Chinese Anda Causes Upset at World Snooker Qualifiers

Chinese teenager Zhang Anda caused probably the biggest upset of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship qualifiers yesterday, when he beat former Shanghai Masters Champion Ricky Walden 10-8.

The win for Anda will mean not only his Crucible debut but also the first televised finals of a major ranking event that he has reached. It is also remarkable as the 18-year-old from Guangzhou is also playing his debut season on the main tour. In qualifying for the TV stages he has had to go through 4 matches to reach the Crucible.

Zhang Anda is one of a number of young Chinese players that now base themselves at the Grove Snooker Club in Essex and after his win in the previous round against Andrew Higginson he also confirmed his place on next years tour.

Trailing 5-4 after the first session Anda then made a break of 74 to level the match. The next six frames were shared as neither player could quite find enough to pull away. Then the former World-under-21 Finalist found another gear and wrapped up the match in style with a 134 clearance and a 108 in the final frame.

“I never thought I could get to the Crucible,” he told Worldsnooker.com. “I just wanted to win enough games here to stay on the Main Tour, so now I’m very happy. I didn’t feel nervous at all, I was very focussed and my mind was totally into the match.”

This win again goes to show the strength in depth of Chinese snooker and that in a few years they may well be the dominant force.

Other winners included 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott who came through his match 10-6 against Jimmy Michie, Stephen Lee beat Mike Dunn 10-2, Stuart Pettman beat Stuart Bingham 10-2, Jamie Cope beat Mark Joyce 10-5 and finally Gerard Greene came through a tough match with Rory McLeod 10-9.

The draw for the TV stages will be made tomorrow at 10:30am and can be seen live in any betting shop.

Image: Worldsnooker.com