Reanne Evans will compete at the European Masters next month after winning her qualifying match on Thursday in Leicester.
The 12-time women’s world champion will be on the plane to Nuremberg following a gritty 5-4 victory over Jenson Kendrick.
Evans led 3-1 and 4-2, but the pair had to be pulled off after the seventh frame to allow the evening session to begin.
Upon their return late in the evening at the Morningside Arena, Kendrick forced a decider but Evans ultimately held on for the tight triumph.
The success for Reanne Evans represents only her third in a ranking event as a professional on the main tour.
The Englishwoman previously won a match in January’s single-frame Snooker Shoot Out and in Stage 1 of the recent Championship League.
Evans will face either David Gilbert or Oliver Lines when the last 64 of the European Masters takes place in August in Germany.
- CLICK HERE: Ken Doherty qualifies for European Masters
Elsewhere, Jack Lisowski got his 2023/24 season off to a positive start with a 5-3 defeat of Sam Craigie.
Craigie, who narrowly missed out on a berth in last week’s Championship League final, began strongly by winning the opening two frames.
But Lisowski, who skipped the first ranking event of the new term, settled with an excellent 141 contribution in the third frame and pulled away from 3-3 to safely qualify.
Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson was an unexpected loser on the third day of the preliminaries, however.
Wilson was within a ball of winning 5-3 but opponent Ben Mertens forced a decider that the Belgian duly won to advance instead.
Thursday’s other deciding-frame thriller saw Alfie Burden fight back in similar fashion to edge Haydon Pinhey.
By contrast, James Cahill enjoyed a routine outing as he thrashed women’s world champion Baipat Siripaporn in a whitewash display.
Mark Davis and Jimmy Robertson lost only one frame in their respective defeats of Ahmed Aly Elsayed and Himanshu Jain.
Among the others to reach the first round proper, meanwhile, were Louis Heathcote, Ross Muir, Allan Taylor, and Sanderson Lam.
Liu Hongyu continued his impressive start to life on the main tour with a 5-1 thrashing of Hammad Miah.
On Friday, the European Masters qualifiers will continue with another batch of 12 encounters.
In addition to Gilbert, Mark Williams, Ali Carter, and Barry Hawkins are some of the higher-profile names taking part.
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
Results
He Guoqiang 0-5 Ross Muir
Louis Heathcote 5-2 Andy Lee
Ahmed Aly Elsayed 1-5 Mark Davis
James Cahill 5-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Allan Taylor 5-2 Tian Pengfei
Reanne Evans 5-4 Jenson Kendrick
Hammad Miah 1-5 Liu Hongyu
Jimmy Robertson 5-1 Himanshu Jain
Haydon Pinhey 4-5 Alfie Burden
Jack Lisowski 5-3 Sam Craigie
Gary Wilson 4-5 Ben Mertens
Sanderson Lam 5-3 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
It’s Evans’ third win but I guess the Jimmy White match at Championship League was a dead rubber. A couple of positive results after a difficult couple of years.
No venue has been announced still for September’s Shanghai Masters.
Thanks, Jay. I think I’m subconsciously trying to erase the Championship League from my memory.
In fact, Ben Mertens needed a snooker in that 8th frame. He got it, made a great clearance, then won the decider. Gary Wilson hasn’t looked well-prepared for the start of the snooker season.
Ha, I can understand that!
Evans’ best win on the Main Tour remains her defeat of Robin Hull some years ago in a World Championship qualifier.