Hossein Vafaei through in British Open qualifiers

Hossein Vafaei secured his place at the British Open with a 4-1 victory over Andy Lee in the qualifiers on Thursday.

The Iranian may feel aggrieved at having had to compete at the Morningside Arena in Leicester at all this week.

The top 16 seeds in the British Open have had their matches held over to the venue stages in Cheltenham next month.

Vafaei recently joined the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in his career.

But as world no.17 Ryan Day is the reigning British Open champion, his game against Sean O’Sullivan has been deferred instead.

• CLICK HERE: Graeme Dott edges through in qualifiers

Barry Hawkins, who is also below Vafaei in the rankings, has bizarrely had his encounter held over to the Centaur as well.

Regardless, Vafaei didn’t let any of that affect his play as he orchestrated a routine triumph over Hong Kong’s Lee to safely reach the last 64.

David Gilbert progressed with a similar scoreline as he outplayed the struggling Australian Ryan Thomerson.

After a disappointing period of form, Gilbert has begun this season more promisingly and is so far undefeated with a five wins and three draws under his belt.

Elsewhere, three fixtures on day four of the British Open qualifiers went the distance.

Last weekend’s US Women’s Open champion Mink Nutcharut fought her way back from 3-0 down to force a decider against Mohamed Ibrahim.

But the Egyptian duly took the seventh frame to deny the women’s world number one a rare success on the main tour.

There was a maiden delight, however, for Liam Graham after the Scottish teenager bagged his first victory at professional level.

In a dramatic contest that was decided on the final black in the deciding frame, Graham upset Cao Yupeng.

Ross Muir similarly prevailed from a tight encounter that went all the way as he edged past Stuart Carrington.

Among the others to qualify were English duo Ashley Hugill and Ashley Carty, and Chinese competitor He Guoqiang.

On Friday, the British Open qualifiers continue with Matthew Stevens and Joe Perry among the bigger names 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.

British Open qualifiers schedule and results

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: World Snooker Tour