The defending champion and the 2014 winner experienced few troubles in emerging from their second qualifying round.
Judd Trump and Ding Junhui’s objective to qualify for the German Masters this week was completed with ease after respective 5-0 victories in Milton Keynes on Friday.
The world number one compiled a brace of tons in inflicting the bagel on Peter Lines, while Ding matched the whitewash margin in a similar, albeit scrappier, hiding of Ashley Carty.
The pair will feature at the venue stages of one of the calendar’s most popular ranking tournaments at the end of January, although it’s no guarantee at this stage that they will be returning to the Tempodrom this season.
Even though that is still the plan, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has continued to wreak havoc with the snooker schedule as every competition so far this campaign leaves its usual home to be instead staged at the Marshall Arena.
Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy almost compiled a second maximum break in the same qualifying event as he eased through to the last 32.
The “Magician” made a sixth career 147 break in his first-round victory against Chen Zifan earlier this week and looked set to repeat the feat only to miss the 15th black.
Murphy’s 113 in the final frame added to prior tallies of 117, 68, and 55 as he comprehensively ousted Ian Burns with a 5-1 scoreline.
Stephen Maguire had a much tougher time of it, fighting back from 3-1 down to deny fellow Scot Alan McManus in a decider, while amateur Michael White earned a similarly tense triumph over Elliot Slessor.
White dropped off the tour last season and is only competing as a top-up, but as a two-time former ranking event winner he remains a dangerous challenge for anybody on the circuit.
The biggest casualty of the day was 2019 champion Kyren Wilson, who suffered a 5-4 defeat to Jak Jones amid late-night drama.
Wilson’s loss means that four out of the top five competitors in the world rankings won’t be lining up at the main stages.
Among the others who managed to qualify for the German Masters were Barry Hawkins, Graeme Dott, Dominic Dale, Joe Perry, and Liang Wenbo.
The preliminaries conclude on Saturday with the remaining second-round fixtures, including a clash between multiple ranking event winners Stuart Bingham and Ricky Walden.
Click here to view the draw – scheduled times in CET (External Site)
