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:
Tag: Mark Williams
Belgian Open 2008: Quarter-Final Results
The quarter-final results are in from Belgium, please click below for further details:
Belgian Open 2008: Last 16 confirmed
Day two of the Belgian Open is complete and here are the scores from the first of the knockout matches to be played today as stated here:
Last 48:
John Parrott MBE 3-0 Stein De Sterck
Danny Lathouwers 2-3 Dave Harold
Kevin Van Hove 1-3 Speltincx Mario Geudens
Johan D’Hondt 3-1 Nick Vanhee
Alain Vandersteen 3-1 Guy Hendrickx
Yannick Poulain 1-3 Ricky Walden
Tom Ford 3-1 Luca Brecel
Julius Grauls 3-1 Anthony Van Loocke
Stefan Mazrocis 3-0 Gregory Kopec
Steve Lemmens 3-0 Jurgen Van Roy
Andrew Higginson 1-3 Jamie Cope
Chris Henry 0-3 Michael Holt
Lasse Münstermann 3-1 Jurgen Van den Bossche
Yvan Van Velthoven 0-3 Gerard Greene
Dominic Dale 3-0 Tino De Witte
Kasra Khavaran 3-0 Marc Dierens
Last 32:
Mark Selby 3-0 John Parrott MBE
Barry Hawkins 1-3 Dave Harold
Mark Davis 3-0 Mario Geudens
Mark King 3-1 Johan D’Hondt
Neil Robertson 3-0 Alain Vandersteen
Bjorn Haneveer 0-3 Ricky Walden
Jimmy Michie 0-3 Tom Ford
Ryan Day 3-2 Julius Grauls
Stephen Maguire 3-0 Stefan Mazrocis
Matthew Stevens 3-0 Steve Lemmens
Ken Doherty 2-3 Jamie Cope
Joe Perry 3-0 Michael Holt
Graeme Dott 3-0 Lasse Münstermann
Stuart Bingham 2-3 Gerard Greene
Mark J Williams MBE 3-1 Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy 3-2 Kasra Khavaran
With all of the local amateur players unfortunately now out of the tournament, this at least leaves a mouthwatering line-up in the last 16 tomorrow morning. With the lowest ranked player still in the tournament being the in-form world number 58 Mark Davis, the final day should be the best yet.
Last 16 lineup:
Mark Selby v Dave Harold
Mark Davis v Mark King
Neil Robertson v Ricky Walden
Stephen Maguire v Matthew Stevens
Jamie Cope v Joe Perry
Graeme Dott v Gerard Greene
Mark J Williams MBE v Shaun Murphy
As a side issue, the highest break of the tournament remains the 142 made by Australia’s Neil Robertson on day one.
Belgian Open 2008: Day One Results
Thanks to DerMoment1608 over at The Snooker Forum, I now have access to the results and high breaks from yesterday’s action in Belgium. To view them, please click here to visit the Snookermania forums.
As far as big breaks go, the highlights of the day were Neil Robertson’s excellent 142 break in the afternoon as well as Mark Selby’s attempt at a maximum earlier in the day.
The big result however was the victory of local player Jurgen Van Roy against 1991 World Champion John Parrott in what was the upset of the day. Although Parrott is not ranked as highly as he once used to be, Jurgen must have been delighted to have won the match 2-1 and give the Belgian supporters something to celebrate.
Today the final matches will be played and the places in the next round confirmed so check back later to see how things have finished up.
Belgian Open 2008: Draw and playing times
So today marks the start of the Belgian Open 2008 and here is a link to the draw for the tournament. Note that the top two from each group will progress to the last 32 stage which will begin tomorrow.
Also available for the tournament is a list of playing times for each of the players involved in the group stage. To view that please click here.
And once again to learn about how to watch the event online, please click here for my previous post on the tournament.
I imagine that the Global Snooker Centre will be the first place to provide live scores so keep checking back there to see what is going on. The most interesting story from the first morning appears that Mark Selby was close to a maximum break early on in his first match, what a start to the event that would have been!
Since that point, Neil Robertson has knocked in a 142 to make what I believe to be the highest break of the day so far.
Having trouble finding the full results and latest tables so it’s probably best to keep an eye on GSC for now…
Heads up: Belgian Open 2008
Details have emerged regarding the 2008 Belgium Open, an invitational tournament featuring some of the best players in the world that will be staged from the 19th to the 21st of September.
