Team GB lose place at ice hockey top table

GREAT BRITAIN collapsed from 3-1 up two days in a row earlier this week to suffer a painful relegation from the top flight of the ice hockey World Championships.

Team GB were beaten 5-3 by Austria on Monday, only just over 24 hours after a 4-3 defeat to Latvia at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.

Those defeats left Pete Russell's men on just one point from seven games, well short of the safety mark in Group B - but it could have been all so different if the build-up to the tournament had not been quite as disrupted by injury as it was.

Shorn of the brightest British hockey star of his generation, Liam Kirk, the team suffered further blows to the offence with the loss of Mike Hammond and Ollie Betteridge.

At least Team GB could call upon the vast experience provided by captain Jonathan Phillips who picked up a new national record by winning his 111th cap in the match against Austria.

But the lack of firepower was clearly in evidence in four warm-up matches, two each against Denmark and Italy, which finished with four defeats and an aggregate score of 1-16.

Nevertheless, in the finals themselves, Team GB acquitted themselves generally well -  and were shut out only by Sweden (0-6), hosts Finland (0-6), and the United States (0-3), the latter of which was a competitive battle.

In total, Team GB found the back of the net on 10 occasions in the four other matches, scoring one more goal than in the 2019 World Championship when Britain beat France in overtime to survive in their first season back in the top flight for 25 years.

This time, though, it was not to be - despite a stunning recovery from 3-0 down in the third period against Norway in their second game.

A trio of quickfire goals from Robert Dowd, Brett Perlini and Mark Richardson forced an unlikely period of overtime - but, while there was no further scoring in the additional five minutes, it was the Norwegians who prevailed on penalty shots for the extra point.

At the time, it still looked like a good point - but results elsewhere in Group B conspired against Team GB with Austria forcing overtime against the United States then causing a shock by beating the Czech Republic on penalty shots.

Meanwhile, Latvia beat Norway in a regulation time victory for three points - and the points from the match between the Latvians and the Austrians were split 2-1 in favour of the former after another match which went all the way.

As largely expected then, the Team GB campaign would be decided by their last two matches with Latvia (5) and Austria (4), well clear of Russell's side on a single point.

Britain looked set to close the gap on the teams above them when Lewis Hook restored a two-goal lead at 3-1 within seconds of Oskars Batna pulling one back for Latvia.

Those goals followed an opening period which was dominated by Britain and rewarded on the scoreboard with a goal from Perlini and a maiden senior international strike for Cade Neilson.

By the end of the second period, Latvia were back in it at 3-2 after scoring on the powerplay - and Britain critically failed to stay out of the penalty box in the third as the Latvians completed the turnaround with two further powerplay goals.

At least, at that point, Austria remained within reach - and any win in regulation time was enough for Team GB to survive again at the elite level on head-to-head

In a carbon copy of the Latvia game, things looked good again early on as Matt Myers and Dowd deservedly put Britain 2-0 up, and Neilson produced a quick response to an Austrian goal for a 3-1 scoreline.

The main difference this time was that, by the time Neilson scored, the match was in the third period and had less than 14 minutes left.

Nevertheless, that was still more than enough time for an Austria team who did not panic in the knowledge that a tie at the end of 60 minutes would be enough for them.

The Austrians quickly got back on level terms through Dominique Heinrich and Benjamin Nissner as Britain were overwhelmed - then went ahead for the first time through Thomas Raffl to leave Britain needing two.

Unsurprisingly, Team GB pulled the goalie - but that merely allowed Peter Schneider to slide the puck into an empty net from the very next attack.

That fifth Austrian goal arrived with an undoubtable thud of finality - the new boys had secured safety and Great Britain were going down.

Of course, right now, there is much about the future which remains uncertain.

The expulsion of Belarus and Russia from the Championships this year following the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine has left questions over the future structure of the promotion and relegation places between the top flight and the second-tier Division 1A.

