Dylan Emery has defeated Harvey Chandler 4-3 following a dramatic final to win the second event of the 2024/25 WPBSA Q Tour Europe at the National Snooker Academy of Bulgaria in Sofia.
The 23-year-old recovered from 3-1 down to fellow former professional Harvey Chandler to triumph at his maiden Q Tour Europe final following a bumper weekend of snooker in Sofia.
Emery moves to second place in the Q Tour rankings behind Event 1 winner Andres Petrov and has guaranteed himself at least a place in the end of season Q Tour Global Playoff by lifting the trophy.
Having entered the tournament at the last 64 stage as one of 48 seeded players, Welshman Emery won matches against Adam Abbas and Patrick Whelan – the latter following a deciding-frame – to reach the last 16 at a Q Tour event for the first time.
Whitewash victories against Mateusz Baranowski and Kuldesh Johal saw him progress to the semi-finals, before he recorded an impressive 4-2 success against former ranking event finalist Mark Joyce to reach the title match.
There he would come up against England’s Harvey Chandler, who also won five matches to earn his place in a second-career Q Tour final, most notably recovering from 0-2 down against Liam Highfield with an outstanding barrage of breaks to win 4-2 in the semi-finals.
During the early stages of the final it appeared as though Chandler would maintain that momentum as he recovered from losing a close opener to win three in a row with breaks of 86, 54, 50 and 68 to move to the cusp of victory.
But Emery was to have the last laugh as he responded with runs of 74 and 69 to force a deciding-frame, which after both players had chances to win saw Emery gain the advantage with a well-executed snooker to set up a match-clinching chance on the colours.
“I am just happy to win, it is more of a relief than anything,” reflected Emery following victory. “Harvey played well for 3-1 to be fair to him, I won a good first frame, it was a bit back and forth and was 40 up in the second frame and he threw everything at me so fair dos to him, he put up a good match.
Emery reaffirmed his goal for the season to regain his place on the professional World Snooker Tour after he was relegated at the end of his initial two-year card and explained what he learned from that spell.
“My goal is just to win, win, win and to do what I am capable of doing,” continued Emery. “I think a lot of players will tell you that as this sort of standard, there’s not much you can take [from his first two years] except experience but you don’t know that until a couple of years down the line.
“I think the only thing that I can think of that I took from it was that my attitude was quite bad at the start and it maybe cost me one or two matches, so I just need to try my best but easier said than done!”
The highest break of the tournament was 142, achieved by both Emery and Liam Highfield during their respective semi-final matches.
The WPBSA Q Tour Europe continues with Event 3 which runs from 4-6 October in Stockholm, Sweden.
