Stephen Hendry loses in British Open qualifier

Stephen Hendry endured another defeat as he went down 4-2 to Muhammad Asif in the British Open qualifiers on Monday.

The seven-time world champion got off to a strong start by making a break of 73 in the opening frame.

But his opponent took advantage of the scrappy match that followed, winning three frames on the trot to move to within the brink of victory.

Hendry postponed things a little longer by winning the fifth frame, but a break of 66 from Asif in the next sealed the win in Leicester.

The latter will feature in the venue stages of the British Open next month at The Centaur in Cheltenham.

Hendry, meanwhile, hasn’t won a match on the main tour since 2021 having gone the entirety of last season without a positive result before beginning this term in the same fashion.

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Elsewhere at the Morningside Arena, Si Jiahui continued his fine form with a 4-1 triumph against Lukas Kleckers.

The World Championship semi-finalist recorded breaks of 63 and 54 to outlast the German and reach the last 64.

Tom Ford enjoyed a similar success as he ousted fellow Englishman James Cahill by the same three-frame margin.

India’s Ishpreet Singh prolonged his fine start to life on the main tour with a second successive qualifying victory.

The 27 year-old had already negotiated his European Masters qualifier and a 4-1 defeat of Manasawin Phetmalaikul means he’ll feature in the British Open as well.

Veteran Irish duo Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien orchestrated respective victories over Alfie Burden and Andres Petrov.

Young pair Ma Hailong and Ben Mertens were the others to make it through on day one of the British Open qualifiers.

Ma had a couple of half-century breaks in beating Ian Burns 4-2 while Mertens wrapped up his 4-2 success over Louis Heathcote with a run of 101.

On Tuesday, the action continues with Ricky Walden and Zhou Yuelong among the higher profile players entering the fray.

There is live coverage in the UK on WST’s Facebook channel, in Europe on discovery+, and in other territories outside China on Matchroom.Live.

The top 16 seeds in the random-draw British Open have their fixtures held over to the venue stages.

British Open qualifiers schedule

Monday, August 14th

Results
Lukas Kleckers 1-4 Si Jiahui
Ma Hailong 4-2 Ian Burns

Manasawin Phetmalaikul 1-4 Ishpreet Singh
Stephen Hendry 2-4 Muhammad Asif

James Cahill 1-4 Tom Ford
Louis Heathcote 2-4 Ben Mertens

Alfie Burden 2-4 Ken Doherty
Fergal O’Brien 4-1 Andres Petrov

Tuesday, August 15th

Results
Hammad Miah 4-3 Zhou Yuelong
Robbie Williams 4-0 Pang Junxu

Oliver Brown 4-3 Himanshu Jain
Xu Si 4-0 Ricky Walden

Dominic Dale 4-1 Mark Joyce
Liam Pullen 0-4 Oliver Lines

Jenson Kendrick 1-4 David Grace
Adam Duffy 1-4 Scott Donaldson

Wednesday, August 16th

Results
Graeme Dott 4-3 Zhang Anda
Baipat Siripaporn 1-4 Liu Hongyu

Rory McLeod 1-4 Tian Pengfei
Dylan Emery 1-4 Yuan Sijun

Andrew Higginson 1-4 Andy Hicks
Chris Wakelin 4-3 Andrew Pagett

Rod Lawler 4-2 Sam Craigie
Anthony Hamilton 4-1 Aaron Hill

Thursday, August 17th

Results
Mohamed Ibrahim 4-3 Mink Nutcharut
Liam Graham 4-3 Cao Yupeng

Elliot Slessor 2-4 He Guoqiang
Andy Lee 1-4 Hossein Vafaei

David Gilbert 4-1 Ryan Thomerson
Jackson Page 2-4 Ashley Carty

Stuart Carrington 3-4 Ross Muir
Ashley Hugill 4-2 Jak Jones

Friday, August 18th

Resutls
David Lilley 1-4 Lyu Haotian
Thor Chuan Leong 4-1 Alexander Ursenbacher

Wu Yize 4-2 Martin Gould
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Xing Zihao

Victor Sarkis 0-4 Matthew Stevens
Jordan Brown 3-4 Daniel Wells

Joe Perry 2-4 Sanderson Lam
Michael White 2-4 Zak Surety

Saturday, August 19th

Results
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-0 Reanne Evans
Mark Davis 3-4 Fan Zhengyi

Xiao Guodong 4-2 Marco Fu
Jamie Jones 4-0 Mostafa Dorgham

Stuart Bingham 4-0 John Astley
Matthew Selt 4-0 Liam Highfield

Julien Leclercq 4-2 Dean Young
Stephen Maguire 4-0 Jimmy White

Held over fixtures
(to be played in Cheltenham)

Monday, September 25th

Ryan Day vs Sean O’Sullivan
Luca Brecel vs Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Jimmy Robertson
Mark Allen vs Anthony McGill
Judd Trump vs Anton Kazakov
Mark Selby vs Ben Woollaston
Neil Robertson vs Jamie Clarke
Shaun Murphy vs Rebecca Kenna
Kyren Wilson vs Martin O’Donnell
Mark Williams vs Peng Yisong
John Higgins vs Long Zehuang
Ali Carter vs Allan Taylor
Robert Milkins vs Jiang Jun
Jack Lisowski vs Joe O’Connor
Gary Wilson vs Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Barry Hawkins vs Stan Moody

Featured photo credit: WST