We're halfway into the four days of German Masters qualifying taking place this week in Barnsley and already a few of the higher seeds have exited the door, with a few last 128 matches to take place in Thursday's morning and afternoon sessions.
On Thursday evening the last 64 will get underway with the first eight games, before the remaining 24 last 64 games take place on Friday.
Featuring on Thursday evening will be 2016 German Masters champion Martin Gould after he overcame Alfie Burden 5-3 on Tuesday afternoon. One of the European hopes has been extinguished with Swiss Alexander Ursenbacher losing out 5-3 to Ken Doherty.
World Champion Mark Selby had a successful return to action following an early exit in the UK Championship, as he whitewashed Sam Baird. Shaun Murphy had a maximum attempt, missing the 13th red on 96 in frame six of his 5-2 win over Paul Davison.
Barry Hawkins won a vital frame four re-spotted black against Jamie Barrett to lead 3-1 at the interval, and would eventually come through 5-1 in that match. Josh Boileau meanwhile came from 4-2 down and 67-0 in frame seven to beat Norweigian Kurt Maflin 5-4 and now faces Mark Davis as he saw off Robert Milkins 5-3.
Cao Yupeng responded in superb style to his gutting loss from 8-4 up in Sunday's Scottish Open final, by making breaks of 87, 88 and 123 in the final three frames of his 5-2 victory against Chen Zifan. In frame four of the contest, Chen made the highest break of the first two days of qualifying meanwhile with a superb 140 but would not score a point after the interval, such is Cao's form.
Meanwhile, there has been a top 16 casualty with Anthony McGill exiting the competition, as predicted in my initial preview, with Jimmy White producing another fine performance to come through 5-3. There was to be no shock for Mark Allen, as his heavy scoring continued making three centuries and back to back tons in the final two frames of a 5-3 win against Li Yuan.
Selected last 128 results:
Jimmy Robertson 5-3 Rhys Clark
Peter Lines 5-4 Scott Donaldson
Martin Gould 5-3 Alfie Burden
Ken Doherty 5-3 Alexander Ursenbacher
Mark Allen 5-3 Li Yuan
Rod Lawler 5-1 Ross Muir
Jimmy White 5-3 Anthony McGill
Yu De Lu 5-0 Jamie Clarke
Mark Davis 5-3 Robert Milkins
Josh Boileau 5-4 Kurt Maflin
Shaun Murphy 5-2 Paul Davison
Cao Yupeng 5-2 Chen Zifan
Barry Hawkins 5-1 Jamie Barrett
Liam Highfield 5-2 Hossein Vafei
Mark Selby 5-0 Sam Baird
Jamie Jones 5-4 Zhang Anda
Thursday evening's last 64 ties: (Picks in bold)
Jimmy Robertson Vs Peter Lines
Martin Gould Vs Ken Doherty
Mark Allen Vs Rod Lawler
Yu De Lu Vs Jimmy White
Mark Davis Vs Josh Boileau
Shaun Murphy Vs Cao Yupeng
Barry Hawkins Vs Liam Highfield
Mark Selby Vs Jamie Jones
Jimmy Robertson had two centuries in his defeat of Rhys Clark on Tuesday morning, as well as a further break of 89 so he is clearly in good touch coming into his match with Peter Lines. Lines survived a huge scare in round one against Scott Donaldson. Having led 4-0, Lines had to watch Donaldson come all the way back to 4-4 before he eventually got over the line, and he will need to take his chances against Robertson if he continues to score heavily.
Former champion Martin Gould will not have an easy match here against Ken Doherty, but he has been in good form in recent weeks and with his record in Berlin he will be keen to have another crack at the title at the Tempodrome in the new year.
Yu De Lu and Jimmy White is another interesting contest. Yu had an easy 5-0 win in the last 128, and with this now being his twelfth ranking event of the season, he has only lost in the first round three times this season, but only made it beyond the last 64 stage twice so far. White meanwhile produced another excellent performance to beat Anthony McGill, and that was no surprise to me at all. He always seems to play well at or immediately after being at a tournament working with Eurosport. His form has come on in recent weeks with a couple of wins in Belfast, followed by the defeat of Carter in York, given that he lost seven straight matches after an early season last 16 appearance in Riga.
Josh Boileau's comeback victory against Kurt Maflin was a vital one given his tour situation as he is going to need some big results between now and the end of the season to have any chance of tour survival. Mark Davis had lost his last four matches in a row before Robert Milkins, and all four of those were in deciding frames so it is not as if he has been getting beaten up in that period. Given Boileau's form, Davis clearly has the edge going into this one.
Cao Yupeng's response to losing in such agonising fashion in the Scottish Open final was to produce a fine performance in his first game afterwards. He scored incredibly heavily and did not concede a single point after the mid-session break and if he keeps that up he will provide a big challenge for Shaun Murphy. Murphy lost at this stage of last year's German Masters to Yan Bingtao, and did not look at his best against Paul Davison. Despite reaching four finals this season, Murphy has also lost in the "qualifying round" for each of the Riga, European and Shanghai Masters and with Cao's form he has a challenge to avoid a fourth qualifying defeat.
Liam Highfield and Barry Hawkins presents another great match-up where the high seeded player could have a big test. Highfield came through 5-2 against a tough opponent in Hossein Vafei, making a century along the way and generally has been in good form this season. A quarter-final earlier in the year in India was nearly matched as he lost in the last 16 in Belfast, and it has taken some in-form players to beat him lately. In Scotland he lost at the last 64 stage by a fairly narrow 4-2 margin to eventual winner Neil Robertson, while he had his chances to beat UK runner-up Shaun Murphy in the last 64 stage before losing 6-5. Barry Hawkins has had his struggles this season so far, only making the last 32 in three of ten ranking events he has entered. Recent results have seen first round exits in Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as a 6-0 drubbing at the last 32 stage in York. Given that Highfield is in good form and has taken the game to some top players recently, Hawkins will need some of his best form if he is to win.
Jamie Jones has a decent record against Mark Selby. He only lost out 6-5 in the 2015 UK Championships, having thrashed Selby 5-1 earlier on that season in the last 16 of the Australian Open. Jones had to win the final two frames to overcome Zhang Anda, while Selby had a much easier route with his 5-0 whitewash of Sam Baird. Given that Selby has had a good rest coming into these qualifiers, and is a former champion in Berlin, he will be determined to get back to the Tempodrome and Jones will have to be at his absolute best to see off the world number one again.
Friday will see the conclusion of German Masters qualifying with the remaining last 64 matches, which will all be previewed on the blog when the last 128 concludes on Thursday afternoon.
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