Dylan Emery fought back from 3-1 down to beat Harvey Chandler 4-3 and win Q Tour Event 2 in Bulgaria on Sunday.
The young Welshman took the opening frame of the final but was forced to sit and watch as his opponent reeled off breaks of 86, 50, 54, and 68 to move to within a frame of glory.
Contributions of 74 and 69 then helped Emery force a deciding frame, which he duly won to seal a tight triumph.
The 23 year-old was relegated from the World Snooker Tour in May this year so is attempting to immediately bounce back through the amateur feeder circuit.
The top-ranked player at the end of the Q Tour campaign will gain an automatic two-year ticket to the main tour.
Three additional spots are up for grabs through a separate play-off tournament that will be held at the end of the 2024/25 season.
Emery, who compiled a tournament-high break of 142 during his semi-final victory over Mark Joyce, is a former European under-21 amateur champion.
He moves into second place in the Q Tour rankings behind Andres Petrov, who won Q Tour 1 but could only reach the last 16 in Sofia.
Zhao Xintong, meanwhile, made a low-key return to the sport following his ban.
The Chinese star was one of the ten Chinese players who got caught up in a huge match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport towards the end of 2022 and into 2023.
Zhao wasn’t found guilty of match fixing, but the former UK champion was punished for being aware of other games that were being fixed and also for betting on snooker, which isn’t permitted under the player rules and regulations.
With his suspension having ended at the start of September, former world number six Zhao was free to begin his journey back to the pro ranks.
But despite winning his first two matches at Q Tour 2, the 27 year-old was beaten 4-3 by Craig Steadman in the round of 64.
Q Tour 3 takes place in Stockholm in early October.
Q Tour 2
Selected Results
Last 16
Kuldesh Johal 4-1 Oliver Sykes
Dylan Emery 4-0 Mateusz Baranowski
Ryan Thomerson 4-1 Mark Vincent
Mark Joyce 4-1 Sean O’Sullivan
Brandon Hall 4-1 Craig Steadman
Harvey Chandler 4-1 Anton Kazakov
Iulian Boiko 4-3 Andres Petrov
Liam Highfield 4-1 Joshua Cooper
Quarter-Finals
Dylan Emery 4-0 Kuldesh Johal
Mark Joyce 4-3 Ryan Thomerson
Harvey Chandler 4-1 Brandon Hall
Liam Highfield 4-1 Iulian Boiko
Semi-Finals
Dylan Emery 4-2 Mark Joyce
Harvey Chandler 4-2 Liam Highfield
Final
Dylan Emery 4-3 Harvey Chandler
Featured photo credit: WPBSA
