Ken Doherty fought back from behind to deny David Lilley in a decider at the European Masters qualifiers on Wednesday in Leicester.
The 1997 world champion was 3-1 and 4-3 down to Lilley but managed to turn the match around in his favour by the end.
Victory ensures Doherty will feature at the venue stages of the season’s ranking tournament next month in Nuremberg.
Beginning his 34th season as a snooker professional, the Irishman still relies on an invitational tour card but continues to be competitive on the circuit.
The 53 year-old faces a tricky prospect in Germany in the form of World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui.
Si, just 21 and at the complete opposite end of his career, comfortably overcame Julien Leclercq with a 5-2 scoreline.
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Elsewhere at the Morningside Arena, there were a couple of unexpected results.
Reigning Welsh Open champion Robert Milkins, who had shown promising form by reaching the last eight of last week’s Championship League, was downed by Ben Woollaston.
Anthony McGill was also somewhat surprisingly dispatched following a 5-2 reverse to veteran Dominic Dale.
However, established competitors Matthew Stevens and Ricky Walden managed to record 5-3 triumphs over Iulian Boiko and Lukas Kleckers respectively.
It was also a decent day for the Chinese contingent, with every contender other than Cao Yupeng managing to make it through.
Cao was downed by returning pro Andrew Higginson, a Q School graduate from May.
But Zhou Yuelong, Pang Junxu, and tour rookie Jiang Jun all joined Si in advancing to the main stages of the competition in August.
A pair of 5-2 successes proved enough to see Daniel Wells and Ashley Carty progress as well, meanwhile.
On Thursday, the European Masters qualifiers continue with another batch of 12 encounters taking place.
Among those in action are Jack Lisowski – making his maiden bow for the new campaign – and Reanne Evans.
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 from August 22nd to 27th.
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
Results
Andrew Higginson 5-3 Cao Yupeng
Zhou Yuelong 5-1 Stuart Carrington
Andres Petrov 2-5 Daniel Wells
Pang Junxu 5-1 Mink Nutcharut
Si Jiahui 5-2 Julien Leclercq
Robert Milkins 3-5 Ben Woollaston
Matthew Stevens 5-3 Iulian Boiko
Andrew Pagett 1-5 Jiang Jun
Ken Doherty 5-4 David Lilley
Anthony McGill 2-5 Dominic Dale
Ricky Walden 5-3 Lukas Kleckers
Martin O’Donnell 2-5 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
Featured photo credit: WST