Russia - if ever welcomed back into the international fold - almost certainly would be placed straight back into the Top Division with Belarus likely to go to Division 1A following their bottom-placed finish in 2021.

This year, though, there were still two promotion spots up for grabs with Hungary and Slovenia replacing Britain and Italy who were relegated after they also took just one point in Group A.

In some heartening news this week, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced Great Britain as the host of Division 1A in 2023 with the matches set to be played on home ice at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. 

Therefore, Team GB already stand an excellent good chance of ensuring that this memorable spell among the elite merely ended on a semi-colon - and not a full-stop.

GROUP A	W	W-OT	L-OT	L	F	A	Pts
(Q) SWITZERLAND	6	1	0	0	34	15	20
(Q) GERMANY	5	0	1	1	26	20	16
(Q) CANADA	5	0	0	2	34	18	15
(Q) SLOVAKIA	4	0	0	3	23	19	12
DENMARK	4	0	0	3	18	18	12
FRANCE	1	1	0	5	11	24	5
KAZAKHSTAN	1	0	0	6	19	31	3
(R) ITALY	0	0	1	6	12	32	1

• All matches at the Helsinki Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland

13-May	14:20	FRANCE	2-4	SLOVAKIA
13-May	18:20	GERMANY	3-5	CANADA
14-May	10:20	DENMARK	9-1	KAZAKHSTAN
14-May	14:20	SWITZERLAND	5-2	ITALY
14-May	18:20	SLOVAKIA	1-2	GERMANY
15-May	10:20	ITALY	1-6	CANADA
15-May	14:20	FRANCE	2-1	KAZAKHSTAN
15-May	18:20	DENMARK	0-6	SWITZERLAND
16-May	14:20	SLOVAKIA	1-5	CANADA
16-May	18:20	FRANCE	2-3	GERMANY
17-May	14:20	ITALY	1-2	DENMARK
17-May	18:20	SWITZERLAND	3-2	KAZAKHSTAN
18-May	14:20	FRANCE	2-1	ITALY	OT
18-May	18:20	SWITZERLAND	5-3	SLOVAKIA
19-May	16:00	GERMANY	1-0	DENMARK
19-May	19:30	CANADA	6-3	KAZAKHSTAN
20-May	14:20	GERMANY	9-4	ITALY
20-May	18:20	KAZAKHSTAN	3-4	SLOVAKIA
21-May	10:20	DENMARK	3-0	FRANCE
21-May	14:20	CANADA	3-6	SWITZERLAND
21-May	18:20	ITALY	1-3	SLOVAKIA
22-May	14:20	KAZAKHSTAN	4-5	GERMANY
22-May	18:20	SWITZERLAND	5-2	FRANCE
23-May	14:20	KAZAKHSTAN	5-2	ITALY
23-May	18:20	CANADA	2-3	DENMARK
24-May	10:20	GERMANY	3-4	SWITZERLAND	GWS
24-May	14:20	SLOVAKIA	7-1	DENMARK
24-May	18:20	CANADA	7-1	FRANCE

GROUP B	W	W-OT	L-OT	L	F	A	Pts
(Q) FINLAND	6	0	1	0	25	5	19
(Q) SWEDEN	5	1	1	0	27	10	18
(Q) CZECH REPUBLIC	4	0	1	2	19	13	13
(Q) UNITED STATES	3	2	0	2	18	12	13
LATVIA	2	1	0	4	14	20	8
AUSTRIA	1	1	2	3	16	22	7
NORWAY	1	1	0	5	15	29	5
(R) GREAT BRITAIN	0	0	1	6	10	33	1

