Aaron Hill reached the venue stages of the European Masters after beating Jimmy White 5-4 in his qualifying match on Tuesday.
A closely fought contest saw the majority of the early frames go down to the colours, with Hill pinching several to move 4-1 in front in Leicester.
World seniors champion White responded by taking three frames on the bounce to force a tense decider.
The duo, at contrasting points of their careers, each had several chances in what was a nervy conclusion, but Hill finally got over the winning line at the Morningside Arena.
Aaron Hill, a former European champion at junior level, is in the second year of his two-year tour card.
Having already suffered relegation from the professional circuit in 2022 before immediately returning via Q School, the 21 year-old from Cork will be intent on forcing his way into the top 64 this term.
Elsewhere, there was a comprehensive victory for John Higgins as he launched his 2023/24 snooker season.
The Scot chose to skip Championship League Snooker in order to extend his summer break, and he had no problems in dispatching Martin Gould 5-1.
Former ranking event winners Joe Perry, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Michael White all advanced to the last 64 of the term’s second ranking event as well.
Perry and Un-Nooh recorded whitewash wins against Pakistan pair Muhammad Asif and Asjad Iqbal respectively.
White enjoyed a 5-2 success over fellow Welshman Jak Jones and was joined in the next round by countrymen Jamie Jones and Duane Jones.
It was a poor day for Ryan Day, however, who went down in an unexpected 5-3 reverse against Zak Surety.
Meanwhile, Noppon Saengkham and Xiao Guodong continued their runs of form that saw them reach the last eight of Championship League Snooker last week.
Saengkham ousted Ian Burns with a 5-2 scoreline while Xiao went one better by beating Sydney Wilson 5-1.
Late in the day, Elliot Slessor and Oliver Brown orchestrated tight 5-4 triumphs over respective young rookies Stan Moody and Liam Pullen.
The European Masters qualifiers continues on Wednesday with the likes of Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens, Robert Milkins, and Si Jiahui in action.
Live coverage will be available on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Live in other territories (other than China).
The venue stages of the tournament takes place in August.
European Masters qualifiers schedule
Tuesday, July 25th
Results
Aaron Hill 5-4 Jimmy White
Yuan Sijun 4-5 Jamie Jones
Asjad Iqbal 0-5 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Sydney Wilson 1-5 Xiao Guodong
Liam Graham 1-5 Duane Jones
Jak Jones 2-5 Michael White
Noppon Saengkham 5-2 Ian Burns
Ryan Day 3-5 Zak Surety
John Higgins 5-1 Martin Gould
Joe Perry 5-0 Muhammad Asif
Oliver Brown 5-4 Liam Pullen
Stan Moody 4-5 Elliot Slessor
Wednesday, July 26th
10am
Andrew Higginson vs Cao Yupeng
Zhou Yuelong vs Stuart Carrington
Andres Petrov vs Daniel Wells
Pang Junxu vs Mink Nutcharut
2:30pm
Si Jiahui vs Julien Leclercq
Robert Milkins vs Ben Woollaston
Matthew Stevens vs Iulian Boiko
Andrew Pagett vs Jiang Jun
7pm
Ken Doherty vs David Lilley
Anthony McGill vs Dominic Dale
Ricky Walden vs Lukas Kleckers
Martin O’Donnell vs Ashley Carty
Thursday, July 27th
10am
He Guoqiang vs Ross Muir
Louis Heathcote vs Andy Lee
Ahmed Aly Elsayed vs Mark Davis
James Cahill vs Baipat Siripaporn
2:30pm
Allan Taylor vs Tian Pengfei
Reanne Evans vs Jenson Kendrick
Hammad Miah vs Liu Hongyu
Jimmy Robertson vs Himanshu Jain
7pm
Haydon Pinhey vs Alfie Burden
Jack Lisowski vs Sam Craigie
Gary Wilson vs Ben Mertens
Sanderson Lam vs Mark Joyce
Friday, July 28th
10am
Ma Hailong vs Jordan Brown
Chris Wakelin vs Thor Chuan Leong
Tom Ford vs Victor Sarkis
Long Zehuang vs Ashley Hugill
2:30pm
Mark Williams vs Zhang Anda
Barry Hawkins vs Sean O’Sullivan
Robbie Williams vs John Astley
Ryan Thomerson vs Ishpreet Singh
7pm
David Gilbert vs Oliver Lines
Ali Carter vs Alfie Davies
Matthew Selt vs Anthony Hamilton
David Grace vs Scott Donaldson
Saturday, July 29th
10am
Barry Pinches vs Dylan Emery
Xu Si vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Joe O’Connor vs Rebecca Kenna
Xing Zihao vs Peng Yisong
2:30pm
Hossein Vafaei vs Rod Lawler
Fan Zhengyi vs Lyu Haotian
Stuart Bingham vs Jamie Clarke
Adam Duffy vs Marco Fu
Heldover matches
Tuesday, August 22nd
Kyren Wilson vs Dean Young
Luca Brecel vs Jackson Page
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Andy Hicks
Mark Allen vs Anton Kazakov
Mark Selby vs Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Judd Trump vs Mohamed Ibrahim
Neil Robertson vs Wu Yize
Shaun Murphy vs Graeme Dott
