Wye Valley Brewery Stourbridge Open: Bryant Shines on Day One

No.2 seed Stuart Macgregor and teenager Jonah Bryant both impressed on day one of the Wye Valley Brewery Stourbridge Open, as the quarter-final line-ups were set. 

Macgregor and Bryant were in the final two matches of the day, and both cruised into the last eight in straight games, each taking just 21 minutes to see off Tino Antonio Mackay Palacios and Ismail Khalil respectively. 

Bryant will now face Noah Meredith, who beat Michael Andrews, while Macgregor will look to avoid the same unwanted fate as fellow seed Aaron Allpress, who suffered a shock round-one defeat to pre-qualifier Jordan Hardwick. 

Earlier in the day, unseeded Englishman Jared Carter caused a big upset of his own in round one, knocking out third seed Robert Downer. 

Carter – ranked more than 100 places below Downer and nine years his junior – defied both the rankings and experience to stun his compatriot, coming back from a game down to win 3-1 in 57 minutes. 

His reward is a quarter-final match-up with another Englishman, Lewis Doughty, who eased past Hasnaat Farooqi in three games to reach day two. 

That match will be one of three all-English quarter-finals, with the other an all-Welsh affair between top seed Elliott Morris Devred and teenager Rhys Evans. 

Devred needed four games to get past Paul Broadberry in his opening encounter, though he controlled much of the final two, taking them 11-5, 11-1 to close out victory. 

Unseeded Evans, meanwhile, staged a stunning comeback to beat New Zealand’s Joel Arscott in five games. 

The Welsh 19-year-old found himself on the brink of defeat after dropping the first two games, but came roaring back in the third, took a nail-biting fourth-game tie break, then ran away with the fifth to book his spot in the last eight. 

Results: Round One

[1] Elliott Morris Devred (WAL) bt Paul Broadberry (ENG) 3-1: 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 11-1 (38m) 
Rhys Evans (WAL) bt [7] Joel Arscott (NZL) 3-2: 6-11, 7-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-3 (67m) 
[6] Jonah Bryant (ENG) bt Ismail Khalil (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 (21m) 
[4] Noah Meredith (ENG) bt Michael Andrews (ENG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 (23m) 
Jared Carter (ENG) bt [3] Robert Downer (ENG) 3-1: 11-13, 11-8, 12-10, 11-3 (57m) 
[5] Lewis Doughty (ENG) bt Hasnaat Farooqi (ENG) 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 (30m) 
Jordan Hardwick (ENG) bt [8] Aaron Allpress (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 (36m) 
[2] Stuart Macgregor (ENG) bt Tino Antonio Mackay Palacios (SCO) 3-0: 11-2, 11-5, 11-2 (21m) 

Draw: Quarter-Finals

[1] Elliott Morris Devred (WAL) v Rhys Evans (WAL) 
[6] Jonah Bryant (ENG) v [4] Noah Meredith (ENG) 
Jared Carter (ENG) v [5] Lewis Doughty (ENG) 
Jordan Hardwick (ENG) v [2] Stuart Macgregor (ENG)