German Masters snooker: Stephen Maguire, Hossein Vafaei, Graeme Dott and Zhou Yuelong qualify for Berlin

ByEurosport

Updated 22/12/2023 at 08:42 GMT

Stephen Maguire, Hossein Vafaei, Graeme Dott and Zhou Yuelong booked their spots at the German Masters with qualifying victories at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on Thursday. The German Masters will be staged by the Tempodrom in Berlin next month (29 January-4 February) and is live on Eurosport and discovery+ as Ali Carter defends the title he won in February with a 10-3 final victory over Tom Ford.

2012 German Masters finalist Stephen Maguire booked his place in the last 64 of this season's Berlin ranking event with a 5-1 qualifying victory over Rebecca Kenna at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

The former UK champion lost 9-7 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final 11 years ago at the Tempodrom, but has lost none of his scoring class with breaks of 51, 52 and 72 helping him book a trip to Germany next month (29 January-4 February).

He was joined in the opening round at the finals venue by Iran's leading player Hossein Vafaei, who rolled in a 72 break in a 5-0 whitewash win over former women's world champion Mink Nutcharut.

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2006 world champion and 2018 finalist Graeme Dott recovered from trailing Brazil’s Victor Sarkis 3-2 to complete a 5-3 win with the Scotsman compiling a 92 break in the third frame.

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Elsewhere, last week's Scottish Open semi-finalist Zhou Yuelong edged out Crucible qualifier Jak Jones 5-4 in a high-scoring encounter.

Zhou trailed 2-0, but led 3-2 boosted by runs of 97, 59 and 104 with Jones producing two 125 breaks of his own to level at 4-4 before the former Northern Ireland Open finalist dominated the decider to reach the last 64.

And former British Open winner Ryan Day enjoyed a 5-3 victory over Stan Moody helped by a highest knock of 91.

• White, Wilson and Bingham suffer defeats in German Masters qualifiers
• Higgins, Williams and Doherty secure trip to German Masters with qualifying wins
• German Masters qualifying: How to watch, schedule and tournament draw

Latest results

• Alexander Ursenbacher 5-0 Ma Hailong
• Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Jak Jones
• Chris Wakelin 5-3 Mohamed Ibrahim
• Mark Joyce 5-1 Wu Yize
• Hossein Vafaei 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
• Stephen Maguire 5-1 Rebecca Kenna
• Liam Highfield 3-5 Jimmy Robertson
• Mark Davis 5-2 Ashley Hugill
• Graeme Dott 5-3 Victor Sarkis
• Ryan Day 5-3 Stan Moody
• Anthony Hamilton 1-5 Ben Woollaston
• Liam Graham 2-5 David Lilley

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Stream top snooker action, including the German Masters, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at Eurosport.com.

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