There were 12 amateurs included in the first round draw of the Matchroom.live British Open which started on Monday.
This is a World Snooker Tour ranking event and as there are currently only 122 professionals there will usually be call-ups for amateurs. This call-up is based on the Q School Order of Merit.
Some of the top professionals were missing for various reasons:
- Ronnie O’Sullivan chose not to take part.
- Neil Robertson is busy getting married!
- Ding Junhui is stuck in China due to Covid concerns over travel.
- Dylan Emery was a late call up after Jamie O’Neil was suspended. Dylan came fresh from his success in the first Welsh Under 21 Ranking Event on Sunday. (See earlier post here)
There were some very creatable performances in this event which is better suited to the amateurs being best of 5. In fact half of them made it through to round 2!
- John Astley 3-1 Zhang Anda [98]
- Michael Georgiou 3-0 Soheil Vahedi (a)
- Ross Muir 3-1 Ryan Day [25]
- Bai Langning 3-0 Ashley Carty [67]
- Dylan Emery 3-2 Gao Yang [72]
- David Lilley 3-2 Craig Steadman [100]
The first amateur to feature in the second round was David Lilley who was unfortunately beaten 3-0 by Jordan Brown [37].
Update 20/08/2021
Ross Muir continued in fine form with a fantastic 3-1 win over Rory McLeod [75].
Dylan Emery can be proud of his achievements in this event despite going out 3-2 to fellow Welshman Andrew Padgett[97]. Dylan was 2-1 up but the experience of Padgett prevailed.
The other three results were:
- Bai Langning 2-3 Pang Junxu [63]
- John Astley 1-3 David Gilbert [20]
- Michael Georgiou 0-3 Matthew Selt [27]
Ross Muir will face Allan Taylor [75] this morning
Update 21/08/2021
Another fantastic performance from Ross Muir saw him bounce back from losing the first frame to beat Allan Taylor 3-1.
He later came up against an in-form Ricky Walden [29] and was beaten 3-1. Overall though a very successful event for Ross.