Issara Kachaiwong
James Wattana 3-4 Simon Bedford
Matthew Couch 2-4 Noppon Saengkham
Click here to see how that affects the draw.
A few PTC wins apart, this season has been something of a baptism of fire for 17-year-old youngster Jak Jones but today was a good day for the Welsh youngster as he saw off the experienced David Gilbert 4-2 to move into the second round. While David has not been in the best of form during the past couple of seasons, it should be remembered that just a couple of months ago he won three matches during the UK Championship qualifiers and he did make a break of 124 during the match. Next up for Jak though will be a clash with Rod Lawler in what I am sure will be a tough test for the youngster.
Elsewhere, there was also a good win for another youngster, the talented Liam Highfield who saw off Joe Delaney to keep his hopes of a top 64 place in time for the Crucible alive. At 2-2 the match was anybody’s but Liam upped the standard with runs of 87, 39 and 36 to win the match. Now moving up to 65th in my list, he will need to see off old rival (as old as a rivalry can be for teenagers anyway), Jack Lisowski in tomorrow’s second round to keep his run going.
Similarly, Liu Chuang and Michael White both recorded strong victories over Zhang Anda and Adam Wicheard respectively while Xiao Guodong set the tone for his victory against Thailand’s Issara Kachaiwong early with a break of 90.
Coming into the event still to win a match all season, it appeared as though Reanne Evans’ clash with Michael Judge would offer the best chance of a win for the number one ladies player to date, Michael having struggled for any sort of form recently. It was however not to be for Reanne as Michael edged into a 3-0 lead with a top break of 52, eventually taking the match in frame five.
Two players received walkovers today, Igor Figueiredo at the expense of Paul Davies who now appears to have accepted that he will be relegated from the tour at the end of the season, while the rumours of Jimmy Michie’s retirement would appear to be genuine as he allowed Kurt Maflin through to the second round.
The final match of the day to finish was that between James Wattana and Simon Bedford, two similarly matched players who coming into the tournament ranked together, looked destined for a decider. Eventually it was Simon who managed to get over the line and will now meet Jimmy Robertson tomorrow evening.