The pair is the latest to advance to the next group stage of the WST Pro Series.
An interesting Group F of the WST Pro Series ended with Ben Woollaston and Fergal O’Brien finishing in first and second place on Thursday in Milton Keynes.
The outcome was determined after the last round of league fixtures, with Woollaston and O’Brien crucially winning their respective ties to place above Noppon Saengkham and Igor Figueiredo.
Woollaston and O’Brien each won five out of their seven matches, with the latter in particularly impressive form towards the end of the day.
The veteran Irishman won four matches on the spin and compiled the same number of century breaks to seal a place in the second phase of the new competition.
Indeed, 49 year-old O’Brien almost became the oldest player to compile a competitive 147 break on the Main Tour, only to agonisingly miss out on the final pink.
Saengkham and Figueiredo were among the six competitors who failed to progress and have therefore been eliminated from the tournament.
Welsh Open winner Jordan Brown struggled to replicate the kind of form that saw him produce a shock ranking event victory last month, winning only three out of his seven encounters.
What is the WST Pro Series?
The format for the WST Pro Series is quite similar to that which was utilised for two out of the three editions of the Championship League that were staged during 2020.
There are 16 groups comprising eight players in each, with a round-robin phase determining the top two who will advance to the second group stage.
Eight groups in the first stage already took place in January, while the outcome from the remaining eight groups will be determined over the coming days.
Shaun Murphy, Kyren Wilson, Stuart Bingham, and Jack Lisowski are among the bigger names who have already made it through.
The 32 players who progress to stage two will be split into four more groups of eight, with the top two again moving forward from each to contest the final group.
That remaining set of eight players will subsequently battle it out in the same fashion to become the overall champion.
There is a total tournament prize fund of £420,500, broken down in various ways throughout the three group stages.
The winner, however, stands to collect at least £30,000 in an event that incorporates a sprint best-of-three frames format throughout.
What’s Next?
On Friday, Group D takes place Barry Hawkins, Ricky Walden, Gerard Greene, Alexander Ursenbacher, Duane Jones, Jimmy Robertson, Farakh Ajaib, and amateur Paul Davison involved.
Live coverage will be available via an account with several online bookmakers, as well as around the world through the Matchroom.Live streaming service.
Click here to view the full draw (Times in CET)
