Snooker News

Morris to Lose Tour Card After Defeat

David Morris will lose his tour card after suffering a 10-6 defeat to Alan McManus in World Championship qualifying.

David Morris UK1
Morris will drop out of the top 64 – photo courtesy of Monique Limbos.

The Irishman needed to at least qualify for the last 32 at the Crucible if he was to have any chance of maintaining a place among the world’s top 64.

But despite a promising start in which the 27 year-old led McManus 4-2, Morris subsequently lost six out of the next seven frames to fall too far behind to mount any serious comeback.

Morris’ fate was effectively sealed earlier in the campaign, though, when a string of first round exits either side of the New Year had him plummet down the rankings.

The Kilkenny cueist will now potentially turn his attentions to May’s Q-School, a tournament in which Morris has twice qualified from in the past.

McManus, who scored heavily throughout the contest, moves into the final qualifying stage at Ponds Forge where he’ll face Jimmy Robertson.

Robertson, a whitewash winner in round one, continued his good form by beating fellow Englishman Stuart Carrington 10-5.

Meanwhile, 2006 world champion Graeme Dott withstood a spirited fight back from Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham to eventually prevail with a frame to spare, 10-8.

Dott led 8-2 but saw his opponent race back with some power scoring to reduce the deficit to just one – before the Scot held his nerve for victory.

However, there was an incredible comeback completed in one of the other ties as Anthony Hamilton overturned a 9-6 deficit in triumphing in a decider over Chris Wakelin.

The four-time quarter-finalist looked dead and buried when Wakelin knocked in a 60 to go to within one frame of the third qualifying round, but Hamilton barely gave the youngster another opportunity and runs of 78, 99 and 69 saw the ‘Sheriff’ steal the win.

Hamilton will take on Robbie Williams on Tuesday after the latter secured a 10-4 victory over Mark Joyce.

Elsewhere, there were close victories for three men highly fancied to qualify outright – Robert Milkins, Kurt Maflin and Michael Holt.

Maflin won six out of the last seven frames to stun talented Chinese teenager Zhao Xintong.

Finally, Ian Burns earned a comprehensive 10-3 victory over Pakistan’s Hamza Akbar while Nigel Bond, who could face Ding Junhui next, overcame Gary Wilson 10-6.

Several other encounters reached the halfway point on Sunday as well.

Ken Doherty’s bid to return to the Crucible for the first time in two years continued apace as he opened up a 7-2 advantage over Iranian Hossein Vafaei Ayouri.

There are big leads also for Matthew Stevens, David Gilbert, Anthony McGill, Dechawat Poomjaeng, Jack Lisowski and Sam Baird.

Luca Brecel enjoys a narrow 5-4 margin over Liam Highfield, while Mark Davis is adrift of Zhang Anda by the same gap.

All of the clashes involving those players conclude on Monday afternoon as the second round of qualifying reaches its conclusion in Sheffield.

Click here to view the full draw.

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