The second ranking event of the new 2023/24 professional snooker season got underway this week with the majority of first round matches in the European Masters completed at the Morningside Arena in Leicester. The winners of these fixtures qualified for the main venue and event being held at the Kia Metropol in Nuremberg, Germany between August 22-27.

The top eight seeds for the tournament have their opening round matches held over to Nuremberg, but the remaining top 16 stars who entered were in action in Leicester over the past few days.

How did the top 16 players do?

Multiple-time world champions John Higgins and Mark Williams were both in very fine scoring form as they made it through, while Jack Lisowski hit a 141 break during a 5-3 win against Sam Craigie.

Ali Carter and Hossein Vafaei can also make travel plans for Germany after victories, however, world number 12 Robert Milkins and world number 14 Gary Wilson were eliminated.

Milkins - the winner of last season’s European Series Order of Merit - was defeated 5-3 by Ben Woollaston; reigning Scottish Open champion Wilson was pipped 5-4 by Belgian youngster Ben Mertens. 18-year-old Mertens made two century breaks early on but needed penalty points when 4-3 down before coming through to record one of the best wins of his career so far.

British Open champion Ryan Day – who is currently ranked 17th in the world – will also miss out. Zak Surety ended the Welshman’s hopes, recovering from 2-0 and 3-1 down, making breaks of 105 and 135 in a 5-3 victory.

147 for Sean; Hat-Trick for Zhou

Sean O’Sullivan made the first 147 maximum break of the season during his encounter with Barry Hawkins.

O’Sullivan’s maiden 147 in professional competition, it is the 190th official maximum overall. Perfection was achieved by the Englishman in frame six when he was 4-1 down, although Hawkins claimed the next frame to secure qualification with a 5-2 win.

Zhou Yuelong was superb as he denied Stuart Carrington 5-1. Runner-up in this event in 2020, the Chinese cueist constructed breaks of 95 and 65 early on, before finishing off with three centuries in consecutive frames – 116, 107 and 105.

Noppon Saengkham – who narrowly missed out on the final of Championship League Snooker last week – defeated Ian Burns 5-2 in a match which featured eight breaks over 53.

One of last season's breakout stars, Joe O'Connor found a hot streak in his match with Rebecca Kenna beginning with breaks of 131, 135, 81 and 56 before the mid-session interval, and then returning to complete a 5-0 success.

Xu Si chalked up runs of 56, 102, 85, 53 and 82 as he defeated Alexander Ursenbacher 5-2, meanwhile three-time ranking event winner Marco Fu assembled breaks of 135 and 101 as he established a 4-1 lead against Adam Duffy. However, Duffy conjured up a comeback, stringing together the next four frames to qualify.

Another player to recover from three down with four to play was Jamie Jones. In possibly the tie of the round so far, Yuan made breaks of 63, 75 and 84 but Jones scored 74, 98, 118 and 135 on his way to eventually emerging in the ninth frame.

Excellent Evans; Super Si

After an encouraging showing in the Championship League, 12-time world women’s champion Reanne Evans continued her good start to the campaign as she ousted Jenson Kendrick 5-4 – top scoring with a 79 break.

Recent world championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui registered runs of 51, 102, 68, 58 and 55 during a 5-2 win against Shoot Out runner-up Julien Leclercq.

Ken Doherty plays a shot

Success for rookies and veterans

Chinese rookies Jiang Jun and Liu Hongyu were both impressive as they booked berths for the last 64 in August.

Jiang made breaks of 81, 104 and 139 as he defeated Andrew Pagett 5-1 while Liu constructed four half-centuries during a 5-1 win against Hammad Miah.

Another overseas professional newbie, India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha, also looked good as he scored breaks of 53, 69, 95 and 131 in a 5-2 victory against Ryan Thomerson.

At the other end of the experience scale, there was joy for Ken Doherty, Dominic Dale and Mark Davis – who all won their matches. World seniors champion Jimmy White nearly joined them, but he was pipped by Irish youngster Aaron Hill 5-4, despite battling back from 4-1 down.

