Today sees the final qualifying round take place for the German Masters as the 17-32 ranked players enter the fray. Already it has been quite a day for the young players, although that has not stopped a few of the tour’s old guard from making it to Berlin…
Results:
Anthony Hamilton 5-1 Stuart Bingham
Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 5-2 Barry Hawkins
Jack Lisowski 5-3 Marcus Campbell
Liu Song 5-4 Ken Doherty
Nigel Bond 5-2 Liang Wenbo
Judd Trump 5-3 Jimmy Robertson
Andrew Higginson 5-2 Tony Drago
Matthew Stevens 5-3 Simon Bedford
Anthony McGill 5-2 Tom Ford
Dominic Dale 5-3 Gerard Greene
Joe Perry 5-3 Alan McManus
Stephen Lee 5-2 Matthew Selt
Ryan Day 5-0 Steve Davis
Martin Gould 0-5 Joe Swail
Marco Fu 5-3 Dave Harold
Mark Davis 5-4 Robert Milkins
It was an excellent day today for two of the brightest young talents on the tour as Jack Lisowski and Anthony McGill both booked their places at a venue for the first time with victories against Marcus Campbell and Tom Ford respectively. As long term readers of the blog will know, these are two players that I have been following for a few years now and it is great to see them make their maiden venue, particularly by defeating players who have both won PTC events this season and are in fine form themselves. Looking forward to see them both on TV for the first, but I am sure not the last time.
Another youngster who recorded an excellent result was Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, a 5-2 winner against the dangerous Barry Hawkins today. Having already recorded his maiden 147 during the PTC this season as well as having come so close to qualifying for the Shanghai Masters, the young Thai has really started to make a name for himself (and lets face it, what a name), and deserves an appearance in front of the cameras.
As well as the youngsters however it has also been a good day for some of snookers veterans, for example Nigel Bond and Anthony Hamilton were both able to come through tricky ties, defeating Stuart Bingham and Liang Wenbo respectively. With a few strong PTC runs behind him recently, Anthony just looks to be playing his way into form and with his Welsh Open points from a couple of years ago due to fall off, it is at just the right time.
Matthew Stevens and Andrew Higginson are also safely through to the next round following good results while tour returnee Liu Song has reached his second venue of the season with an impressive 5-4 defeat of 1997 world champion Ken Doherty.
The first two matches of the evening session have both seen a 5-0 whitewash as Joe Swail and Ryan Day both booked their places in Berlin. For Ryan the result is perhaps not so much of a shock as he fought past veteran Steve Davis, but for out of form Joe Swail to deny a player of Martin Gould’s class even a frame is certainly a result to make you sit up and take notice. With his very tour status perhaps under threat, perhaps Joe is going to prove all of the doubters once again and work his way back up the rankings. Knowing him and his career history, I would certainly not rule it out!
EDIT: One late edit to that, according to The Snooker Forum on Twitter, Martin was suffering quite badly from illness today and at one point was not going to play his match. Hopefully he will be back and fighting fit soon.