Mark Williams and John Higgins opened their accounts for the 2025/26 snooker season with wins on the Wuhan Open qualifiers in Leicester.
The brand new time period commenced on the Mattioli Area with the skilled gamers again in motion for the primary time in virtually seven weeks for the reason that conclusion of the World Snooker Championship.
On the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, Williams missed out on a fourth world title after struggling an 18-12 defeat to Zhao Xintong.
The Welshman and fellow 50 year-old Higgins, who had simply received the distinguished Tour Championship in April, proceed to defy Father Time, nonetheless.
With each nonetheless ranked inside the highest 4 on the earth rankings, Williams and Higgins launched their thirty fourth phrases on the World Snooker Tour with respective wins in opposition to Chatchapong Nasa and Huang Jiahao on Sunday.
It was a busy opening day of play with loads of dramatic ties, because the gamers tried to get their contemporary seasons off to the absolute best begin.
Among the many finest outcomes was Reanne Evans’ 5-4 victory over David Lilley, whereas teenager Liam Davies edged veteran Mark Davis by the identical slim margin.
Final yr’s Wuhan Open runner-up Si Jiahui scored a excessive break of 112 throughout his 5-2 conquer Bulcsu Revesz.
However Si’s extremely fancied countryman Wu Yize was a shock loser after struggling a 5-2 reverse by the hands of Louis Heathcote.
Three-time rating occasion winner Ricky Walden and former European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi had been additionally on the mistaken ends of shut defeats to David Grace and Ben Mertens.
Luca Brecel, in the meantime, was a no-show as he gifted scheduled opponent Haris Tahir an early reward and an automated ticket to China in late-August.
There have been complete wins elsewhere for the likes of Noppon Saengkham, Ishpreet Singh Chadha, and Jordan Brown.
The latter is correct on the cut-off level for tour survival inside the highest 64 at current.
It might sound early to be speaking about such issues, however Brown might be eager on getting himself away from that dialog as rapidly as doable to keep away from any drama in a while within the marketing campaign.
There’s lots of prize cash on supply on the Wuhan Open with £140,000 up for grabs for the winner – earnings that snooker followers can solely dream of pocketing by way of actual cash video games on 1xBet On line casino, an organization which additionally has betting odds for all the most recent snooker occasions.
Zhou Yuelong, Joe O’Connor, Elliot Slessor, Michael Holt, and Matthew Selt had been among the many others to progress, whereas rookie Zhao Hanyang orchestrated a wonderful 5-1 victory over Sanderson Lam.
On Monday, the Wuhan Open qualifiers proceed with Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, and Shaun Murphy amongst these getting into the fray.
Sunday’s Outcomes
Ishpreet Singh Chadha 5-1 Yao Pengcheng
Zhou Yuelong 5-2 Lan Yuhao
Noppon Saengkham 5-0 Robbie McGuigan
Louis Heathcote 5-2 Wu Yize
Jamie Jones 5-4 Liu Wenwei
Joe O’Connor 5-4 Jiang Jun
Haris Tahir w/o Luca Brecel
Si Jiahui 5-2 Bulcsu Revesz
John Higgins 5-2 Huang Jiahao
Ben Mertens 5-3 Fan Zhengyi
Elliot Slessor 5-4 Oliver Traces
Dylan Emery 5-3 Lengthy Zehuang
David Grace 5-4 Ricky Walden
Mark Williams 5-0 Chatchapong Nasa
Zhao Hanyang 5-1 Sanderson Lam
Michael Holt 5-3 Liam Graham
Haydon Pinhey 5-1 Martin O’Donnell
Jordan Brown 5-1 Duane Jones
Matthew Selt 5-4 Sunny Akani
Reanne Evans 5-4 David Lilley
Liam Davies 5-4 Mark Davis
Monday’s order of play
10AM UTC+1 (BST)
Daniel Wells vs Chang Bingyu
Zhang Anda vs Steven Hallworth
Liu Hongyu vs Ian Burns
Gary Wilson vs Gao Yang
Lyu Haotian vs Bai Yulu
He Guoqiang vs Artemijs Zizins
Yuan Sijun vs Xu Yichen
2:30pm UTC+1 (BST)
Aaron Hill vs Sam Craigie
Shaun Murphy vs Michal Szubarczyk
Neil Robertson vs Leone Crowley
Pang Junxu vs Hatem Yassen
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Fergal Quinn
Zak Surety vs Gong Chenzhi
Stephen Maguire vs Kreishh Gurbaxani
7pm UTC+1 (BST)
Stan Moody vs Antoni Kowalski
Mark Selby vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Jack Lisowski vs Amir Sarkhosh
Tom Ford vs Mateusz Baranowski
Scott Donaldson vs Mitchell Mann
Ali Carter vs Florian Nuessle
Matthew Stevens vs Sahil Nayyar
Featured picture credit score: WST
