Just a few weeks on from their meeting in the final of the Bulgarian Open in Sofia, John Higgins and Neil Robertson will clash again tomorrow in the final of the 2013 Wuxi Classic, as the pair came through as comfortable winners in their respective semi-finals today…
After Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy both crashed out at the qualifying stages of the 2013 Wuxi Classic last month, today saw another shock as the ever-popular Jimmy White defeated defending champion Ricky Walden 5-2 to move into the last 32.
Click below for a round-up of a busy opening day in Wuxi…
It might only be June, but already this season we have had two ‘PTC’ events and two qualifying tournaments, while this Monday we will see the start of the first full ranking event, as the 2013 Wuxi Classic is played to a conclusion.
Continue reading for my tournament preview…
Following eight long days of qualifying in Gloucester, there is no rest for snooker’s biggest stars this week, as the action moves on to Bulgaria tomorrow, for the first European Tour event of the season.
From there, the action heads further east as the first Asian Tour event of the campaign will be held in Yixing, prior to the start of the Wuxi Classic a week on Monday…
Three days down in Gloucester and snooker’s first foray into the land of flat 128 draws at a full-ranking event is over, with the conclusion of the first round of the Wuxi Classic today.
The action does continue tomorrow as the Australian Goldfields Open qualifiers get underway (see draw here), a tournament that will be staged under a modified version of the old system, but in the meantime click below for a round-up of the results from the Wuxi qualifiers…
Congratulations to Australia’s Neil Robertson, who today hit his second career maximum break, during the second frame of his 5-0 victory against Egypt’s Mohamed Khairy at the 2013 Wuxi Classic qualifiers.
The 98th 147 break in all, this has to go down as one of the best, as Neil produced a series of stunning pots, with the balls in far from straight-forward positions, right until the final black.
Bagging him the rolling qualifiers prize of £3,000, providing that the break is not equalled today or tomorrow, the run follows his first maximum at the 2010 China Open in Beijing, which came shortly before he lifted the world title for the first time at the Crucible.
The maximum is the first at the South West Snooker Academy in a ranking event and the fourth overall in competition.
Click here to view the updated 147’s list, or here to watch a video of Neil’s break at YouTube.
The action meanwhile continues at the South West Snooker Academy, click here to view all of the scores so far.
Reanne Evans scored the best result of her career so far by beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 to qualify for the final stages of the Wuxi Classic.
The nine-time World Ladies Champion registered her first win in a full ranking event with a superb display against Thailand’s world number 69 Un-Nooh…
A short post this morning to confirm that the Wuxi Classic qualifiers are now well underway at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester and will continue over the course of the next three days. All of the latest scores can as ever be found at the excellent snookerorg, while I will update the latest projected seedings at the conclusion of play each day.
One man who will not be involved in Gloucester will be Ronnie O’Sullivan, who having entered the tournament and been drawn against second season professional Michael Wasley, was today confirmed as having withdrawn from the event.
Good luck to all involved…