Neil Robertson was one of several top stars this week to secure his place in next month’s International Championship but despite victory he was far from happy.

Neil Robertson. Picture by Monique Limbos

The Australian secured his ticket for the China based ranking event by beating Sam Craigie 6-2 at Preston’s Guild Hall.

But Robertson – a former world champion – tweeted World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn on Thursday saying he felt his match in Preston was like playing in a “morgue”.

In the same tweet he also called for Hearn to drop ticket prices for the qualifying stages of the tournament in a bid to allow more to come and watch the matches. Tickets per session cost snooker fans as litte as £5 per session.

His tweet to Hearn read: “Please stop charging for tickets at qualifying. It’s like playing in a morgue at Preston.”

It appears that Hearn has not responded to Robertson’s tweet.

Meanwhile, Robertson is just one of a number of snooker’s elite to make it through to the International Championship – one of the biggest ranking events on the calendar.

Other top-ranked stars who have so far made it through include Shaun Murphy, Stuart Bingham, Mark Allen, Barry Hawkins and Ali Carter.

The likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and this season’s in-form star Luca Brecel play their qualifiers on Friday night.

Qualifiers involving world number one Mark Selby, world number two Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Liang Wenbo will be played at the venue starting from Sunday, October 29 when the tournament kicks off. The winner will receive a cheque for £150,000.

Hong Kong’s Marco Fu, a former finalist in this event, is the only big name so far to suffer a defeat in the qualifying stage. Fu lost out 6-4 to Thailand’s Akani Songsermsawad.