Only two wins stand between the remaining players and the Crucible.
A field of 128 has been whittled down to 64, with round three of the World Snooker Championship qualifying draw set to commence later on Saturday in Sheffield.
It’s at this juncture when the remaining competitors ranked outside the top 16 in the world rankings enter the fray, and just two more victories are needed in order to secure a spot at the venue stages of this year’s competition.
There are a number of players from the opening round who are still vying for one of the coveted 16 places at the English Institute of Sport.
Among them is China’s Bai Langning, who on Friday beat veteran Alan McManus in a defeat which resulted in the 1994 Masters champion announcing his immediate retirement from the professional game.
Tour stalwarts Rod Lawler and Peter Lines are also halfway towards their targets of the Crucible Theatre, while Kacper Filipiak and Igor Figueiredo are on course to become the first players from their respective home nations of Poland and Brazil to qualify for the last 32.
The latter takes on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the what is one of the ties of the penultimate round, while Filipiak is in action against Zhao Xintong in a battle of the up-and-coming younger talents.
Tour survival has been a considerable theme of the first week of preliminaries in the World Snooker Championship qualifying draw, and that ongoing discussion is unlikely to change in round three.
Former European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson secured a vital 6-5 triumph against Zhao Jianbo that looks set to safeguard his status among the top 64 in the world rankings, and with it a renewed tour card for the next campaign.
A complicated system will still see many changes over the next few days as the players scramble for high-pressured wins, with the various provisional ranking connotations updated regularly by the WPBSA.
Meanwhile, there’ll be no more sights of Stephen Hendry in the qualifying tournament after the seven-time world champion was easily dispatched of in the second round by Xu Si.
The likes of former world champions Stuart Bingham and Graeme Dott, in addition to two-time former finalists Matthew Stevens and Ali Carter, will be among the more familiar faces entering the fray from today, though.
You can back your favourite player to qualify for the upcoming World Snooker Championship with some of the best snooker betting sites providing helpful sign-up offers.
One competitor already guaranteed a spot in Judgement Day – the final qualifying round – is Lyu Haotian, who receives a bye after would-be opponent Noppon Saengkham failed a COVID-19 test.
Live coverage of the World Championship qualifiers is available on the Eurosport App and Matchroom.Live.
World Snooker Championship Qualifying Draw: Round Three
Qualifier 1
Zhou Yuelong vs Xu Si
Elliot Slessor vs Liam Highfield
Qualifier 2
Matthew Selt vs Nigel Bond
Scott Donaldson vs Dominic Dale
Qualifier 3
Robert Milkins vs Joe O’Connor
Kurt Maflin vs Jak Jones
Qualifier 4
Lyu Haotian w/o Noppon Saengkham
Tom Ford vs Chang Bingyu
Qualifier 5
Graeme Dott vs Eden Sharav
Sunny Akani vs Tian Pengfei
Qualifier 6
Michael Holt vs Jamie Jones
Li Hang vs Andrew Higginson
Qualifier 7
Lu Ning vs Jimmy Robertson
Liang Wenbo vs Rod Lawler
Qualifier 8
Mark Davis vs Stuart Carrington
Joe Perry vs Jamie Clarke
Qualifier 9
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Igor Figueiredo
Mark Joyce vs Anthony Hamilton
Qualifier 10
Ryan Day vs Louis Heathcote
Ricky Walden vs Peter Lines
Qualifier 11
Ben Woollaston vs Bai Langning
Martin Gould vs Duane Jones
Qualifier 12
Jordan Brown vs Steven Hallworth
Gary Wilson vs Gerard Greene
Qualifier 13
Ali Carter vs Pang Junxu
Martin O’Donnell vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Qualifier 14
Zhao Xintong vs Kacper Filipiak
Hossein Vafaei vs Sam Craigie
Qualifier 15
Matthew Stevens vs Chris Wakelin
Xiao Guodong vs Ian Burns
Qualifier 16
Luca Brecel vs Mark King
Stuart Bingham vs Chen Zifan
Click here to view the full draw (external site)
Pingback: World Snooker Championship Qualifying Draw: Round Three | PK Sports News