Mark Selby suffered a shock defeat at the qualification stage of the 2024 Wuhan Open, beaten 5-4 by Long Zehuang, while Jimmy White beat Dominic Dale.
Despite breaks of 135 and 130 to hand himself a commanding 4-1 lead, world No. 6 Selby surrendered four straight frames to China’s Long, who is ranked 63 places lower than the Englishman.
Selby’s performance faltered the longer the match continued, with a hard-fought sixth frame going the way of his 27-year-old opponent via a break of 50.
That would prompt a run of four half-centuries for Long, who finished off the final-frame decider with his highest break of the match – 67.
Elsewhere, White came from behind to beat Dale 5-3.
The 62-year-old managed two half-century breaks to defeat his Welsh opponent, rattling off three frames in a row to come from 2-1 down to lead 4-2 in Leicester.
And The Whirlwind saved the best till last after being pegged back one frame away from qualification, knocking in a match-high break of 77 to secure his spot in the main draw of October’s tournament.
Having knocked out Dale, White will face either Noppon Saengkham of Thailand or more Welsh opposition in the form of Daniel Wells in the last 64.
Jamie Jones was stunned by Pakistan’s Haris Tahir 5-3, with the world No. 123 notching four half-centuries and a break of 108.
John Higgins and Shaun Murphy breezed through their tests, seeing off Belgium’s Ben Mertens and Michael Holt of England 5-1 respectively.
Higgins needed just two half-centuries to dispatch 19-year-old Mertens, while Murphy doubled Higgins’ haul to beat Holt.
Gary Wilson survived a final-frame decider against Swiss potter Alexander Ursenbacher in a back-and-forth encounter.
With neither player able to string three winning frames together, it came down to a tense finale, which Wilson claimed 74-60 thanks to a break of 53.
And just before that nail-biting conclusion, Egyptian Mostafa Dorgham sealed his own 5-4 win over world No. 33 Ricky Walden.
In that contest, Dorgham led from the start, but found himself locked at 4-4 against the former Shanghai Masters champion and a scrappy final frame went the way of the world No. 89 by 75-45.
There was another 5-4 upset earlier in the day, with Stephen Maguire knocked out by Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong.
The Scotsman never really got going against an opponent ranked 65 places lower than himself, and two consecutive frames for Cheung rounded off a fine victory.
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Publish date : 2024-07-28 22:33:36
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Author : pksportsnews
Publish date : 2024-07-28 23:40:16
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