European Masters snooker: Watch John Higgins, Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams, Ali Carter and Jimmy White begin title bid
The first round of the European Masters begins in earnest in Leicester on Tuesday with John Higgins, Mark Williams, Jack Lisowski, Ali Carter, Gary Wilson, Robert Milkins and Jimmy White all bidding to secure a trip to the finals venue in the German city of Nuremberg next month.
Matches involving the top eight seeds – which include world champion Luca Brecel and world No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan – have been held over to the finals venue at the KIA Metropol Arena between August 22-27 (LIVE on Eurosport).
Kyren Wilson is defending the title he claimed with a 9-3 win over Barry Hawkins last year.
The rest of the opening round matches will be staged by the Morningside Arena between Tuesday and Saturday with several heavyweights from the world’s top 16 chasing a spot in the last 64 of the season’s second ranking event.
‘We’re going to play every single event in Germany’ – Wilson after winning European Masters
All of the key action from this week’s qualifying stage is available to watch live on discovery+, the Eurosport app, eurosport.com and tntsports.co.uk as former world champions, major title winners and emerging talent take to the baize.
A few of the highlights of the first round are listed below:
2023 European Masters
- Jimmy White v Aaron Hill 10am
- Ryan Day v Zak Surety 2:30pm
- John Higgins v Martin Gould 7pm
- Pang Junxu v Mink Nutcharut 10am
- Si Jiahui v Julien Leclercq 2:30pm
- Robert Milkins v Ben Woollaston 2:30pm
- Anthony McGill v Dominic Dale 7pm
- Reanne Evans v Jason Kendrick 2:30pm
- Jack Lisowski v Sam Craigie 7pm
- Gary Wilson v Ben Mertens 7pm
- Mark Williams v Zhang Anda 2:30pm
- Barry Hawkins v Sean O’Sullivan 2:30pm
- Ali Carter v Alfie Davies 7pm
- Joe O’Connor v Rebecca Kenna 10am
- Hossein Vafaei v Rod Lawler 2:30pm
- Stuart Bingham v Jamie Clarke 2:30pm
Brecel faces Jackson Page in his first match as world champion on Tuesday August 22 in Germany with O’Sullivan also in the draw in his first competitive action since losing 13-10 to Brecel in the Crucible quarter-finals in April.
He has been handed an opening match against Andy Hicks, the 1995 Word Championship semi-finalist.
Kyren Wilson meets Dean Young as he begins his title defence, while Masters champion Judd Trump faces Egypt’s Mohamed Ibrahim, the African champion.
New Championship League winner Shaun Murphy takes on 2006 world champion Graeme Dott in another intriguing match in the opening round of 128.
All matches are the best-of-nine frames until the semi-finals which are the best-of-11 frames before a best-of-17-frame final.
‘Inspirational’ snooker from Lisowski – Shot of the match?
2023 European Masters (held over to host venue)
- Luca Brecel v Jackson Page
- Ronnie O’Sullivan v Andy Hicks
- Kyren Wilson v Dean Young
- Shaun Murphy v Graeme Dott
- Judd Trump v Mohamed Ibrahim
- Mark Allen v Anton Kazakov
- Mark Selby v Manasawin Phetmalaikul
- Neil Robertson v Wu Yize
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