Gilbert secures spot at British Open with whitewash win

David Gilbert produced breaks of 85 and 72 in Leicester on Saturday to complete a 4-0 win over Dylan Emery in securing his spot at next month’s British Open in Cheltenham.

The world No. 22 and recent World Championship semi-finalist advances to the last 64 of the season’s fifth ranking event with the final stage of the British Open taking place at the Centaur between September 23-29.

Gilbert has made a strong start to the campaign by reaching the final group stage of the Championship League while he has also qualified for the inaugural Xi’an Open in China later this month (19-25 August).

Elsewhere on Saturday, 2006 world champion Graeme Dott completed a 4-1 win over two-time Crucible finalist Matthew Stevens boosted by knocks of 66 and 77.

Marco Fu will also take his place in the open draw for the last 64 courtesy of a 4-1 win over Joshua Thomond with Stuart Bingham edging out He Guoqiang 4-3 in a match that saw the 2015 world champion produce two 50-plus breaks and three in the 60s.

All top 16 seeds will begin their respective campaigns at the Centaur in Cheltenham, with 26-time ranking event winner Mark Williams bidding to defend the title he collected with a 10-7 victory in the final against Mark Selby last season.

• Haris Tahir 4-3 Dean Young
• Graeme Dott 4-1 Matthew Stevens
• David Gilbert 4-0 Dylan Emery
• Tian Pengfei 4-2 Scott Donaldson
• Wu Yize 4-1 Baipat Siripaporn
• Lyu Haotian 4-0 Anthony McGill
• Oliver Lines 4-3 Lei Peifan
• Simon Blackwell 4-2 Bai Yulu
• Cheung Ka Wai 4-0 Kreishh Gurbaxani

• Ben Woollaston 4-3 Matthew Selt
• Sunny Akani 4-0 Daniel Womersley
• Antoni Kowalski 4-1 Daniel Wells
• Alfie Burden 4-3 Andrew Higginson
• Marco Fu 4-1 Joshua Thomond
• Long Zehuang 4-0 Liam Pullen
• Yuan Sijun 4-2 Jamie Jones
• Hammah Miah 4-2 Wang Yuchen
• Stan Moody 4-2 Joe O’Connor
• Xiao Guodong 4-2 Huang Jiahao
• Stuart Bingham 4-3 He Guoqiang
• Lim Kok Leong 4-1Anthony Hamilton