• All matches at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland

13-May	14:20	UNITED STATES	4-1	LATVIA
13-May	18:20	FINLAND	5-0	NORWAY
14-May	10:20	SWEDEN	3-1	AUSTRIA
14-May	14:20	CZECH REPUBLIC	5-1	GREAT BRITAIN
14-May	18:20	LATVIA	1-2	FINLAND
15-May	10:20	NORWAY	4-3	GREAT BRITAIN	GWS
15-May	14:20	AUSTRIA	2-3	UNITED STATES	OT
15-May	18:20	CZECH REPUBLIC	3-5	SWEDEN
16-May	14:20	LATVIA	3-2	NORWAY
16-May	18:20	FINLAND	4-1	UNITED STATES
17-May	14:20	CZECH REPUBLIC	1-2	AUSTRIA	GWS
17-May	18:20	SWEDEN	6-0	GREAT BRITAIN
18-May	14:20	NORWAY	5-3	AUSTRIA
18-May	18:20	FINLAND	2-3	SWEDEN	GWS
19-May	14:20	GREAT BRITAIN	0-3	UNITED STATES
19-May	18:20	CZECH REPUBLIC	5-1	LATVIA
20-May	14:20	GREAT BRITAIN	0-6	FINLAND
20-May	18:20	LATVIA	4-3	AUSTRIA	GWS
21-May	10:20	UNITED STATES	3-2	SWEDEN
21-May	14:20	AUSTRIA	0-3	FINLAND
21-May	18:20	NORWAY	1-4	CZECH REPUBLIC
22-May	14:20	GREAT BRITAIN	3-4	AUSTRIA
22-May	18:20	SWEDEN	7-1	NORWAY
23-May	14:20	UNITED STATES	0-1	CZECH REPUBLIC
23-May	18:20	AUSTRIA	5-3	GREAT BRITAIN
24-May	10:20	SWEDEN	1-0	LATVIA
24-May	14:20	UNITED STATES	4-2	NORWAY
24-May	18:20	FINLAND	3-0	CZECH REPUBLIC

QUARTER FINALS

26-May	14:20	GERMANY	1-4	CZECH REPUBLIC	Helsinki
26-May	14:20	SWEDEN	3-4	CANADA	Tampere  OT
26-May	18:20	SWITZERLAND	0-3	UNITED STATES	Helsinki
26-May	18:20	FINLAND	4-2	SLOVAKIA	Tampere

SEMI FINALS

28-May	10:20	FINLAND	4-3	UNITED STATES	Tampere
28-May	14:20	CANADA	6-1	CZECH REPUBLIC	Tampere

BRONZE FINAL

29-May

13:20

UNITED STATES

4-8

CZECH REPUBLIC

Tampere

GOLD FINAL

29-May

18:20

FINLAND

4-3

CANADA

Tampere OT

OVERALL RANKINGS

1 • FINLAND

2 • CANADA

3 • CZECH REPUBLIC

4 • UNITED STATES

5 • SWITZERLAND

6 • SWEDEN

7 • GERMANY

8 • SLOVAKIA

9 • DENMARK

10 • LATVIA

11 • AUSTRIA

12 • FRANCE

13 • NORWAY

14 • KAZAKHSTAN

15 • (R) ITALY

16 • (R) GREAT BRITAIN

GREAT BRITAIN TOURNAMENT POINTS
2+3 • Cade Neilson

2+2 • Brett Perlini

2+0 • Robert Dowd

1+1 • Ben Lake

1+1 • Lewis Hook
1+1 • Matthew Myers
1+0 • Mark Richardson

0+2 • Scott Conway

0+2 • Josh Batch
0+1 • Evan Mosey
0+1 • Joshua Tetlow
0+1 • Sam Jones
0+1 • Ben O'Connor

Ryder restores British pride as Europe shows solidarity with Ukraine

SAM RYDER scored the best result for the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 24 years, finishing as a valiant runner-up to the entry from war-torn Ukraine.

TikTok star Ryder topped the jury vote - and also scored well with the public - but his lead was swallowed up by a massive outpouring of support for the folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra.

The winning song Stefania took an incredible 431 points out of a maximum possible 468 from the European public - becoming the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian and the first rap song to win the competition.

Nevertheless, Ryder can still be extremely proud of putting the UK right back into the Eurovision spotlight after years of underperformance.

