Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien won two matches each to book their place in the last 32 of the Gdynia Open today in Sheffield.
A regular Players Tour Championship event, the decision was made to whittle down the normal 128 players – after the preliminary amateur rounds – in England before the final 32 fly over to Poland in October for the final stages of the tournament.
The top half of the draw was accounted for yesterday with the likes of Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire and Jimmy White progressing and today the Dublin pair of Doherty and O’Brien joined them.
Former world champion Doherty enjoyed the safer passage with 4-1 and 4-2 wins respectively but, after a 4-1 win over Stuart Carrington, O’Brien was pushed all the way by Marcus Campbell before edging out a 4-3 victor.
The 40 year-old was clearly in decent form, though, with a century in each of his two triumphs.
Meanwhile, top-ranked players Mark Selby, John Higgins, Ding Junhui and Stephen Lee were barely pushed but there were a few more shocks on the last day of action.
The pick of the bunch was from Rory McLeod, often the bane of many a top pro with his slow, laborious style of play, who whitewashed Judd Trump 4-0.
Welshman Matthew Stevens went down 4-1 to Tom Ford in the opening round, who then himself advanced with a 4-2 defeat of James Wattana, while Joe Swail, now off the professional tour, upset World Championship quarter-finalist Ryan Day 4-1.
Yet, Swail could not maintain his run and went down 4-1 to young rookie Kyren Wilson, who has earned himself a nice trip out east for his efforts.
Elsewhere, Englishmen Andrew Higginson, Michael Holt and Mark Joyce all progressed – the latter with a 4-2 win over Belgium teenager Luca Brecel, who had earlier broken down on a 147 attempt on the final pink.
Scots Graeme Dott and Jamie Burnett had 4-1 triumphs over Craig Steadman and Dechawat Poomjaeng respectively with Kurt Maflin of Norway pummeling Alfie Burden 4-0.
The final stages of the Gdynia Open take place in October.
The full list of results and draw can be viewed by clicking here.
