Indian Open Qualifying Round-up

Robbie Williams caused one of the surprises in the Indian
Open qualifying as he defeated Shaun Murphy 4-3.

There were a number of high-profile casualties in the qualifying stages of the new Indian Open tournament with Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy, Matthew Stevens and Graeme Dott amongst those losing out in the opening round.

The qualifying round in Doncaster was best of seven and due to the tight five-day schedule at the main venue in Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi, all rounds leading up to the final will be of the same length. The final will only be best of nine with many criticising the format, questioning the point of organising a tournament in Asia with the format resembling a PTC event.

Trump lost 4-3 to Zhang Anda with the world number 76 hitting top runs of 101 and 109, the latter in the decider. Earlier on Sunday evening, Murphy was defeated by the same scoreline against Robbie Williams. The Merseyside player won the opening three frames and despite a fight back from Murphy, kept his cool to win the decider.

David Morris produced an excellent performance to whitewash Matthew Stevens, with the Irishman hitting a top run of 70. Dott was beaten 4-2 by 17-year-old Thai newcomer Ratchayothin Yotharuck in only his third professional match. Yotharuck won the opening three frames and although Dott won the next two, including a 103 break, the Thai won the sixth 59-49.

The tour’s two Indian players, Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta both secured places at their home event. Advani whitewashed Matt Selt with top breaks of 62, 54 and 65 and he’ll play Marcus Cambell in the first round. Mehta will face Ebdon in New Delhi after he beat Xiao Guodong 4-2, with a highest break of 104.

Other notable results on Sunday included world number 90 Sean O’Sullivan’s 4-3 win over close friend Martin Gould, Jeff Cundy’s whitewashing of Mark King and Kyren Wilson’s 4-0 victory over Rory McLeod, with top runs of 101, 73 and 71.

The experienced Tony Drago is also through to the venue after a decent 4-2 win over London’s Alfie Burden on Monday, as is Thai Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon who defeated six-times world champions Steve David 4-1. 15-year-old Lyu Haotian beat Ben Wollaston 4-3, Chen Zhe defeated a recently in form Robert Milkins 4-2 with a top break of 125, whilst Jack Lisowski was beaten 4-2 by Liam Highfield, who knocked in top runs of 71 and 105.

World number 2 Mark Selby almost missed out on qualification as he trailed Welshman Daniel Wells 3-2 but he won the final two frames to spare his blushes. Neil Robertson was also pushed all the way in his qualifying match after Finland’s Robin Hull came back from 3-0 down to force a decider. However, the Wuxi Classic Champion hit a break of 96 in the final frame to secure victory.

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