World Open 2025: Mark Williams suffers shock loss to Sunny Akani in qualifiers, Mark Allen and Mark Selby survive scares
By Rhys Jones
Published 22/12/2024 at 21:57 GMT
React to this story
The World Open 2025 qualifiers concluded on Sunday, December 22 in Sheffield, and Mark Williams stood out for the wrong reasons as he suffered a shock loss to Thailand's Sunny Akani at Ponds Forge. Mark Allen and Mark Selby survived scares from Rory Thor and Artemijs Zizins respectively to win in the final frame and book their passage to the tournament in China.
Trump, Higgins, Wilson and the Top 10 Flukes of 2024
Video credit: TNT Sports
Mark Williams suffered a shock loss to Sunny Akani in World Open qualifying, losing 5-2 to the Thai player on Sunday.
The final qualifying matches for the tournament in February took place on December 22 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, with a host of big names taking part.
Akani, who is ranked 98th in the world compared to Williams at six, won the opening two frames, hitting a century in the second to stun the Welshman.
Despite Williams making 141 in the third frame, Akani took the fourth for a 3-1 lead.
Williams was able to take the fifth frame, but could not stop the Thai ace from clinching the sixth and seventh frames to secure his place in Yushan in 2025.
The loss comes just three days after Williams' clash with Judd Trump in the quarter-finals of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, in which Williams picked up a bizarre injury after slipping on the carpet.
- World Open 2025: John Higgins and Ali Carter secure passage, Neil Robertson withdraws as Jack Lisowksi books place
- Riyadh Season Snooker Championship 2024: Mark Allen claims title as Luca Brecel beaten in final again
Mark Allen survived a scare against Rory Thor to secure his passage to the tournament in the final frame.
The Northern Irishman made 137 in the opening frame before Thor took control of the tie, leaving Allen to win it in the final two frames.
Thor had the chance to pick up victory but missed a shot on the pink in the last frame - to allow Allen to escape with the win - and took some time to leave the arena as he seemingly reflected on his failure to convert.
Selby also left it until the final frame against Zizins, hitting a break of 142 to secure the match against the young Latvian.
The 18-year-old stunned the world No. 5 by winning the first two frames before they swapped the next five between them, only for Selby to take control and win the closing two.
Selby has been drawn against Liu Hongyu in the first round of the tournament in February.
Joining the qualifiers was 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy who beat Mostafa Dorgham 5-3, coming back from 3-2 down to win three frames in a row and beat the Egyptian.
Jimmy White failed to qualify, winning a single frame in a 5-1 loss to Graeme Dott.
White previously won the tournament when it was known as the Grand Prix, and was contested in Reading, winning in 1986 and 1992.
Luca Brecel qualified for the final stages with a 5-3 win over Iulian Boiko to continue his upturn in form at this stage of the season.
After making the quarter-finals at the Scottish Open as he recovered his form, he made the final of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, losing to Allen on Friday.
Following a quick turnaround he travelled to Sheffield to face Boiko. The scores were locked at 2-2 until Brecel racked up three frames on the bounce to secure the win.Â
World Open 2025 qualifiers
Sunday, December 22
- Xiao Guodong 5-0 Dylan Emery
- Manasawin Phetmalaikul 5-2 Matthew Selt
- Lyu Haotian 5-2 Oliver Lines
- Duane Jones 5-3 Fan Zhengyi
- Liu Hongyu 5-0 Baipat Siripaporn
- David Gilbert 3-5 Amir Sarkhosh
- Mark Selby 5-4 Artemijs Zizins
- Luca Brecel 5-3 Iulian Boiko
- Pang Junxu 5-2 Ken Doherty
- Graeme Dott 5-1 Jimmy White
- Sunny Akani 5-2 Mark Williams
- Mark Allen 5-4 Rory Thor
- Shaun Murphy 5-3 Mostafa Dorgham
---
Watch and stream top snooker action, including The Masters, live on Eurosport and discovery+
Related Topics
Advertisement
Advertisement