Today saw the start of the World Open qualifiers as the 65-96 ranked players took on the 32 amateur qualifiers for the event at the Academy in Sheffield…
With 24 of the 32 first round matches so far concluded, it has been a case of so far so good for the professionals as just eight amateurs were able to progress, the majority of whom are recent tour players themselves.
These included Thai youngster Thepchaiya Un-Nooh who recorded a 3-1 victory against Reanne Evans to ensure that the the nightmare start to her maiden season on the main tour is to go on, making it five defeats from five now for the ladies number one.
Also through is Welshman Daniel Wells who upset Jamie O’Neill, while Chris Norbury and Sam Baird completed the list of recently relegated professionals to make it through to the second round today with victories over Richard Beckham and Zhang Anda respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the closest matches of the day were those that saw two professionals face off, such as Igor Figueiredo’s narrow 3-2 victory over Liu Chuang and also the match between Dermot McGlinchey and Patrick Einsle which saw the Northern Irishman come through by the same scoreline.
Another man who deserves a mention is young Michael Wasley who managed to take Justin Astley to a deciding frame before eventually (ok I know that it’s a best of five) losing out in the decider.
For the day’s results in full plus tomorrow’s schedule, please click here.
I will update the provisional rankings when the qualifiers have concluded.