Maguire, Vafaei, Dott and Zhou enjoy qualifying wins to book trip to Berlin

ByEurosport

Updated 22/12/2023 at 00:09 GMT

Stephen Maguire, Hossein Vafaei, Graeme Dott and Zhou Yuelong booked their spots at the German Masters with qualifying victories at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on Thursday. The German Masters will be staged by the Tempodrom in Berlin next month (29 January-4 February) and is live on Eurosport and discovery+ as Ali Carter defends the title he won in February with a 10-3 final victory over Tom Ford.

‘Right up there with Masters and World Championship’ – Carter on German Masters win

2012 German Masters finalist Stephen Maguire booked his place in the last 64 of this season’s Berlin ranking event with a 5-1 qualifying victory over Rebecca Kenna at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

The former UK champion lost 9-7 to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final 11 years ago at the Tempodrom, but has lost none of his scoring class with breaks of 51, 52 and 72 helping him book a trip to Germany next month (29 January-4 February) .

He was joined in the opening round at the finals venue by Iran’s leading player Hossein Vafaei, who rolled in a 72 break in a 5-0 whitewash win over former women’s world champion Mink Nutcharut.

2006 world champion and 2018 finalist Graeme Dott recovered from trailing Brazil’s Victor Sarkis 3-2 to complete a 5-3 win with the Scotsman compiling a 92 break in the third frame.

‘What a finish’ – Wilson beats Zhou on a respotted black to reach Scottish Open final

Elsewhere, last week’s Scottish Open semi-finalist Zhou Yuelong edged out Crucible qualifier Jak Jones 5-4 in a high-scoring encounter.

Zhou trailed 2-0, but led 3-2 boosted by runs of 97, 59 and 104 with Jones producing two 125 breaks of his own to level at 4-4 before the former Northern Ireland finalist dominated the decider to reach the last 64.

And former British Open winner Ryan Day enjoyed a 5-3 victory over Stan Moody helped by a highest knock of 91.

Latest results

Alexander Ursenbacher 5-0 Ma HailongZhou Yuelong 5-4 Jak JonesChris Wakelin 5-3 Mohamed IbrahimMark Joyce 5-1 Wu YizeHossein Vafaei 5-0 Mink NutcharutStephen Maguire 5-1 Rebecca KennaLiam Highfield 3-5 Jimmy RobertsonMark Davis 5-2 Ashley HugillGraeme Dott 5-3 Victor SarkisRyan Day 5-3 Stan MoodyAnthony Hamilton 1-5 Ben WoollastonLiam Graham 2-5 David Lilley

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

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