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Last 32 Confirmed for German Masters After Qualifiers End

The preliminaries wrapped up at the Chase Leisure Centre.

David Gilbert was among the final qualifiers as the last 32 for this season’s German Masters was completed in Cannock on Tuesday.

The Englishman, who won the season-opening Championship League during the summer to capture a maiden ranking event title, beat Zhao Jianbo 5-2.

The venue stages of the competition will take place in January at the Tempodrom in Berlin, where Gilbert previously finished as runner-up in 2019.

Masters champion Yan Bingtao and fellow Chinese competitor Liang Wenbo also made it through, beating Lei Peifan and Ben Hancorn respectively.

Meanwhile, Hossein Vafaei couldn’t build on his astonishing 5-0 drubbing of Ronnie O’Sullivan on Monday as the Iranian went down in a 5-3 reverse to Andrew Higginson.

Gilbert and Yan will face off against one another for a berth in the last 16, with Liang next in action against Higginson.

Among the top 16 players in the world rankings, ten have qualified for the last 32 of the German Masters – including world number one Judd Trump and world champion Mark Selby.

Trump will continue his bid for a third title on the trot when he takes on Gao Yang while Selby’s opening challenge in the German capital city will be veteran Barry Pinches.

Former German Masters champions Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson are also in the draw for the last 32, with the former set to face Zhao Xintong in one of the most intriguing first-round draws.

Wilson, who beat Gilbert 9-7 to win the crown in 2019, takes on Jimmy Robertson while recent Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Allen meets Lyu Haotian.

The ranking event, which takes place in one of snooker’s most popular destinations, runs from January 26th to 30th early next year.

German Masters Last 32

Judd Trump vs Gao Yang
Anthony McGill vs Zhou Yuelong
Tom Ford vs Stephen Maguire
Zhao Xintong vs Mark Williams

Kyren Wilson vs Jimmy Robertson
Michael Georgiou (a) vs Craig Steadman
Zhang Anda vs Luca Brecel
Ricky Walden vs Neil Robertson

Andrew Higginson vs Liang Wenbo
Liam Highfield vs Fan Zhengyi
Lyu Haotian vs Mark Allen
Kurt Maflin vs Shaun Murphy

Noppon Saengkham vs Ryan Day
Sam Craigie vs Ken Doherty
David Gilbert vs Yan Bingtao
Barry Pinches vs Mark Selby
Featured photo credit: WST

4 Comments

  1. Pingback: Last 32 Confirmed for German Masters After Qualifiers End • Snooker Site

  2. Jamie Brannon

    Walden v Robertson and Zhao v Williams look the most appealing ties.

  3. Jamie Brannon

    Yes, that’s a fair point. I also based it a little on the aesthetic appeal of both games. Only one previous edition has produced more centuries at the qualifying stage than this season’s total of 74. The early years of the German Masters delivered century tallies more often in the 20s and 30s during the qualifiers.

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