Stuart Bingham and Marco Fu were among the players who qualified for the venue stages of the British Open on Friday.
Bingham squandered a 3-0 lead against He Guoqiang – last season’s Rookie of the Year – but eventually came through in a deciding frame.
Fu compiled a high break of 88 as he overcame amateur top-up Joshua Thomand at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.
The two experienced competitors, who boast nine ranking titles between them, will be involved when the random draw for the round of 64 is conducted.
There was an interesting set of results elsewhere as several lower-ranked players advanced in the competition.
Lim Kok Leong secured his maiden victory as a professional player on the World Snooker Tour courtesy of a 4-1 defeat of Anthony Hamilton.
The Asia & Oceania Q School graduate from Malaysia, aged 29, compiled breaks of 51 and 50 to see off the veteran former German Masters champion.
Fellow new pro Antoni Kowalski also emerged with a spot at the venue stages in Cheltenham next month after beating Daniel Wells 4-1.
Amateur Anton Kazakov made the most of his call-up to replace Martin Gould, beating struggling American Ahmed Aly Elsayed.
Teenager Stan Moody backed up his recent victory over Matthew Stevens in the Wuhan Open qualifiers with another fine result.
On this occasion, the 17 year-old outplayed former ranking event runner-up Joe O’Connor with runs of 100, 79, and 52.
Sunny Akani’s successful return to the pro scene also continued with a routine 4-0 bagel of Daniel Womersley.
Among the others to safely progress were Hammad Miah, Long Zehuang, and Alfie Burden.
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Neil Robertson safely through
The latter needed all seven frames to beat Andrew Higginson, while Ben Woollaston edged Matthew Selt by the same narrow margin.
Chinese duo Xiao Guodong and Yuan Sijun were the other two cuiests to advance on what was the penultimate day of action in Leicester.
Saturday will see the remaining matches take place, with David Gilbert and Anthony McGill among those entering the fray.
There is also an intriguing tie between Graeme Dott and Matthew Stevens to look forward to.
The main stages of the British Open run from September 23-29 at the Centaur in Cheltenham.
2024 British Open draw
Round of 128 (bo7)
Top Half
Mark Williams vs Rory Thor (Sept 23)
Si Jiahui 4-2 David Lilley
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-1 Alexander Ursenbacher
Jamie Clarke 4-1 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Iulian Boiko 4-2 Farakh Ajaib
Allan Taylor 4-3 Artemijs Zizins
Liam Graham 4-1 Mink Nutcharut
John Higgins vs Ross Muir (Sept 23)
Ali Carter vs Révész Bulcsú (Sept 23)
Mark Davis 4-0 Robbie McGuigan
David Grace 4-2 Jack Lisowski
Ma Hailong 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Joe Perry
Martin O’Donnell 4-1 Mitchell Mann
Michael Holt 4-0 Reanne Evans
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Manasawin Phetmalaikul (Sept 23)
Mark Selby vs Pang Junxu (Sept 23)
Xu Si 4-2 Ken Doherty
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Ricky Walden 4-3 Liu Hongyu
Neil Robertson 4-1 Andrew Pagett
Mark Joyce 4-3 Xing Zihao
Chris Totten 4-0 Jimmy White
Tom Ford vs Gong Chenzhi (Sept 23)
Ryan Day vs Louis Heathcote (Sept 23)
Hossein Vafaei 4-1 Mostafa Dorgham
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Haydon Pinhey
Ashley Carty 4-3 Amir Sarkhosh
Stephen Maguire 4-1 Jiang Jun
Duane Jones 4-2 Dominic Dale
Anton Kazakov 4-2 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Judd Trump vs Robert Milkins (Sept 23)
Bottom Half
Mark Allen vs Gary Wilson (Sept 23)
Xiao Guodong 4-2 Huang Jiahao
Lim Kok Leong 4-1 Anthony Hamilton
Stuart Bingham 4-3 He Guoqiang
Stan Moody 4-2 Joe O’Connor
Yuan Sijun 4-2 Jamie Jones
Hammad Miah 4-2 Wang Yuchen
Zhang Anda vs Jordan Brown (Sept 23)
Jak Jones vs Sanderson Lam (Sept 23)
Marco Fu 4-1 Joshua Thomand
Long Zehuang 4-0 Liam Pullen
Alfie Burden 4-3 Andrew Higginson
Antoni Kowalski 4-1 Daniel Wells
Ben Woollaston 4-3 Matthew Selt
Sunny Akani 4-0 Daniel Womersley
Luca Brecel vs Mohammed Shehab (Sept 23)
Ding Junhui vs Aaron Hill (Sept 23)
Simon Blackwell 4-2 Bai Yulu
Cheung Ka Wai 4-0 Kreishh Gurbaxani
Oliver Lines 4-3 Lei Peifan
Wu Yize 4-1 Baipat Siripaporn
Lyu Haotian 4-0 Anthony McGill
Tian Pengfei 4-2 Scott Donaldson
Barry Hawkins vs Liam Davies (Sept 23)
Shaun Murphy vs Ian Burns (Sept 23)
Graeme Dott 4-1 Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert 4-0 Dylan Emery
Haris Tahir 4-3 Dean Young
Ben Mertens 4-1 Zak Surety
Elliot Slessor 4-1 Joshua Copper
Robbie Williams 4-1 Jackson Page
Kyren Wilson vs Julien Leclercq (Sept 23)
Featured photo credit: WST
