He Guoqiang and Ishpreet Singh Chadha became the last two graduates of the 2023 Q School program in Thailand on Monday.
The pair emerged from the second tournament at the Asia and Oceania Q School to guarantee their spots on the professional main tour.
Their reward will be a two-year card to compete for lucrative prize funds during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 snooker seasons.
It will be the first time that both competitors will enjoy professional status, taking the number of rookies graduating from this year’s Q School to four.
China’s He did it the hard way, fighting back from 3-1 down to Wang Yuchen to deny his countryman in the final round in a decider.
Singh, a 27 year-old from India, enjoyed a more comfortable last outing of the competition with a routine 4-0 thumping of Chau Hon Man that included a high break of 106.
Malaysian Thor Chuan Leong and Thai Manasawin Phetmalaik – who represented England – emerged from Asia and Oceania Q School Event 1 last week in Bangkok.
In England, the European Q School concluded a week ago with eight players qualifying from two tournaments that boasted more than two hundred contenders in each.
Andrew Higginson, Alexander Ursenbacher, Andrew Pagett, and Liam Pullen emerged from Q School Event 1 in Leicester at the end of May.
The following week, they were joined by a quartet of returning professionals in Alfie Burden, Stuart Carrington, Louis Heathcote, and Dean Young.
The 2023/24 snooker season commences later in June with the return of Championship League Snooker.
Featured photo credit: WPBSA
It was a great match between He Guoqiang and Wang Yuchen. Wang had battled through a couple of close matches, and actually this was his best match despite the loss – he had breaks of 84, 112 and 82 to lead 3-1. He Guoqiang always scores heavily (he has made two tournament 147’s), and scored 50, 60, 77 and 50 to win his first tour card. Wang Yuchen has been living in Hong Kong for a number of years, having taken time out at university. It’s a blow for Hong Kong snooker that none of their players qualified, as their funding is due to be cut because snooker isn’t an Olympic sport.
Ishpreet Singh Chadha was always in control against Chau Hon Man, winning 4-0. He’s improved a lot in the last 2 years, after a decent junior record. It will be a race against time for him to arrange to come over to the UK. Let’s hope he gets the necessary sponsorship and doesn’t miss many tournaments.
The African 6-Reds tournament is now underway in Casablanca, to be followed by the main event, which carries the last tour card for 2023-24.