Official Press Release:
Belgian Open Snooker Live on Your Computer Screen!
For the first time in the history of snooker, a non-televised national snooker event will be broadcast live on the internet in what promises to be the beginning of a new era for the game.
CueSport TV, the world’s first online dedicated cuesport channel has teamed up with Connect Management and MaXimumbreak Snooker to broadcast the Belgium Open live from 19th – 21st September at the Tennis Centre in Duffel. The world’s best snooker players including John Higgins, Mark Selby, Steven Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens, Jimmy Michie and Tony Drago and others will compete for the 20,000 Euro prize pot.
Neil Cummins, Managing Director of MaXimumbreak.com commented ‘The future of snooker coaching and development is most definitely with the internet and this is a unique opportunity to watch the world’s best snooker players competing in an event that snooker players would otherwise not be able to see so we are naturally delighted to be involved’.
Full coverage of the event is available for just £8.00 (€10.00, $15.00). The pay-per-view tickets are sold online via the CueSport TV portal.
Cuesport TV, which was officially launched in February 2008 has 10,000 unique viewers per month with viewers from 110 countries worldwide. Together, MaXimumbreak, Cuesport TV and Connect Management aim to bring many more snooker events to viewers on a global scale including the Austrian Open in October.
About MaXimumbreak Snooker
Founded in 2003, MaXimumbreak Snooker is an online snooker resource aimed at developing
the game of snooker globally and improving snooker ability.Cue Sport players are invited to be able to find a snooker coach in a professional snooker coaching database and to hire professional snooker players for exhibition matches and corporate events. A wealth of snooker coaching information is freely available at www.maximumbreak.com.
About CueSport TV
CueSport TV is the world’s only multi-discipline Cue Sports TV channel that offer’s coverage of pool, snooker and billiards through a 24/7 free-to-air schedule and video on demand.
The unique nature of the system means that a viewers Internet connection speed is detected on first visit. This allows the TV platform to serve a video file that is suitable for the connection, with CueSport TV you will not experience buffering or loading and most connection speeds can watch on full screen.
About Connect Management
Connect Management provides consultancy to elite athletes and businessmen. The highly competitive nature of elite sport means that the careers of sports people are usually restricted to the short term, therefore, Connect advises on tax and investment related issues.Connect is responsible for the management of leading UK snooker players, Jimmy Michie, Tom Ford and Mark King, all of whom will be competing in the Belgium Open.
Ticket Info
If you want to go one better and attend the matches in person however, tickets can be purchased from here and a full seating chart is also available on the relevant Connect Management page here.
Roewe Shanghai Masters Qualifying – Day Three
Click here for the draw.
White sets up Doherty clash
Crowd favourite Jimmy White maintained his 100% Prestatyn record this season by beating former Welsh Open finalist Andrew Higginson 5-3 on Thursday afternoon. Although White failed to hit top form in terms of his scoring, he showed his experience to come through several close frames to reach the fourth round, finishing the match appropriately by winning the eighth frame by just five points. He now faces the 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty in what is an intriguing match-up for the right to play in Shanghai later this month. Doherty, the likeable Irishman, will be looking to build on a solid start to the season himself however and put a run together that will help him to regain a top 16 position for next season.
High break
Scoring well however was Welshman Ian Preece who not only progressed to the next round with a 5-2 win over Marcus Campbell, but also recorded his highest break in professional competition. His previous best was a 134 break that he made in qualifying for the 2004 World Championship but in frame six today he bettered that by five points with a sublime 139 to put him 4-2 ahead at the time. Next up for him is a tricky clash with Irishman Fergal O’Brien tomorrow.
Round 1 runs come to an end
All but one of the players still in the draw who played in Monday’s first round matches bowed out today with defeats for Lee Spick, Andy Lee, Robert Stephen, Stephen Craigie, Matt Selt and Matt Couch. Indeed the sole remaining player Atthasit Mahitthi is yet to progress to round four as his match with Liang Wenbo has been held over until the venue.
Selt and Craigie’s impressive runs in the tournament were ended by experienced pros Jamie Burnett and Mike Dunn respectively. Burnett in particular played well, recording a break of 114 and not dropping a frame in a 5-0 win while Dunn secured a 5-2 victory. Both Selt and Craigie however will take a useful 900 points from the event along with some match experience that can only be useful for the rest of the season.
