Jack Lisowski was among the early qualifiers as the preliminary stage of the inaugural Turkish Masters commenced on Wednesday in Leicester.
The Englishman has recently dropped outside the top 16 in the world rankings and also failed to qualify for the upcoming Players Championship in Wolverhampton.
But Lisowski compiled breaks of 110, 109, 98, 65, and 53 in a dominant display against amateur David Lilley to comfortably guarantee his involvement at the venue stages of the Turkish Masters in March.
Among the others progressing on day one were former world number two Stephen Maguire and reigning Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown.
Maguire remains a top-16 player for the time being, but the Scot soon has an enormous sum of money to come off his tally from his victory in the 2020 Tour Championship.
When that deduction is made prior to the World Championship, Maguire could find himself plummeting towards a fight to remain inside the top 32, never mind the top 16.
The 40 year-old overcame Zhao Jianbo 5-2 while Northern Ireland’s Brown matched that scoreline in a 5-2 defeat of Bai Langning.
Meanwhile, there were three deciding-frame thrillers with Matthew Selt and Aaron Hill edging Zhang Anda and Pang Junxu respectively.
Hill requires a very strong end to the season if he’s to give himself a chance of tour survival and another shot at the Main Tour next term.
Xiao Guodong was the other player to outlast his opponent after nine frames, winning the last three to deny compatriot Xu Si.
Elsewhere, Anthony Hamilton prevailed in a battle of the veterans with Ken Doherty, and there were victories for Lu Ning, Martin O’Donnell, David Grace, Ashley Hugill, and Zak Surety.
On Thursday, the Turkish Masters qualifying continues with David Gilbert and Anthony McGill among those entering the fray.
Click here to view the draw and schedule (times in CET)
Featured photo credit: WST