Instead, this year, the UK took a maximum of douze points in the jury vote from a disparate set of nations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, and Ukraine.

In fact, only four of the juries failed to reward Ryder with any points - Armenia, Australia, Croatia, and Greece.

Meanwhile, in the televote, only Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia - all of which are former republics of Yugoslavia - failed to catch the mood.

In short, outside of the Balkans, Space Man was a fabulous success.

"This is the tip of an iceberg," Ryder told the BBC afterwards. "The UK is going to be a force next year. It's gonna be mad."

"This is a red letter moment," added Graham Norton, who presented the contest on BBC One. "I am so happy for [Sam], for the UK and for the BBC who have worked so hard to turn our fortunes."

Overall, the UK actually still holds a proud record at Eurovision, winning the competition on five occasions, a total beaten only by Ireland (seven) and Sweden (six).

However, the most recent British victory was now a quarter of a century ago when Katrina and the Waves achieved Eurovision glory in 1997 with Love Shine a Light.

In 1998, Imaani provided a strong defence with Where Are You - while, in 2002, Jessica Garlick finished in third place with Come Back.

Just a year later, though, the UK suffered its first ever occurrence of nul points following a distinctly off-key performance of Cry Baby by Jemini.

Four further bottom-placed finishes would follow starting with Andy Abraham in 2008 and Josh Dubovie in 2010 who sandwiched a strong performance by Jade Ewen.

Then, in the two most recent years in which a Contest has been held - in 2019 and 2021 - the UK picked up the wooden spoon on both occasions, with a second humiliating instance of nul points for James Newman last year.

That was perhaps not much of a surprise as large swathes of the European public demonstrated their dislike towards the British entries following the Brexit vote.

But, even in the years before the political landscape shifted, the UK had treated the Contest with some disdain.

Arguably, the low point came not with the bottom-placed finishes - but in the successive years of 2012 and 2013 when the UK put forward then-76-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck followed by comparatively sprightly 1980s star Bonnie Tyler.

The selection and performance of the hugely likeable Ryder, however, was the antithesis of those tired choices.

For a start, Ryder did so well because of his falsetto singing ability which goes a long way to explain his massive popularity on social media.

In the background, he was also part of a crack team of writers which also included Amy Wadge, who has also written hits with Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Kylie Minogue and Alicia Keys.

The song itself, Space Man - pieced together over a Zoom call - leaned heavily on reflecting the sound of British music legends like Elton John, David Bowie, and Queen.

Of course, a supranational competition will struggle to avoid having a political element to it - and Ukraine undoubtedly garnered no shortage of sympathy votes.

However, the politics of the Eurovision Song Contest has been grossly overstated in the past in Britain as an excuse for our woes.

True, the Croatian and Montenegrin public still helped Serbia to a top five finish with their votes - but Ukraine took douze points from the viewers of a record 28 different European countries, spread far and wide across the continent in solidarity.

For the UK, Ryder - an unassuming 32-year-old from Maldon in Essex - hit the right note on all counts with his tune in Turin.

Furthermore, his runner-up spot puts the UK with a strong shout of being the next host if Ukraine finds itself in the unfortunate position of being unable to stage the extravaganza next year.

That, of course, is hopefully not the case - but hostilities in Ukraine would surely need to be brought completely to a halt, and - even now - that does not appear likely any time soon.

So, although it would not be in the usual or expected way, Eurovision might once again be headed to these shores.

And for that we have to thank our very own Space Man - Sam Ryder.

