World Open (the qualifiers) - who gets a ticket to Haikou

I still got it babe!

The qualifiers for the newest ranking tournament in the book have come to an end. The last day saw Marco Fu hitting a marvellous 147, Stephen Hendry booking himself a flight to China in the spring and Robert Milkins performing the first and only whitewash of these qualifiers.

Last year's Masters runner-up, Marco Fu made a maximum break of 147 in his quest for a place in this year's Haikou World Open. This is Fu's second professional max after the one he hit in 2000 and it was enough to intimidate a pretty tough opponent, Matthew Selt, whom he beat 5-3.

A very intense "pink clash" was given between Mark Davis and Sam Baird, a player that has had a tremendous run. Although Davis hit a beautiful 137 the battle ended on a decider, decider that Sam won fair and square for a place in China's third ranking event.

At the same time, Robert Milkins, another member of the Pink Army, caused the only whitewash of these qualifiers by beating the Welshman Ryan Day 5-0, while Jimmy Robertson used a brilliant series of 51, 97, 63, 50 and 97 to survive the encounter with Rory McLeod by 5-3.

After a great PTC 12 run, Hendry seems in a great form

Barry Hawkins will be seen on TV also, the player from Kent ending on a tight 5-4 with Ian McCulloch, while his comrade Alfie Burden wasn’t very lucky and got beat 5-3 by a very wise and experienced Scotsman, Marcus Campbell who got the strength to make a remarkable comeback from being lead 3-0.

Dominic Dale ended Dave Harold's run with 5-4, while PTC 12 runner-up Joe Perry hammered the one and only 'Sheriff of Pottingham" Anthony Hamilton 5-1 to safely fly in China in February.

Just one day after turning 43, Stephen Hendry earned his right to play in a ranking event by defeating Mike Dunn 5-2 with a bit of help from breaks like 50, 63 and 73. After the match, Dunn said on his Twitter account that he didn’t take his chances, but that he was glad to play against Hendry for the first time.

Mark King did a pretty good job by defeating China's Liang Wenbo 5-4, Andrew Higginson doing the same but against Yu Delu and with a 5-3 scoreline.

Walden in action

Ricky Walden is surely on the road to recovery, the Englishman who lives in Wales doing his best to maintain a positive thinking after losing the UK Championship semi-final. 

He had a very tough match against a pink 
soldier, Gerard Greene, a match that saw all its fuel being consumed, but which result has been in Walden's favour, 5-4.

We are going to miss Peter Ebdon, one of the most colourful characters in the snooker business being defeated 5-3 by one very determined Michael Holt, while the Irishman Fergal O'Brien although put an incredible fight to come back from being lead 4-0 by Nigel Bond, sadly lost the decider, 5-4.

So in the end here are the names of the 16 players that are getting a spot next to the ones from the Top 16 and will delight us with their snooker skills from February 27 until March 4:

10am
42 Marco Fu 5-2 Matthew Selt
43 Jamie Cope 5-1 Jamie Burnett
44 Mark Davis 4-5 Sam Baird
45 Ryan Day 0-5 Robert Milkins
46 Barry Hawkins 5-4 Ian McCulloch
47 Marcus Campbell 5-3 Alfie Burden
2.30pm
48 Dominic Dale 5-4 Dave Harold
49 Stephen Hendry 5-2 Mike Dunn
50 Mark King 5-4 Liang Wenbo
51 Tom Ford 5-4 Jamie Jones
52 Rory McLeod 3-5 Jimmy Robertson
7pm
53 Andrew Higginson 5-3 Yu Delu
54 Ricky Walden 5-4 Gerard Greene
55 Joe Perry 5-1 Anthony Hamilton
56 Peter Ebdon 3-5 Michael Holt
57 Fergal O'Brien 4-5 Nigel Bond