Judd Trump
Ranking, Snooker Headlines

Full list of results at the International Championship qualifiers

Judd Trump, Mark Allen, Mark Selby, and John Higgins were among the star names to make it through the International Championship qualifiers this week.

The preliminary phase of the Chinese ranking event took place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield over the last few days.

World number one Trump comfortably reached the round of 64 and the venue stages of the competition with a comfortable 6-1 defeat of Chris Totten.

Allen, who began the season in top spot in the rankings before being usurped by Trump, scored a brace of century breaks to beat Farakh Ajaib 6-3.

Selby and Higgins weren’t fatigued by their recent escapades at the British Open, where the former captured the Clive Everton Trophy at the expense of the Scot in Sunday’s final.

Selby fired in a succession of big breaks to beat rookie Artemijs Zizins while Higgins outplayed veteran former world champion Ken Doherty.

Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, and Neil Robertson were among the other heavy hitters who safely booked their trips back to Asia.

There were some notable defeats, however, with Luca Brecel’s struggles continuing following a 6-3 reverse to Jiang Jun.

Tom Ford is arguably having an even worse campaign than the Belgian Bullet, and the Englishman’s top 16 membership is in jeopardy after losing early again – this time to up-and-coming talent Stan Moody.

Elsewhere, World Championship runner-up Jak Jones suffered a shock 6-5 loss to amateur top-up Simon Blackwell.

The story of the three-day International Championship qualifiers, though, was undoubtedly Thepchaiya Un-Nooh’s botched 147 attempt.

For the third time in his career, the Thai competitor got himself into the position to make a maximum break only to agonisingly miss the final black.

Consolation for Un-Nooh was the fact that he was able to put that disappointment behind him and win his match with Lei Peifan 6-4.

Several round-of-128 fixtures were held over to the venue stages, including the matches involving defending champion Zhang Anda and world champion Kyren Wilson.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s scheduled outing with Mink Nutcharut and several ties with Chinese players were also deferred.

The International Championship takes place from November 3-10 in Nanjing.


International Championship qualifiers

Round of 128

Results
Zhang Anda vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha (held over)
David Grace vs Wildcard (held over)
Haydon Pinhey 6-2 Stephen Maguire
Lyu Haotian 6-5 Marco Fu
Simon Blackwell 6-5 Jak Jones
Matthew Stevens 6-0 Huang Jiahao
John Higgins 6-1 Ken Doherty
Ben Woollaston 6-4 Duane Jones

Zak Surety 6-4 Dominic Dale
Chris Wakelin 6-2 Cheung Ka Wai
Anthony Hamilton 6-0 Jimmy White
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Louis Heathcote
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-4 Lei Peifan
Stuart Bingham 6-0 Liam Graham
Mark Davis 6-1 Baipat Siripaporn
Mark Williams 6-0 Haris Tahir

Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Mink Nutcharut (held over)
He Guoqiang 6-1 Antoni Kowalski
Pang Junxu 6-1 Iulian Boiko
Elliot Slessor 6-3 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Ali Carter vs Wildcard (held over)
Ross Muir 6-2 Daniel Wells
David Gilbert 6-2 Bai Yulu
Jackson Page 6-2 Oliver Lines

Gong Chenzhi 6-4 Jordan Brown
Jack Lisowski 6-5 Bulcsu Revesz
Ben Mertens 6-4 Graeme Dott
Si Jiahui vs Andrew Pagett (held over)
Ricky Walden 6-4 Xing Zihao
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Kreishh Gurbaxani
Aaron Hill 6-2 Liam Pullen
Mark Allen 6-3 Farakh Ajaib

Judd Trump 6-1 Chris Totten
Sanderson Lam 6-5 Alexander Ursenbacher
Joe O’Connor 6-1 Robbie McGuigan
Anthony McGill 6-1 Ashley Carty
Stan Moody 6-2 Tom Ford
Xu Si 6-5 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Ryan Day 6-5 Ma Hailong
Daniel Womersley 6-2 Liam Davies

Robbie Williams 6-3 Allan Taylor
Stuart Carringotn 6-4 Robert Milkins
Dean Young 6-5 Tian Penfei
Gary Wilson 6-3 Hammad Miah
Jimmy Robertson 6-5 Sunny Akani
Noppon Saengkham vs Wildcard
Jamie Clarke 6-3 Mostafa Dorgham
Mark Selby 6-3 Artemijs Zizins

Jiang Jun 6-3 Luca Brecel
Amir Sarkhosh 6-3 David Lilley
Michael Holt 6-5 Zhou Yuelong
Yuan Sijun 6-1 Ian Burns
Ding Junhui vs Reanne Evans (held over)
Martin O’Donnell 6-2 Julien Leclercq
Hossein Vafaei vs Wildcard (held over)
Dylan Emery 6-3 Scott Donaldson

Joe Perry 6-1 Jonas Luz
Barry Hawkins 6-1 Joshua Thomand
Fan Zhengyi 6-3 Long Zehuang
Neil Robertson 6-1 Alfie Burden
Andrew Higginson 6-5 Matthew Selt
Wu Yize 6-4 Wang Yuchen
Liu Hongyu 6-5 Rory Thor
Kyren Wilson vs Mitchell Mann (held over)

Click here to view the full International Championship draw
(snooker.org)


Featured photo credit: WST

4 Comments

  1. Jay brannon

    I find it odd that the world number one Judd Trump doesn’t get his match held over.

    Sanderson Lam took successive frames on respotted blacks in a 6-5 win over Alexander Ursenbacher.

  2. Due to the ‘Golden Week’ holiday, I was able to attend this event on Tuesday and Wednesday. With 8 tables, it was unmissable! I saw a lot of great matches – too many to list. Quite a few young players showed great ability even if they didn’t win – that’s a benefit of best-of-11 matches where there is time for each player to find some form.

    I do like Ponds Forge as a venue for events such as this. It’s right in the Sheffield city, so there are no problems finding food or hotels. Tables 1-4 had ten rows of banked seats, and Tables 5-8 two rows of chairs. However, the crowd numbers were poor, perhaps because the event was poorly promoted (it wasn’t even clear a week ago they would allow spectators), and also because there has been a lot of snooker elsewhere in the last couple of weeks. But it cost £12 for a whole day ticket. I’m not entirely sure yet if I will be in Nanjing.

    • Jay brannon

      I’ve got to firstly ask what is the ‘Golden Week’?!

      The tickets for qualifying are excellent value. You’re seeing high stakes matches between a fascinating mix of players.

      Ponds Forge hosted the International Open bowls tournament for a time in the 2000s. Greg Harlow triumphed on three consecutive occasions.

      • ‘Golden Week’ is a national holiday in China. I’m currently working for a company based in Shanghai (via Zoom). I was fortunate that these qualifiers coincided with the holiday.

        Ponds Forge is just across the road from Ding’s Academy, so with a bit of persuasion I can get to see some of the players in practice.

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