Stephen Maguire recorded a comfortable 5-0 victory over Boonyarit Kaettikun to qualify for the China Open on Friday.
The Scot, champion in Beijing in 2008 and the runner-up four years later, compiled a 125 century in the last frame to complete the routine whitewash win over the Thai.
Maguire has fallen down the pecking order over the course of the last couple of years and has dropped outside of the top 16 in the world rankings, having rarely threatened at the business end of events in recent times.
However, at 35 he still represents a dangerous competitor and it’ll be interesting to see if he can resurrect his career, perhaps commencing with an upsurge in form before the climax of this campaign.
Elsewhere in Preston on the final day of qualifiers at the Guild Hall, David Gilbert and Alan McManus inflicted 5-1 defeats on Chen Zhe and Kurt Dunham respectively.
It was a poor day for the Irish contingent as Josh Boileau and Joe Swail both exited at the first hurdle.
Veteran Swail was downed 5-3 by Paul Davison to continue his woes with maintaining a place inside the world’s top 64 in the rankings.
Rookie Boileau suffered a similar defeat to former UK and Masters champion Matthew Stevens, prolonging his difficult first spell on the main tour.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Robertson ended Cao Yupeng’s chances of a trip back to his home country with a 5-3 success but there was a guaranteed Chinese victory as Li Hang fended off Fang Xiongman by the same margin.
Alfie Burden, Andrew Higginson, Jamie Cope, and Gareth Allen rounded off the last qualifiers – the latter with a 5-4 triumph against Robin Hull in the most dramatic encounter of the final day.
