Barry Hawkins didn’t suffer any hangovers from his victory in last week’s ranking event as he downed Louis Heathcote in Wuhan Open qualifying on Sunday.
The Englishman beat Judd Trump 9-6 to capture the European Masters crown in Germany a week ago.
Back in the top 16 after a brief spell outside the elite bracket of the rankings, Hawkins now has his eyes set on orchestrating a strong season.
A trip to Asia for the first ranking event in China since 2019 is now guaranteed after overcoming Heathcote with breaks of 77, 76, and 75.
Elsewhere at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, Mark Williams wasn’t at his free-scoring best but still had enough to dispatch Andres Petrov 5-2.
It was more convincing for Jack Lisowski, who rattled off four sizeable contributions including a 108 century break in his 5-0 drubbing of Jenson Kendrick.
The upset of day three in the Wuhan Open qualifiers came in the form of Anthony McGill’s 5-4 reverse against Ishpreet Singh.
The latter prevailed from a dramatic fixture on the final black to consign McGill to a second defeat from two outings so far this term.
By contrast, it has been a promising start to life on the main tour for Indian rookie Singh, who gained pro status by graduating from Asian Q School in June.
Meanwhile, Chris Wakelin and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh advanced in the competition with respective triumphs over Mink Nutcharut and Thor Chuan Leong.
There were wins too for English trio Tom Ford, Matthew Selt, and Oliver Lines – the latter courtesy of a 5-0 thrashing of Reanne Evans.
Among the others to emerge unscathed from the preliminary round were Pang Junxu, Scott Donaldson, and Jamie Jones.
On Monday, the qualifying round for the Wuhan Open continues with the likes of Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy, and Stephen Maguire in action.
Live coverage is available on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Live in other territories (other than China).
The venue stages of the Wuhan Open take place in October.
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
There were two great matches: the McGill-Ishpreet match you mentioned, and the Jones-Pullen match in the afternoon. Liam Pullen is a hugely talented young player, and with a little more experience or composure would have won, probably 5-3.