		Artist - Song	Jury	Public	TOTAL
(1)	Ukraine	Kalush Orchestra - Stefania	192	439	631
(2)	United Kingdom	Sam Ryder - Space Man	283	183	466
(3)	Spain	Chanel - SloMo	231	228	459
(4)	Sweden	Cornelia Jakobs - Hold Me Closer	258	180	438
(5)	Serbia	Konstrakta - In corpore sano	87	225	312
(6)	Italy	Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi	158	110	268
(7)	Moldova	Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers - Trenulețul	14	239	253
(8)	Greece	Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord - Die Together	158	57	215
(9)	Portugal	Maro - Saudade, saudade	171	36	207
(10)	Norway	Subwoolfer - Give That Wolf a Banana	36	146	182
(11)	Netherlands	S10 - De diepte	129	42	171
(12)	Poland	Ochman - River	46	105	151
(13)	Estonia	Stefan - Hope	43	98	141
(14)	Lithuania	Monika Liu - Sentimentai	35	93	128
(15)	Australia	Sheldon Riley - Not The Same	123	2	125
(16)	Azerbaijan	Nadir Rustamli - Fade To Black	103	3	106
(17)	Switzerland	Marius Bear - Boys Do Cry	78	0	78
(18)	Romania	WRS - Llámame	12	53	65
(19)	Belgium	Jérémie Makiese - Miss You	59	5	64
(20)	Armenia	Rosa Linn - Snap	40	21	61
(21)	Finland	The Rasmus - Jezebel	12	26	38
(22)	Czech Republic	We Are Domi - Lights Off	33	5	38
(23)	Iceland	Systur - Með hækkandi sól	10	10	20
(24)	France	Alvan and Ahez - Fulenn	9	8	17
(25)	Germany	Malik Harris - Rockstars	0	6	6

• In the Jury vote, United Kingdom gained points from...

12 Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Ukraine

10 Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal

8 Ireland, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Sweden

7 Iceland

6 Denmark, Italy, Norway, Switzerland

5 Montenegro

4 Estonia, Netherlands

3 Cyprus, Spain

2 Slovenia

1 Serbia

• In the Public vote, United Kingdom gained points from...

12 Malta

10 Israel

8 Austria, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Spain

7 Australia, Iceland, Ukraine

6 Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden

5 Estonia, Greece, Switzerland

4 Albania, Finland, Georgia, Lithuania

3 Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania

2 France, Czech Republic

1 Armenia

Ronnie O'Sullivan - the greatest showman in snooker

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
THE CRUCIBLE • 1-2 MAY
[2] RONNIE O'SULLIVAN 18-13 JUDD TRUMP [4]

[1]	5-3	Sun 1pm 0-98 (72), 120-0 (120), 78-1 (68), 73-66 (JT 52) 62-13, 105-4 (105), 0-98 (97), 50-79
[2]	7-2	Sun 7pm 36-100 (73), 117-7 (66, 50), 122-9 (118) 107-15 (97), 77-0, 94-26 (87), 4-80 (80), 79-0 (60), 88-33 (88)
[3]	2-6	Mon 1pm 22-115 (107), 25-90 (59), 0-81, 71-45 (64), 20-66, 51-60, 68-1 (55), 0-126 (105)
[4]	4-2	Mon 7pm 82-12 (82), 88-12 (88), 27-72 (64), 91-1 (75), 0-151 (109), 93-0 (85)

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN joined Stephen Hendry on a record seven World Snooker Championship titles with a scintillating performance against Judd Trump at the Crucible.

O'Sullivan beat Trump 18-13 to go level with Hendry, and one world title clear of Steve Davis and Ray Reardon. At the age of 46, the Rocket also became the oldest Crucible champion ahead of former mentor Reardon.

"I think it meant more to him [Hendry] than me to have seven world titles but we will share it," O'Sullivan said.

"Hendry is an absolute legend of the game. It is just a number - I do not get too caught up in that."

Nevertheless, it was an extremely emotional O'Sullivan who picked up the trophy on Monday night, having first made time to give Trump a huge bear-hug and words of encouragement.

Trump, for his part, admitted that he had left himself with far too much to do after the first day of the contest at the end of which he found himself 12-5 down.

The 32-year-old Bristolian, appearing in his third world final, took the first frame of the match - but, ultimately, that would be the last time he led.

O'Sullivan responded immediately in the second frame with a 120 break and then took advantage of some sloppy Trump play to stride into a 5-1 lead.

