Neil Robertson added to his centuries count as he overcame Ross Muir 5-3 to secure qualification for the lucrative China Championship next month.
A break of 101, his 15th ton of the season already, helped the Australian on his way as he looks to build on a promising start to the campaign in which he has already bagged silverware.
It was another busy day of preliminary round action at the Preston Guild Hall on Sunday, the first of four days in sorting out the spots for the China Championship following the last 128 fixtures in both the Indian Open and European Masters.
The majority of the higher ranked and more fancied players who were competing made it through to the main event that will be held towards the end of September and that will provide a £175,000 champion’s cheque.
Shaun Murphy bounced back from the disappointment of two previous failures in qualifying this season with a 5-2 victory over Jordan Brown that included a 123 century break and three additional runs above 50.
Masters champion Mark Allen repeated the scoreline against Sean O’Sullivan, the “Pistol” firing in a brace of centuries in a mostly dominant display, while Ryan Day, with a pair of tons of his own, was another 5-2 winner against Jak Jones.
The in-form Jack Lisowski, who was the runner-up to Robertson in the Riga Masters and subsequently reached the quarter-finals of the World Open before dramatically losing in a collapse to eventual champion Mark Williams, fought back from 4-2 down with breaks of 81, 67, and 56 stunning Ian Burns.
Lisowski has qualified for both China and the European Masters this week, and looks set to mount a challenge on a top 16 place for the first time in his career.
Elsewhere, Marco Fu continued his resurgence after a recovery from eye surgery towards the end of the last term with a 5-2 triumph over Sam Baird while Joe Perry repeated the same margin of success later in the day against Ashley Hugill.
The lower ranked competitors didn’t have much to shout about, although veteran Nigel Bond edged Michael Holt 5-3 and John Astley ousted Snooker Shoot Out champion Michael Georgiou in a decider.
Meanwhile, Chinese young talent Lyu Haotian qualified for one of his home tournaments thanks to a deciding frame victory over countryman Li Yuan.
Mark Davis and Kurt Maflin hammered Hamza Akbar and Sanderson Lam respectively while Akani Songsermsawad recorded a routine win against Robin Hull as well.
Among the others to advance were Martin O’Donnell and Tom Ford, who inflicted the only whitewash defeat of the day on Paul Davison.
On Monday, world number one Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, and Stephen Maguire will be some of the top players taking part.
Live coverage is on the Eurosport Player.
Click here to view the draw (Times: CET)
