China Open 2011 qualifiers - the last day

The power of Wales - Matt Stevens and Ryan Day

Every competition must come to an end and yesterday marked the end of this year`s China Open qualifiers. It was bloody, it was messy, it was top class snooker all the way through and that’s how a "day in snooker’s life" should look like :-))


Wales will be very well represented in the China Open tournament and I’m not saying this just because Mark Williams is the defending champion, but because Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day also so booked a place in the tournament. Ryan beat Tom Ford 5-1, while his fellow-country Matthew beat Anthony Hamilton by the same scoreline.

Birthplace: London, the UK; Current location: Norway; Next ranking event to look forward to: the China Open. That’s right peeps, Kurt Maflin made it! He won his last match and defeated the King of snooker - Mark King 5-1. Although it’s very likely for Kurt to play a wildcard in Beijing, his performance can’t be overlooked. He is back in business! :-))

Ken Doherty

Jimmy White had to face Dominic Dale in his last match, a match that he won so easily with a 5-2 final result, while Nigel Bond beat Liang Wenbo (the last Chinese standing) 5-3 to secure a place in the main event.

Two great and beautiful surprises, to see Ken Doherty whitewashing the Thai Issara Kachaiwong 5-0 and Martin "Gouldie" Gould winning his way through the balls for a 5-2 victory over Mike Dunn. It was about time to see those two in a ranking event, don’t you agree? ;-)
Stephen Lee and Alfie Burned offered us the battle of the day, as the boys played all nine frames. They weren’t separated by more than one frame, this giving you a clue about how great this match was. The winner was Lee, who ended on a 5-4 final result Alflie`s run.


Yesterday’s century breaks were: Ken Doherty (105), Robert Milkins (107), Judd Trump (109), Kurt Maflin (117), Martin Gould (120), Dominic Dale (120) and Mark King (134).

And here are the results:


So the ones who booked themselves a place for China Open and will play against the Top 16 players, are:




Congratulations to all the players, but mostly to those who won and see you at the end of March at the 2011 China Open ;-)