The 2024 English Open Snooker tournament got underway at the Brentwood Centre on Monday, and by yesterday (Thursday) it had reached the 3rd round stage.
And there have already been some high-profile casualties.
The matches in the first three rounds of the competition are decided on a ‘best of seven frames’ basis, and Basildon-based Stuart Bingham – who was the world champion in 2015 – made an early exit, losing to Yize Wu of China who won by four frames to three.
Current English Open champion and world number one Judd Trump only just edged through in the initial stage, with a 4-3 win against another Chinese player, Liu Hongyu, who is currently ranked number 65.
Tuesday saw a much anticipated first round appearance by another Essex-based player, as seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan of Chigwell faced the relatively unknown He Gudgiang of China, who is the current world number 64.
O’Sullivan – who won this competition in 2017 – won two frames after getting off to an awful start which saw him 3-0 down, but He won the decisive frame and one of the favourites made an early exit.
Other top players to make an exit at the first stage were Englishman Gary Allen, the current world number 10 who was beaten 4-3 by Scottish outsider Ross Muir and Allen’s fellow Englishman Jack Lisowski, knocked out by Si Xu of China by the same score.
Round two commenced on Wednesday and was the stage at which Essex representation came to an end, as Chelmsford-based number 11 Ali Carter was defeated 4-2 by China’s Wu Yize.
Another upset saw 2023 world champion Luca Brecel go out, as another Chinese player – Pang Junxu – beat the Belgian by four frames to three.
Thursday’s third round action saw wins for Trump, Yize, Mark Selby, Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Neil Robertson, Mark Allen, Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin.
Hawkins knocked out current world number two Kyren Wilson, whilst in something of an epic contest Allen got past four-time world champion John Higgins by four frames to three.
The result was a disappointment for the veteran Scot, but he achieved a personal milestone by becoming only the second player in the sport’s history to achieve 1000 career centuries.
The only other player to have achieved this feat is Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2019.
Today (Friday) the quarter-finals take place as follows:
Judd Trump v Wu Yize
Mark Allen v Chris Wakelin
Mark Selby v Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Neil Robertson v Barry Hawkins
