The qualifying stage for the 2023 Scottish Open ended on Thursday at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
As per the norm, the top 16 seeds from the official world rankings had their round-of-128 fixtures held over to the venue stages of the tournament in Edinburgh.
However, the remaining competitors on the circuit participated in the four-day preliminary phase.
The Scottish Open will be the tenth ranking event of the 2023/24 snooker season when it’s eventually held in the middle of December.
It will represent the third of four competitions on the Home Nations series, following the recent English and Northern Ireland Opens which were both staged in October.
Zhang Anda and Chris Wakelin – the respective runners-up to Judd Trump in Brentwood and Belfast – took part in Scottish Open qualifying this week.
Wakelin bounced back from Sunday’s title-deciding defeat at the Waterfront Hall by beating Mark Joyce 4-2.
Zhang qualified for the last 64 with the same scoreline as he edged past veteran Andy Hicks.
Among the bigger names to make it through were Ryan Day, Tom Ford, Noppon Saengkham, and David Gilbert.
Scottish duo Anthony McGill and Scott Donaldson safely sealed their spots at their home event, but there was a disappointing defeat for Graeme Dott against Malaysia’s Rory Thor.
There were wins elsewhere for the likes of Stuart Bingham, Ricky Walden, and 2022 runner-up Joe O’Connor.
Legend Jimmy White, meanwhile, secured his first victory of this season with a 4-3 triumph over Duane Jones.
Among the other international players to advance were World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui and Snooker Shoot Out finalist Julien Leclercq.
The venue stages of the Scottish Open, where Gary Wilson will defend the Stephen Hendry Trophy, will take place from December 11 to 17.
Scottish Open Draw
Round of 128
*remaining matches to be played on December 11*
Gary Wilson vs Elliot Slessor
Xing Xihao 4-3 Fergal O’Brien
Joe O’Connor 4-0 Andy Lee
Scott Donaldson 4-3 Ashley Hugill
Hossein Vafaei vs Daniel Wells
Rory Thor 4-1 Graeme Dot
Ryan Day 4-2 Jiang Jun
Ashley Carty 4-2 Andres Petrov
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Ma Hailong
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Mark Joyce
Yuan Sijun 4-0 Muhammad Asif
Mark Williams vs Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams 4-1 Rod Lawler
David Gilbert 4-3 Jak Jones
Jordan Brown 4-2 Adam Duffy
Kyren Wilson vs Mostafa Dorgham
Mark Allen vs Jamie Jones
Dominic Dale 4-1 Ross Muir
Jimmy Robertson vs Amaan Iqbal
Jimmy White 4-3 Duane Jones
Robert Milkins vs Mark Davis
Andrew Higginson 4-3 Allan Taylor
Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
Martin Gould 4-2 Reanne Evans
Manasawin Phetmalaikul 4-2 Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Michael White
Aaron Hill 4-1 Ken Doherty
Jack Lisowski vs Mohamed Ibrahim
Julien Leclercq 4-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Si Jiahui 4-3 Tian Pengfei
Zhang Anda 4-2 Andy Hicks
Judd Trump vs Sydney Wilson
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Liam Graham
Ben Mertens 4-0 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Sanderson Lam 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Cao Yupeng 4-2 David Lilley
Barry Hawkins vs Pang Junxu
Xu Si 4-0 Mink Nutcharut
Anthony McGill 4-0 Ryan Thomerson
Oliver Lines 4-0 John Astley
Lukas Kleckers 4-1 Stuart Carrington
Noppon Saengkham 4-0 Rebecca Kenna
Jack Borwick vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Ali Carter vs Long Zehuang
Alfie Burden 4-1 Ian Burns
Matthew Selt 4-1 Dylan Emery
Matthew Stevens 4-0 Victor Sarkis
Mark Selby vs Sean O’Sullivan
Shaun Murphy vs Liu Hongyu
Zak Surety 4-1 Liam Pullen
Lyu Haotian 4-2 Joe Perry
Jackson Page 4-1 Himanshu Jain
John Higgins vs Oliver Brown
He Guoqiang 4-0 Peng Yisong
Ricky Walden 4-3 Hammad Miah
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 Wu Yize
Liam Highfield 4-0 Dean Young
Tom Ford 4-1 Louis Heathcote
Jenson Kendrick 4-2 Anton Kazakov
Ding Junhui vs David Grace
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Andrew Pagett
Jamie Clarke 4-2 Xiao Guodong
James Cahill 4-3 Stan Moody
Luca Brecel vs Iulian Boiko
Featured photo credit: WST
Well done to Jimmy White on a first win after quite a lull following last seasons semi renaissance for him.