Couch meanwhile went down 5-2 to Alan McManus who maintained his impressive recent form and set up a rematch with Matthew Stevens who he beat 5-2 in Northern Ireland just last week.
High standard
Arguably the match with the highest standard today however was Gerard Greene’s 5-3 victory over Mark Davis, a match containing one century and five over breaks over 50. Given Davis’ good form in his last couple of ranking events going back to last season when he qualified for the World Championship, this was a very good result for Greene who lost to Doherty in Northern Ireland. Next up is snooker legend Steve Davis and Greene will be hoping for better luck than in their meeting in the first round of the 2005 World Championship where Davis prevailed 10-9.
Today’s results in full:
Round Three
* held over to Shanghai
Gerard Greene 5-3 Mark Davis 22-68, 108(108)-8, 75(44)-21, 23-77(53), 59(53)-44(36), 83(83)-6, 7-86(57), 70(57)-0
Jimmy Michie 4-5 Rod Lawler 44-72(34), 10-73(48), 43(38)-74(32), 76(38)-50, 68(36)-1, 63(41)-34, 35-76, 64(59)-57, 29-60(51)
Marcus Campbell 2-5 Ian Preece 64(31)-50(36), 33-60(49), 62(44)-44(36), 1-84(54), 0-139(139), 35-78
Ricky Walden 5-3 Lee Spick 39(39)-76(45), 69(69)-7, 99(99)-0, 2-84(80), 10-108(48, 60), 63(42)-45, 81(38)-41, 110(101)-6
Judd Trump 5-2 Andy Lee 71(52)-18, 58(58)-61(46), 70(38)-63, 79(68)-7, 89(70)-47(47), 35-57(33), 66-33
Andrew Higginson 3-5 Jimmy White 55-65, 54(36)-63, 38-74(43), 62(40)-53(40), 6-74(74), 74(74)-1, 80(68)-17, 54-59
Michael Holt 5-1 Robert Stephen 104(74)-6, 64-50, 68(49)-18, 0-68(51), 77(36)-50, 66(61)-9
Dave Gilbert 2-5 Andy Hicks 9-60, 21-68(44), 42-45, 70-0, 27-57(54), 71(71)-29, 42-58(34)
Tom Ford 5-2 Andrew Norman 129(125)-0, 0-106(91), 93(62)-16, 27-71(70), 72(55)-46, 80(45)-6, 79(35)-47(39)
Mike Dunn 5-2 Stephen Craigie 117(39,69)-0, 97(91)-8, 0-79(31,48), 64-52, 0-67(46), 71(47)-30, 77(71)-24
*Liang Wenbo 0-0 Atthasit Mahitthi
Rory McLeod 3-5 Stuart Pettman 106(45,57)-0, 41-53(39), 50-66(36), 66-52, 62-61, 22-72(72), 11-67(48), 50-78(47)
David Gray 3-5 David Morris 20-65(43), 65(43)-21, 66(51)-42(37), 9-62(35), 7-82(73), 73-50, 26-82(82), 20-56(34)
Jamie Burnett 5-0 Matt Selt 64-54, 80(54)-42(36), 60(38)-15, 115(114)-0, 57-47
Alan McManus 5-2 Matt Couch 86-51, 28-52, 68(60)-35, 70(69)-8, 31-86(54), 72(51)-36, 72(46)-16
Adrian Gunnell 3-5 Mark Joyce 45-67, 67(48)-4, 11-65, 41-73(39), 76(46)-0, 72(40)-34, 50(40)-74(45), 8-90(77)
Roewe Shanghai Masters Qualifying – Day Two
Day two, round two as some of the bigger names entered the fray in Prestatyn today. Click here for the draw.
Not such a good day for the PIOS brigade
Though six of those promoted from the PIOS last season won yesterday as reported previously in this blog, today was a much less successful day with with Kuldesh Johal, Peter Lines, Daniel Wells, Simon Bedford and Paul S Davison all bowing out in the second round.
However, Matt Couch had another excellent win, whitewashing former UK quarter finalist Barry Pinches 5-0, the Norwich cueman scoring a mere 56 points in the entire match. Next up for Couch is Scottish veteran Alan McManus who will be hoping to build on a much improved showing in the Northern Ireland Trophy last week. A note on McManus, like a few players on the tour this season he is playing with a new cue so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.