In an early critical moment, the Rocket won the fourth on a re-spotted black with a cocked-hat double after having needed a snooker.

But, somehow, the opening session ended with Trump recovering to trail only 5-3 - while the Rocket was rocked after receiving an official warning from match referee Olivier Marteel.

It remains unclear what exactly happened at the end of the eighth frame after O'Sullivan ran out of position and failed to get out of a self-imposed snooker.

However, the Chigwell man has previously expressed his displeasure at his mistakes by making lewd gestures - although, on this occasion, he vehemently protested his innocence.

There had been an earlier minor flash-point in the third frame when Marteel failed to re-spot the cue ball correctly so that it unquestionably had a material impact on the options available to O'Sullivan.

But the incident at the end of the first afternoon made for altogether far more uncomfortable viewing - and the Rocket walked out of the arena without shaking hands with Marteel.

At the start of the second session on Sunday night, O'Sullivan did shake hands with the official, and the friction from the end of the afternoon thankfully appeared to dissipate.

Still, it made for interesting footage for the producers with whom O'Sullivan has agreed to make a Netflix-style documentary...

Back to the snooker - and Trump again took the first frame to reduce arrears further to 5-4.

From then on, though, O'Sullivan preyed on Trump's evident discomfort to achieve an ultimately unassailable advantage.

The Rocket took the 10th frame after a bad Trump error in the balls, won the 11th with a century break, and took the 12th after Trump messed up another big chance by missing a black off the spot.

In an error-strewn 13th frame, immediately after the mid-session interval, O'Sullivan again got the better of the early exchanges against an increasingly-forlorn Trump whose game was "in tatters", according to Hendry on BBC commentary duties.

O'Sullivan also took the 14th with an 87 break - and so it was to the great credit to Trump that he made a run of 80 in the 15th frame to stop the rot.

The last two frames of the session went to form, though - O'Sullivan took the 16th following an extremely unfortunate in-off by Trump with cue ball deflecting off a red into the pocket.

And, while he was nowhere near as unlucky as that in the 17th, it will have felt just as agonising for Trump to lose after he had again got in first.

Resuming on the second day, there was a fairly widespread anticipation that O'Sullivan might win with a session spare, given Trump's struggles.

Instead, the Ace produced by far his best snooker of the Final, bookending the session with century breaks of 107 and 105, and taking six of the eight frames to close back to 14-11.

This Final had finally sparked into life - and now at least it was on the baize.

All eyes again were on O'Sullivan ahead of the evening denouement - from the talk of winning with a session to spare, suddenly a momentous Trump comeback was on the cards.

The doubts about O'Sullivan did not last for long, though - and, at the final mid-session interval, he had extended his lead back to five frames at 17-12 with a trio of half-century breaks.

On each occasion, O'Sullivan appeared to be in with a good chance of a 16th ton at the Championship, which would have equalled a Crucible record held by Hendry and Mark Williams, only to break down with the frame already won.

Nevertheless, the Rocket still made three centuries in a largely free-flowing Final - including his 200th at the Crucible in the second frame.

Trump also made three tons, including a 109 in frame 30 which, coincidentally, set a new record of 109 centuries at this World Snooker Championship, one more than in 2021.

That effort pulled the score back to 17-13 - but, with still so much breathing room, there was no way that O'Sullivan was going to be denied.

In the 31st frame, the Rocket worked an opening by forcing Trump to play a containing safety shot which left a chance on a red along the cushion.

It was Trump's last shot of the Championship, as O'Sullivan then triumphantly breezed to a break of 85 to charge over the finish line amid a jubilant atmosphere.

Pertinently, in the evening mid-session interval, the BBC had shown an excellent feature about success and failure, something which O'Sullivan especially has had to deal with throughout his career.

Of course, he would be the first to admit he has failed to act in an appropriate manner in some of the situations in which he has found himself.

Nevertheless, for many years now, he has been acknowledged as the most talented player to have picked up a cue - the greatest of all time, if you like.

