British Open snooker: Stephen Hendry suffers qualifying defeat to Muhammad Asif, Si Jiahui and Ken Doherty progress
Four-time British Open champion Stephen Hendry suffered a 4-2 loss to Muhammad Asif in the first round of this year’s tournament in Leicester.
In his first competitive match of the new season, the seven-time Crucible winner pocketed the opening frame with a break of 73, only to watch his opponent reel off the next three frames to move 3-1 clear.
Hendry edged the fifth frame to keep Monday’s contest alive, but a closing knock of 66 was enough for Pakistan’s world No. 81 to book his spot in the last 64 at the finals venue in Cheltenham next month.
World Championship semi-final Si Jiahui produced a dominant performance in running out a 4-1 winner against Lukas Kleckers earlier in the day.
Si dropped the opening frame, but progressed thanks to breaks of 54 and 63.
Elsewhere, 1997 world champion Ken Doherty also advanced courtesy of a 4-2 win over Alfie Burden on Monday night with a 76 in the fourth frame the highlight of his performance.
Qualifying runs until Saturday at the city’s Morningside Arena, before the world’s top 16 play their opening matches at the finals venue in Cheltenham between September 25 and 1 October.
‘Goodness me!’ – Phenomenal plant from Si
World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan – British Open champion in 1994 – was paired with former European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson.
The matches are the best of seven frames with the quarter-finals increasing to the best of nine, before two best-of-11 frame semi-finals and a best-of-19 frame final.
British Open latest first-round scores
- Muhammad Asif 4-2 Stephen Hendry
- Si Jiahui 4-1 Lukas Kleckers
- Ma Hailong 4-2 Ian Burns
- Ishpreet Singh Chadha 4-1 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
- Fergal O’Brien 4-1 Andres Petrov
- Alfie Burden 2-4 Ken Doherty
- Tom Ford 4-1 James Cahill
- Ben Mertens 4-2 Louis Heathcote
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