Neil Robertson never looked in danger of missing out on a place at next month’s World Open after comfortably beating Sanderson Lam 5-1 in qualifying on Tuesday. The Australian has already begun the season strongly with a triumph in the inaugural Hong Kong Masters and he made light work of his English opponent in Preston, notching breaks of 80, 79, 78, 64, and 60 on his way to victory.
The 35-year-old is a three-time winner of the World Open, most recently in 2010, and his reward for reaching the main draw of this year’s event will be a clash with Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham, who beat England’s Adam Duffy 5-3 in his qualifying match. On a day of comfortable victories, World Games champion Kyren Wilson beat Malaysia’s Thor Chuan Leong 5-1 despite only recording one half century during the match. Former world champion Stuart Bingham also secured a 5-1 win, although his triumph over Mei Xiwen was slightly more impressive, as his performance included a century break of 105. Former UK champion Matthew Stevens eased into the main draw thanks to a 5-0 drubbing of Australian Kurt Dunham, while Dominic Dale also progressed through without dropping a frame during his match with teenager Jackson Page.
The only match to go to a deciding frame on Tuesday was Englishman Chris Wakelin’s clash with veteran James Wattana. Wattana battled back from 3-1 down and looked on course to go through until Wakelin struck breaks of 79 and 57 to reach the main draw. Qualifying will conclude in Preston on Wednesday, with the main event scheduled to take place in China between September 18 and 24.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.