2023 European Masters – First Round/Qualifying Results

Alfie Burden 5-4 Haydon Pinhey

Si Jiahui 5-2 Julien Leclercq

Ken Doherty 5-4 David Lilley

Hossein Vafaei 5-1 Rod Lawler

Allan Taylor 5-2 Tian Pengfei

Dominic Dale 5-2 Anthony McGill

Duane Jones 5-1 Liam Graham

Andrew Higginson 5-3 Cao Yupeng

Zhou Yuelong 5-1 Stuart Carrington

Dylan Emery 5-2 Barry Pinches

John Higgins 5-1 Martin Gould

Ross Muir 5-0 He Guoqiang

Joe Perry 5-0 Muhammad Asif

Daniel Wells 5-2 Andres Petrov

Jordan Brown 5-2 Ma Hailong

Chris Wakelin 5-2 Thor Chuan Leong

Aaron Hill 5-4 Jimmy White

Ben Woollaston 5-3 Robert Milkins

Xu Si 5-2 Alexander Ursenbacher

Tom Ford 5-1 Victor Sarkis

Oliver Brown 5-4 Liam Pullen

Jamie Jones 5-4 Yuan Sijun

Ricky Walden 5-3 Lukas Kleckers

Michael White 5-2 Jak Jones

Jack Lisowski 5-3 Sam Craigie

Ashley Carty 5-2 Martin O'Donnell

Joe O'Connor 5-0 Rebecca Kenna

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-0 Asjad Iqbal

Peng Yisong 5-3 Xing Zihao

Lyu Haotian 5-4 Fan Zhengyi

Elliot Slessor 5-4 Stan Moody

Ben Mertens 5-4 Gary Wilson

Sanderson Lam 5-3 Mark Joyce

David Gilbert 5-3 Oliver Lines

Reanne Evans 5-4 Jenson Kendrick

Xiao Guodong 5-1 Sydney Wilson

Stuart Bingham 5-2 Jamie Clarke

Ashley Hugill 5-1 Long Zehuang

Ali Carter 5-2 Alfie Davies

Louis Heathcote 5-2 Andy Lee

Anthony Hamilton 5-4 Matthew Selt

Adam Duffy 5-4 Marco Fu

Liu Hongyu 5-1 Hammad Miah

Noppon Saengkham 5-2 Ian Burns

Mark Davis 5-1 Ahmed Aly Elsayed

Mark Williams 5-0 Zhang Anda

Matthew Stevens 5-3 Iulian Boiko

Jimmy Robertson 5-1 Himanshu Jain

Scott Donaldson 5-3 David Grace

James Cahill 5-0 Baipat Siripaporn

Barry Hawkins 5-2 Sean O'Sullivan

Jiang Jun 5-1 Andrew Pagett

Zak Surety 5-3 Ryan Day

Robbie Williams 5-3 John Astley

Pang Junxu 5-1 Mink Nutcharut

Ishpreet Singh Chadha 5-2 Ryan Thomerson

2023 European Masters Last 64 draw - all matches to be held at the main venue

Kyren Wilson/Dean Young v Burden

Si v Doherty

Vafaei v Taylor

Dale v D. Jones

Higginson v Zhou

Emery v Higgins

Muir v Perry

Wells v Shaun Murphy/Graeme Dott

Judd Trump/Mohamed Ibrahim v J. Brown

Wakelin v Hill

Woollaston v Xu

Ford v O. Brown

J. Jones v Walden

White v Lisowski

Carty v O'Connor

Un-Nooh v Mark Allen/Anton Kazakov

Ronnie O'Sullivan/Andy Hicks v Peng

Lyu v Slessor

Mertens v Lam

Gilbert v Evans

Xiao v Bingham

Hugill v Carter

Heathcote v Hamilton

Duffy v Mark Selby/Manasawin Phetmalaikul

Neil Robertson/Wu Yize v Liu

Saengkham v Davis

M. Williams v Stevens

J. Robertson v Donaldson

Cahill v Hawkins

Jiang v Surety

R. Williams v Pang

Chadha v Luca Brecel/Jackson Page

The images above are from Deposit Photos