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.
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
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