The difference now is that, whether he actually really cares about the numbers or not, O'Sullivan finally has the seven world titles with which to prove it.

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP
THE CRUCIBLE THEATRE

FIRST ROUND [Best of 19 frames]

	[1]	Mark Selby	10-7	Jamie Jones
	[16]	Yan Bingtao	10-6	Chris Wakelin
	[9]	Barry Hawkins	7-10	Jackson Page
	[8]	Mark Williams	10-3	Michael White

	[5]	Kyren Wilson	10-8	Ding Junhui
	[12]	Stuart Bingham	10-5	Lyu Haotian
	[13]	Anthony McGill	10-7	Liam Highfield
	[4]	Judd Trump	10-4	Hossein Vafaei

	[3]	Neil Robertson	10-5	Ashley Hugill
	[14]	Jack Lisowski	10-8	Matthew Stevens
	[11]	Luca Brecel	5-10	Noppon Saengkham
	[6]	John Higgins	10-7	Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

	[7]	Zhao Xintong	10-2	Jamie Clarke
	[10]	Shaun Murphy	8-10	Stephen Maguire
	[15]	Mark Allen	10-7	Scott Donaldson
	[2]	Ronnie O'Sullivan	10-5	David Gilbert

SECOND ROUND [Best of 25 frames]

	[1]	Mark Selby	10-13	Yan Bingtao	[16]
		Jackson Page	3-13	Mark Williams	[8]
	[5]	Kyren Wilson	9-13	Stuart Bingham	[12]
	[13]	Anthony McGill	11-13	Judd Trump	[4]

	[3]	Neil Robertson	12-13	Jack Lisowski	[14]
		Noppon Saengkham	7-13	John Higgins	[6]
	[7]	Zhao Xintong	9-13	Stephen Maguire
	[15]	Mark Allen	4-13	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

QUARTER FINALS [Best of 25 frames]

	[16]	Yan Bingtao	11-13	Mark Williams	[8]
	[12]	Stuart Bingham	8-13	Judd Trump	[4]
	[14]	Jack Lisowski	12-13	John Higgins	[6]
		Stephen Maguire	5-13	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

SEMI FINALS [Best of 33 frames]

	[8]	Mark Williams	16-17	Judd Trump	[4]
	[6]	John Higgins	11-17	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

CENTURIES 109
147 Neil Robertson 

140 Stuart Bingham
138 Mark Williams (2)

137 Mark Selby, Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams (2)

136 Zhao Xintong
135 Jackson Page, Mark Williams

134 Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan

132 Neil Robertson, Mark Selby
131 Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson
130 Shaun Murphy, Chris Wakelin

129 Mark Selby, Anthony McGill

128 Jackson Page, John Higgins

127 Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Noppon Saengkham
126 Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O'Sullivan
125 Mark Williams, John Higgins
124 Anthony McGill
123 Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins
122 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ding Junhui, Jack Lisowski

121 Mark Williams (3), Hossein Vafaei, Ronnie O'Sullivan
120 Judd Trump, Ronnie O'Sullivan

119 Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams
117 Mark Williams, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson

116 Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan
114 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Judd Trump

113 Judd Trump
112 Yan Bingtao, Noppon Saengkham
110 Mark Williams, Noppon Saengkham, Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Judd Trump
109 Zhao Xintong, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen, Neil Robertson (2), Luca Brecel, Judd Trump

108 Matthew Stevens
107 Mark Allen, Stephen Maguire, Judd Trump, Ronnie O'Sullivan

106 John Higgins, Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski, Anthony McGill, Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham
105 Judd Trump (3), John Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan
104 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Yan Bingtao, Stuart Bingham
103 Zhao Xintong, Lyu Haotian, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao, John Higgins
102 Jackson Page Stephen Maguire, Yan Bingtao (2)
101 Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao, Ronnie O'Sullivan
100 Yan Bingtao, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins (2), Jack Lisowski, Judd Trump