After a couple of enforced days away from the blog, click below for a review of the 2013 Haikou World Open qualifiers, which concluded on Friday, together with links to the updated tournament drawsheet and latest projected seedings…
Having qualified for the main tour this season via the Q School, Preston’s Ian Burns has quietly enjoyed a solid start to the campaign, winning at least one match in qualifying for all but two of the full-ranking events.
Following a recent quarter-final run at the ET5 event in Ravenscraig, as well a run to the final qualifying round of the UK Championship, Ian yesterday made it through to his first venue with a 5-4 victory against Fergal O’Brien. Added to earlier victories against James Wattana and Ben Woollaston, the latter having described Ian’s performance as the best that he had ever seen, he will now be hoping to survive the potential banana skin that will await him in the wildcard round.
Another relatively unfamiliar face through to the venue stages of the tournament is Simon Bedford, who rounded off an excellent week with a 5-4 victory against 1997 world champion Ken Doherty. Having already defeated Gerard Greene, Peter Lines and Pankaj Advani, the man who defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan in his only competitive outing this season, Simon will now face a tie with the tournament’s second seed, Leicester’s Mark Selby in Hainan.
Others through in deciding-frame finishes last night were seeded players Martin Gould, Dominic Dale and Jamie Cope, while earlier in the day both Peter Ebdon and Marcus Campbell were also able to edge through following a ninth frame. Most notable from Dominic Dale’s victory against Dave Harold was the fact that their final frame ran for a duration of 94 minutes and two seconds, surpassing what I believe to have been the previous record longest-frame, which coincidentally also involved Dave, against Shaun Murphy at the 2008 China Open.
Continuing his good run of recent form was Mark Joyce, who defeated both Justin Astley and Jimmy Robertson to reach the final qualifying round, where he recorded a 5-2 victory against Joe Perry to qualify for the venue.
David Gilbert meanwhile recorded a 5-1 victory against Mark King, a player against whom he has a strong record, having defeated him previously at the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open and the 2007 World Championship qualifiers, to reach his first venue of the season.
There was also an impressive 5-0 victory for Andrew Higginson against Rod Lawler, as he continues his return to form following a difficult run of late. Scotland’s Alan McManus too is another through to the venue, his second of the season following his successful qualification for the Australian Goldfields Open.
The venue stages of this event will take place between 25th February 2013 and 3rd March 2013, for the second successive year at Hainan Island, China.
These qualifiers also mark the end of snooker in what has been an unprecedented year for the sport with a tournament having been played out almost every week. My annual series of year-end articles will follow over the next couple of weeks, while I will also be conducting my half-season update of the various player profile pages.
As ever, thanks everyone for reading, stay tuned, 2013 promises to be even more significant still…