Snooker returns to the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Friday for the qualifying round of the Wuhan Open draw.
There will be five days of preliminary-round action as the players on the main tour attempt to book their plane tickets to China.
The last time a World Snooker Tour event was staged in the country was pre-pandemic back in 2019 when Judd Trump won that year’s World Open.
- CLICK HERE: What snooker is taking place in September?
Although the first official stop back will be the invitational Shanghai Masters later this month, the Wuhan Open in October will represent the first ranking event staged in China in almost four years.
A brand-new event, it boasts a huge prize fund of £700,000 with a winner’s share worth a cool £140,000.
Eight of the round-of-128 fixtures will be held over to the venue stages of the competition in Wuhan next month.
That includes ties involving world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan and world champion Luca Brecel, who face Ken Doherty and Xing Zihao respectively.
Top-ranked Chinese duo Ding Junhui and Zhou Yuelong will also avoid the cubicles at the Morningside Arena.
There will be four Chinese wildcards in the event, so the matches involving Ali Carter, Si Jiahui, David Gilbert, and Anthony Hamilton will be contested at the venue itself as well.
Aside from that, it will be a busy upcoming few days of action in the Wuhan Open qualifying draw.
Marquee names like Mark Allen, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, and John Higgins will be hoping to safely negotiate their initial challenges.
Shaun Murphy and Barry Hawkins, who between them have won the opening two ranking events of the 2023/24 snooker season, are also participating.
Matches will take place over the best of nine frames with live coverage available on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Live in other territories (other than China).
Wuhan Open qualifying draw and schedule
(Times in BST)
Friday, September 1
Results
Ryan Day 5-3 Long Zehuang
Wu Yize 5-3 Allan Taylor
Kyren Wilson 4-5 He Guoqiang
Mark Allen 5-3 John Astley
Neil Robertson 5-0 Ryan Thomerson
Noppon Saengkham 5-3 Andrew Higginson
Robbie Williams 0-5 Alfie Burden
Gary Wilson 3-5 Ashley Carty
Joe O’Connor 5-0 Dean Young
Jackson Page 5-3 Liu Hongyu
Ben Woollaston 5-2 Oliver Brown
Mark Selby 5-0 Andy Lee
Saturday, September 2
Results
Xu Si 5-3 Anton Kazakov
Cao Yupeng 5-0 Jiang Jun
Tian Pengfei 3-5 Sanderson Lam
Zhang Anda 5-3 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Joe Perry 0-5 Aaron Hill
Andy Hicks 3-5 Hammad Miah
Yuan Sijun 5-1 Ross Muir
Fan Zhengyi 1-5 Stuart Carrington
David Grace 2-5 Martin O’Donnell
Elliot Slessor 5-0 David Lilley
Robert Milkins 5-2 Zak Surety
Stuart Bingham 5-3 James Cahill
Sunday, September 3
Results
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-2 Thor Chuan Leong
Scott Donaldson 5-1 Ma Hailong
Anthony McGill 4-5 Ishpreet Singh
Chris Wakelin 5-2 Mink Nutcharut
Tom Ford 5-2 Adam Duffy
Jamie Jones 5-4 Liam Pullen
Jack Lisowski 5-0 Jenson Kendrick
Pang Junxu 5-1 Stan Moody
Barry Hawkins 5-1 Louis Heathcote
Matthew Selt 5-3 Sean O’Sullivan
Oliver Lines 5-0 Reanne Evans
Mark Williams 5-2 Andres Petrov
Monday, September 4
Results
Mark Joyce 5-1 Victor Sarkis
Matthew Stevens 1-5 Daniel Wells
Jamie Clarke 5-0 Mohamed Ibrahim
Lyu Haotian 5-2 Muhammad Asif
Jimmy Robertson 4-5 Rod Lawler
Judd Trump 5-1 Lukas Kleckers
Jak Jones 5-2 Mostafa Dorgham
Graeme Dott 5-3 Julien Leclercq
Stephen Maguire 5-2 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Xiao Guodong 5-0 Alexander Ursenbacher
Shaun Murphy 2-5 Ben Mertens
Dominic Dale 5-0 Rebecca Kenna
Tuesday, September 5
Results
Michael White 5-3 Andrew Pagett
Hossein Vafaei 4-5 Marco Fu
Jordan Brown 5-1 Himanshu Jain
Mark Davis 5-1 Liam Graham
John Higgins 5-1 Dylan Emery
Ricky Walden 3-5 Ian Burns
Sam Craigie 5-1 Peng Yisong
Liam Highfield 5-1 Jimmy White
Held over fixtures
(to be played in Wuhan)
Monday, October 9
Luca Brecel vs Xing Zihao
David Gilbert vs wildcard
Si Jiahui vs wildcard
Ali Carter vs wildcard
Anthony Hamilton vs wildcard
Zhou Yuelong vs Baipat Siripaporn
Ding Junhui vs Ashley Hugill
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Ken Doherty
Featured photo credit: WST
