Ding Junhui – ‘I love playing in York’

Ding Junhui will be in the main draw at the 2023 UK Championship after coming through his Judgement Day qualifier on Wednesday.

The Chinese star missed out on an automatic place at the Barbican Centre this season by just one spot on the official rankings list.

Zhang Anda’s incredible triumph at the International Championship earlier this month resulted in him becoming a top 16 member for the first time at the expense of Ding.

But the latter, a three-time UK champion and a runner-up in the competition last year, safely advanced from the preliminary phase.

Ding beat Daniel Wells 6-4 in the penultimate round and subsequently safeguarded his ticket to York with a 6-3 defeat of Robbie Williams.

“I love playing in York, and I always do good in the UK Championship,” Ding Junhui told Rob Walker upon reaching the first-round proper.

“I don’t want to miss it, so I tried my best to get into the final stages.”

“He played like he had nothing to lose (towards the end). But I don’t know, when it was 5-2 or 5-3, I still thought I’d win the match.

“There were a couple of shots I was missing badly, but I felt I could win.

“I don’t need to watch the draw – 100% someone will send me (the opponent’s name), I’ll get a text message.”

Given his history in the Triple Crown event, Ding will undoubtedly be the name most of the 16 seeds will be desperate to avoid.

The draw for the last 32 will be made on Thursday during the second Judgement Day at the Morningside Arena.

Also guaranteed to feature in that are Thai duo Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham.

Un-Nooh defied a brace of century breaks from opponent Ricky Walden to win 6-3, while Saengkham edged past Wu Yize 6-4.

In the battle of the Anthonys, McGill downed Hamilton 6-2.

There were victories elsewhere for Matthew Selt and Jamie Jones, the duo ousting Lyu Haotian and Zak Surety respectively.

A couple of encounters required deciding frames, with Jamie Clarke pipping David Gilbert and Fan Zhengyi denying Michael White in a pair of nailbiters.

Thursday will see the remaining Judgement Day fixtures take place in Leicester as the qualifiers reach their climax.

There will be another eight ties, and among those in action are 2004 UK champion Stephen Maguire and three-time finalist Ken Doherty.

Live coverage is available worldwide on the World Snooker Tour official Facebook and YouTube channels.

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UK Championship qualifiers draw

Round 1 – L144 (bo11)

Saturday, Nov 18
1. Daniel Wells 6-2 Mostafa Dorgham
2. Jenson Kendrick 6-4 Oliver Briffett-Payne
3. Adam Duffy 3-6 Mink Nutcharut
4. Stuart Carrington 6-2 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
5. Mohamed Ibrahim 6-3 Victor Sarkis
6. Marco Fu 6-5 Michael Holt
7. Anton Kazakov 1-6 Ryan Davies
8. Xing Zihao 6-2 Jimmy White

9. Ross Muir 6-1 Andrew Pagett
10. Stan Moody 6-3 Filips Kalnins
11. Peng Yisong 6-0 Umut Dikme
12. Alfie Burden 1-6 Oliver Sykes
13. Ma Hailong 6-4 Sydney Wilson
14. Fergal O’Brien 2-6 Robbie McGuigan
15. Jiang Jun 6-0 Rebecca Kenna
16. Allan Taylor 6-5 Liam Davies

17. Rod Lawler 6-2 Liam Graham
18. Ryan Thomerson 6-5 Reanne Evans
19. Andy Lee 6-2 Joel Connolly
20. Liam Pullen 1-6 Iulian Boiko
21. Long Zehuang 6-5 Haydon Pinhey
22. Oliver Brown 1-6 Dean Young
23. Andrew Higginson 4-6 Alexander Ursenbacher
24. Muhammad Asif 1-6 Duane Jones

Sunday, Nov 19
25. Sean O’Sullivan 6-5 Baipat Siripaporn (Sat)
26. Louis Heathcote 6-0 Ahmed Aly Elsayed (Sat)
27. Hammad Miah 6-3 Bulcsu Revesz
28. Ian Burns 6-0 Amaan Iqbal
29. Ishpreet Singh Chadha 3-6 Gao Yang
30. Andres Petrov 3-6 Craig Steadman
31. Rory Thor 6-0 Riley Powell
32. Martin O’Donnell 6-4 Jack Borwick

Round 2 – L112 (bo11)

