Higgins, Williams and Doherty secure trip to German Masters with qualifying wins

ByEurosport

Updated 18/12/2023 at 23:57 GMT

Former world champions John Higgins, Mark Williams and Ken Doherty booked their places at the German Masters in Berlin next month with qualifying wins in Sheffield on Monday. European Masters champion Barry Hawkins is also through, while Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui produced a stunning recovery to advance. Stream top snooker action live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com.

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John Higgins recovered from the disappointment of his Scottish Open semi-final defeat to Noppon Saengkham to book a trip to the German Masters with a battling 5-3 qualifying win over Daniel Wells in Sheffield.

The four-time world champion produced a trademark double on a red to set up the victory over Wells leading 20-0, before compiling a fine 44 in a tough matchplay encounter that saw Higgins top score with a relatively modest knock of 50 in the sixth frame.

He will make another trip to Berlin when the last-64 stage of the German Masters is held at the Tempodrom next month (29 January-4 February).

Higgins’ fellow former world champions Mark Williams and Ken Doherty are also through to the last 64 after enjoying wins on Monday.

Williams hit a closing break of 106 in a 5-3 success against David Grace, while 1997 world champion Ken Doherty progressed with a 5-0 whitewash of Jenson Jendrick.

European Masters champion Barry Hawkins was in heavy-scoring form as he ran out a 5-2 winner over Stuart Carrington, boosted by knocks of 103, 88, 69 and 138.

Elsewhere, Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui hit back from trailing Lyu Haotian 4-0 to complete a remarkable 5-4 win.

Lyu ran in 83, 64, 89 and 112 in dominating the opening four frames, but added only 58 more points as breaks of 123, 87, 98 and 103 saw Si progress to the final venue.

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German Masters qualifiers

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5–1 Jamie JonesKen Doherty 5–0 Jenson KendrickOliver Brown 5–0 Andres PetrovSi Jiahui 5–4 Lyu Haotian Mark Williams 5-3 David GraceRicky Walden 5-1 Adam Duffy Rory Thor 3-5 Ben Mertens Dominic Dale 0-5 Liu HongyuElliot Slessor 5-2 Iulian BoikoJohn Higgins 5-3 Daniel Wells Jackson Page 3-5 Robbie WilliamsBarry Hawkins 5-2 Stuart Carrington Sam Craigie v Sean O’Sullivan He Guoqiang v John Astley Aaron Hill v Muhammad Asif Ding Junhui v Yuan Sijun Jack Lisowski v Zak Surety Andy Lee v Louis Heathcote Robert Milkins v Allan Taylor Ian Burns v Xiao Guodong Martin Gould v James Cahill Martin O’Donnell v Himanshu Jain Matthew Selt v Dylan Emery Kyren Wilson v Oliver LinesAndrew Higginson v Jiang Jun Zhang Anda v Mostafa Dorgham Jordan Brown v Long Zehuang Fan Zhengyi v Cao Yupeng Alfie Burden v Peng Yisong Stuart Bingham v Liam Pullen Andy Hicks v Joe O’Connor Hammad Miah v Jamie Clarke Pang Junxu v Jimmy White Haydon Pinhey v Rod Lawler Gary Wilson v Scott Donaldson Anton Kazakov v Matthew StevensAlexander Ursenbacher v Ma Hailong Zhou Yuelong v Jak Jones Chris Wakelin v Mohamed Ibrahim Mark Joyce v Wu Yize Hossein Vafaei v Mink Nutcharut Stephen Maguire v Rebecca Kenna Liam Highfield v Jimmy Robertson Mark Davis v Ashley Hugill Graeme Dott v Victor Sarkis Ryan Day v Stan Moody Anthony Hamilton v Ben Woollaston Liam Graham v David Lilley David Gilbert v Dean Young Ahmed Aly Elsayed v Andrew Pagett Xing Zihao v Ross Muir Tom Ford v Baipat Siripaporn Noppon Saengkham v Ashley Carty Tian Pengfei v Reanne Evans Alfie Davies v Sydney Wilson Joe Perry v Ryan Thomerson

Held-over matches (January 29th in Berlin)

Ali Carter v Michael White Shaun Murphy v Xu Si Mark Allen v Manasawin Phetmalaikul Judd Trump v Lukas Kleckers Ronnie O’Sullivan v Julien Leclercq Mark Selby v Marco Fu Neil Robertson v Sanderson Lam Luca Brecel v Ishpreet Singh Chadha

Stream top snooker action, including the German Masters, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at Eurosport.com.

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