Mann Alive
Mitchell Mann
Mitchell Mann scored three crucial wins on the opening day of the Gdynia Open in Poland to ensure he keeps his place on the World Snooker Tour.
Mann needed to get into the top eight on the European Tour list, of those not already in the top 64 on the main ranking list, and he has done just that thanks to 4-3 wins over Sanderson Lam and Rhys Clark and a 4-2 defeat of Jack Lisowski. Birmingham’s Mann was  3-0 down against Clark but fought back to win 4-3 with a top break of 123.
Veteran Anthony Hamilton also boosted his hopes of gaining one of those eight spots by beating Joel Walker 4-2 and Peter Ebdon 4-1, though he then lost 4-2 to Mark King so his status will depend on other results.
Mark Selby booked his place in Sunday’s last 16 by coming from 3-0 down to beat Luca Brecel 4-3 in the third round.
Sam Baird increased his chances of qualifying for the Ladbrokes Players Championship with a trio of wins, culminating in a 4-2 defeat of Michael White.
Stephen Maguire reached the third round before losing 4-0 to Tom Ford and the Scot must hope for other results to go his way if he is to qualify for the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix.
Andrew Higginson saw off Tian Pengfei 4-2 while Marco Fu made breaks of 125 and 107 in a 4-0 win over Matthew Selt.