33. Ashley Carty 2-6 Daniel Wells
34. Robbie Williams 6-1 Jenson Kendrick
35. Michael White 6-5 Mink Nutcharut
36. Martin Gould 6-0 Stuart Carrington
37. Andy Hicks 6-4 Mohamed Ibrahim
38. Ben Mertens 4-6 Marco Fu
39. David Grace 6-5 Ryan Davies
40. James Cahill 6-2 Xing Zihao

41. He Guoqiang 6-4 Ross Muir
42. Dominic Dale 6-5 Stan Moody
43. Julien Leclercq 6-5 Peng Yisong
44. Jamie Clarke 6-4 Oliver Sykes
45. Xu Si 6-1 Ma Hailong
46. Dylan Emery 6-2 Robbie McGuigan
47. Jackson Page 4-6 Jiang Jun
48. Zak Surety 6-3 Allan Taylor

Monday, Nov 20
49. Lukas Kleckers 6-3 Rod Lawler
50. Ben Woollaston 6-1 Ryan Thomerson
51. Sanderson Lam 5-6 Andy Lee
52. Mark Joyce 6-5 Iulian Boiko
53. Oliver Lines 6-3 Long Zehuang
54. Ashley Hugill 6-3 Dean Young
55. Tian Pengfei 3-6 Alexander Ursenbacher
56. Ken Doherty 6-3 Duane Jones

57. David Lilley 6-3 Sean O’Sullivan
58. Elliot Slessor 6-1 Louis Heathcote
59. John Astley 1-6 Hammad Miah
60. Liam Highfield 0-6 Ian Burns
61. Mark Davis 6-4 Gao Yang
62. Aaron Hill 2-6 Craig Steadman
63. Scott Donaldson 6-2 Rory Thor
64. Liu Hongyu 5-6 Martin O’Donnell

Round 3 – L80 (bo11)

65. Ding Junhui 6-4 Daniel Wells
66. Matthew Stevens 5-6 Robbie Williams
67. Si Jiahui 5-6 Michael White
68. Fan Zhengyi 6-3 Martin Gould
69. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-2 Andy Hicks
70. Ricky Walden 6-5 Marco Fu
71. Wu Yize 6-2 David Grace
72. Noppon Saengkham 6-5 James Cahill

Tuesday, Nov 21
73. Anthony McGill 6-3 He Guoqiang
74. Anthony Hamilton 6-3 Dominic Dale
75. David Gilbert 6-1 Julien Leclercq
76. Jordan Brown 4-6 Jamie Clarke
77. Lyu Haotian 6-2 Xu Si
78. Matthew Selt 6-4 Dylan Emery
79. Jamie Jones 6-4 Jiang Jun
80. Gary Wilson 3-6 Zak Surety

81. Ryan Day 2-6 Lukas Kleckers
82. Cao Yupeng 4-6 Ben Woollaston
83. Joe Perry 6-2 Andy Lee
84. Xiao Guodong 2-6 Mark Joyce
85. Joe O’Connor 6-5 Oliver Lines
86. Stephen Maguire 6-4 Ashley Hugill
87. Yuan Sijun 6-5 Alexander Ursenbacher
88. Chris Wakelin 4-6 Ken Doherty

89. Stuart Bingham 2-6 David Lilley
90. Graeme Dott 3-6 Elliot Slessor
91. Zhou Yuelong 6-4 Hammad Miah
92. Jak Jones 2-6 Ian Burns
93. Pang Junxu 6-4 Mark Davis
94. Jimmy Robertson 5-6 Craig Steadman
95. Sam Craigie 1-6 Scott Donaldson
96. Hossein Vafaei 6-0 Martin O’Donnell

Round 4 – L48 (bo11)

Wednesday, Nov 22
Ding Junhui 6-3 Robbie Williams
Michael White 5-6 Fan Zhengyi
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 Ricky Walden
Wu Yize 4-6 Noppon Saengkham

Anthony McGill 6-2 Anthony Hamilton
David Gilbert 5-6 Jamie Clarke
Lyu Haotian 3-6 Matthew Selt
Jamie Jones 6-4 Zak Surety

Thursday, Nov 23
Lucas Kleckers 1-6 Ben Woollaston
Joe Perry 4-6 Mark Joyce
Joe O’Connor 6-3 Stephen Maguire
Yuan Sijun 6-3 Ken Doherty

7pm UTC
David Lilley 3-6 Elliot Slessor
Zhou Yuelong 6-5 Ian Burns
Pang Junxu 6-2 Craig Steadman
Scott Donaldson 4-6 Hossein Vafaei

Featured photo credit: WST