Dominic Dale made a winning start to his British Open campaign with a dominant 4-1 victory over Mark Joyce in the first round in Leicester.
The seasoned two-time ranking event winner and Eurosport pundit showed he has lost none of his scoring talent to book a spot in the last 64 of the season’s third ranking event.
Joyce opened with a run of 68, but knocks of 91, 67 and 54 were enough to see the Welshman advance at the city’s Morningside Arena on Tuesday night.
Dale has enjoyed a solid start to the campaign after qualifying for the European Masters last 64 in Nuremberg with a 5-2 win over former World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill.
Elsewhere in British Open qualifying, world No. 20 Ricky Walden lost 4-0 to Xu Si – who made a highest break of only 67 – in securing an upset win, while last year’s semi-finalist Robbie Williams weighed in with runs of 51, 77 and 134 in a 4-0 whitewash of Crucible qualifier Pang Junxu.
In another surprise outcome, world No. 109 Hammad Miah edged past last year’s Northern Ireland Open finalist Zhou Yuelong 4-3.
Zhou compiled breaks of 105 and 62, but a 61 in the fourth frame helped Miah recover from trailing 2-0 before he held his nerve in the decider to book his spot at the finals venue at the Centaur in Cheltenham.
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 with the event staged between September 25 and October 1.
World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan – the 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.
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Dale sings Frank Sinatra’s My Way and shows off balancing skills in chaotic interview
British Open latest first-round scores
- David Grace 4-1 Jenson Kendrick
- Scott Donaldson 4-1 Adam Duffy
- Dominic Dale 4-1 Mark Joyce
- Oliver Lines 4-0 Liam Pullen
- Oliver Brown 4-3 Himanshu Jain
- Xu Si 4-0 Ricky Walden
- Hammad Miah 4-3 Zhou Yuelong
- Robbie Williams 4-0 Pang Junxu