Craigie and Selt march on
The other two standout results went to Stephen Craigie and Matt Selt who overcame two experienced and talented opponents to reach the third round. Craigie, the talented 18 year old from Newcastle, followed up yesterday’s win over Stefan Mazrocis with a 5-2 victory over Joe Delaney. Delaney who qualified for the World Championship in 2007 is no mug at all so this is another good result for him and it will be interesting to see how he fairs against Mike Dunn tomorrow.
Selt showed similar class to get past Robert Milkins, a player who although ranked down in 51st place these days is more than capable of a good run when playing well. In a match where high breaks were at a premium, Selt showed great resilience to come back from 3-1 down at the mid-session interval and win a series of close frames to close out the match. Next up for him is another Scottish veteran, Jamie Burnett.
The Whirlwind wins again
It was always going to be interesting to see whether White keep up his promising start to the season and the signs are good as he won his fourth ranking event match of the season today. Having reached the last 48 of the Northern Ireland Trophy and the semi-finals in the Paul Hunter Classic recently, this time he saw off China’s Li Hang 5-3, finishing up in style with a break of 78. Having started in round 2 due to John Parrott’s non-participation (due to a clash with a prior charity engagement), he is now just two matches from reaching the TV stages of a second consecutive event.
Davis (no not that one) does the same
Finally Mark Davis who not only qualified for Northern Ireland but managed to record an outstanding win against Ding Junhui last week managed to see off James McBain 5-3. In a match with nine breaks over 40 Davis recovered from being 3-2 down to win the last three frames and set up an intriguing match with Gerard Greene in the third round.
Today’s results in full:
Round Two
Mark Davis 5-3 James McBain 57(40)-60, 79(51)-5, 76(45)-39(39), 26-72(45), 16-94(77), 72(48)-1, 71(48)-64(56), 68(40)-32(32)
Rod Lawler 5-1 Peter Lines 64-50(34), 52(51)-66(65), 80(66)-45, 92(45)-0, 71(70)-0, 58(48)-29
Ian Preece 5-1 Daniel Wells 70-15, 67-6, 65(65)-24, 75(30)-9, 38-61, 70(56)-7
Liu Song 3-5 Lee Spick 107(107)-10, 60-71(30), 77(77)-11, 0-86(86), 74(74)-0, 9-71(50), 18-66(34)
Martin Gould 1-5 Andy Lee 52(38)-68, 23-68, 17-63, 64(48)-67, 99(85)-16, 9-76(34)
Jimmy White 5-3 Li Hang 86(53)-1, 73(40)-13, 38-48, 9-106(54), 63-42, 56-28, 9-68(46), 78(78)-7
Paul Davies 2-5 Robert Stephen 47-72(38), 60(45)-20, 46-67(35), 75(75)-0, 40(40)-79(79), 14-58(30), 35-51
Andy Hicks 5-3 Kuldesh Johal 105(105)-11, 89(39,48)-1, 38-68(63), 41-65(32), 52-67(61), 58-44, 70-42, 62(34)-40(32)
David Morris 5-3 Jin Long 51-73(42), 68(51)-29, 77-24, 31-101(94), 19-84(50), 82(82)-6, 74(74)-19, 54-29
Joe Delaney 2-5 Stephen Craigie 54-46, 5-81(65), 13-69(44), 12-65, 21-59, 83(58)-6, 44-79
David Roe 3-5 Atthasit Mahitthi 65(58)-58(42), 62-70, 65-61(45), 32-69(50), 67(56)-26, 64(36)-72, 0-66(42), 46-65(36)
Andrew Norman 5-3 Vinnie Muldoon 96(60)-28, 101(101)-7, 72(71)-8, 36-72(31,30), 82(62)-0, 1-72(63), 0-130(65,650, 69-48(41)
Mark Joyce 5-1 Paul S Davison 80(47)-66(37), 17-110(110), 72(68)-0, 81(67)-0, 70(30)-27, 82(52)-24
Rob Milkins 3-5 Matt Selt 2-78(33), 69(55)-24, 56-22, 76(76)-0, 45-59(58), 9-84(42), 64(32)-78(36), 50(33)-71
Barry Pinches 0-5 Matt Couch 0-85(85), 11-66, 32-80(45), 0-82(76), 13-72(51)
Stuart Pettman 5-3 Simon Bedford 68-50, 31-74(74), 12-84(69), 61(61)-60(60), 68(51)-50(37), 28-71(65), 68(68)-62(56), 65-19