The players Stephen McGuire, Hossein Vafaei, Guillaume Datt, and Zhao Yuelong are eligible for Berlin.

Graeme Dott, Stephen Maguire, Hossein Vafaei, and Zhou Yuelong secured their places in the German Masters on Thursday after winning qualifying matches at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. The German Masters, which will take place at Berlin’s Tempodrom from January 29 to February 4, will be broadcast live on Eurosport and Discovery+. Ali Carter will be defending his title after defeating Tom Ford 10-3 in the championship match last February.

Stephen Maguire, the 2012 German Masters finalist, defeated Rebecca Kenna 5-1 in the qualifying round at Ponds Forge in Sheffield to secure his spot in the last 64 in this year’s Berlin ranking tournament.

Despite losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan 9–7 in the final 11 years ago at the Tempodrom, the former UK champion hasn’t lost any of his scoring prowess; breaks of 51, 52, and 72 have helped him secure a ticket to Germany for next month (January 29–February 4).

Iran’s top player, Hossein Vafaei, joined him in the first round at the finals location. Vafaei defeated former women’s world champion Mink Nutcharut 5-0 with a 72-break record.

Graeme Dott, the 2006 world champion and 2018 runner-up, overcame a 3-2 deficit against Brazil’s Victor Sarkis to win 5-3, with the Scotsman recording a 92 break in the third set.

In other action, Zhou Yuelong, the Scottish Open semifinalist from last week, defeated Jak Jones, a Crucible qualifier, 5–4 in a high-scoring match.

After falling behind 2-0, Zhou took a 3-2 lead after to runs of 97, 59, and 104. Jones then tied the score at 4-4 with two more of his own 125 breaks, but the former Northern Ireland Open champion controlled the final to advance to the round of 64.

And Ryan Day, the previous winner of the British Open, defeated Stan Moody 5-3 with the aid of a peak knock of 91.