The 2024 UK Championship qualifiers commenced on Saturday with former champion Zhao Xintong among the early winners in Leicester.
The top 16 players from the official world rankings have already safeguarded their spots in the main draw, but a further 16 places are up for grabs.
Zhao, who memorably won the 2021 UK Championship, took his initial steps to returning to the Barbican Centre in York by beating Sunny Akani 6-3 in the opening round.
The 27 year-old lost his main tour place last year after being banned for his role in the match-fixing scandal involving ten Chinese players that rocked the sport.
Zhao wasn’t found guilty of fixing matches but was judged to be aware of others doing so and was duly suspended for 20 months.
He returned to competitive action in September and has subsequently been lighting up the amateur Q Tour, capturing a brace of titles and firing in two maximum breaks in the process.
That Q Tour success gifted him one of the WPBSA invitations to compete in this year’s UK Championship qualifiers at the Mattioli Arena.
An edgy start to his battle with Akani saw him trail 2-0 early on, but he won six of the following seven frames with the aid of a tremendous 146 total clearance to ultimately prevail.
Zhao needs to win three more rounds in the preliminary competition if he’s to feature at the venue stages of this season’s first Triple Crown tournament.
Bai Yulu, meanwhile, also advanced after fighting back from 3-1 behind to overcome Farakh Ajaib with a 6-4 scoreline.
It represents Bai’s first victory on the World Snooker Tour since joining the circuit on the back of her success at the 2024 Women’s World Championship.
The 21 year-old, who participated in the Champion of Champions invitational last week, next encounters Jamie Jones while Zhao will play fellow Chinese cueist Jiang Jun.
Elsewhere, it was a busy first day at the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers with more than 20 matches taking place in Leicester.
Among the other amateur top-ups who emerged with victories was Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko, who ousted tour rookie Bulcsu Revesz with a high break of 134.
Florian Nüßle of Austria and Englishman Oliver Skyes also made it through after earning respective victories over Jonas Luz and Ben Mertens.
Poland’s Antoni Kowalski edged world seniors champion Igor Figueiredo in a tight clash, while up-and-coming star Gong Chenzhi beat Daniel Womersley.
The remaining first-round ties in the qualifiers take place on Sunday with the likes of 1992 UK Championship winner Jimmy White entering the fray.
There are four rounds in total, with players entering the draw at different stages depending on their seeding position.
The likes of Neil Robertson, Jak Jones, Barry Hawkins, and Jack Lisowski join in the third round and will require two victories to reach the last 32.
How to watch the UK Championship qualifiers
November 16th and 17th: Watch live on discovery+ throughout Europe including the UK and Ireland
November 18th and 19th: Watch live on discovery+ throughout Europe including the UK and Ireland. Or watch on WST’s Facebook or YouTube channels, worldwide (outside China).
November 20th and 21st: Judgement Day. Watch on WST’s Facebook or YouTube channels, worldwide (outside China). Also watch live on discovery+ throughout Europe including the UK and Ireland.
2024 UK Championship qualifiers
Saturday, November 16th
Results (Round 1)
Liam Graham 6-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Florian Nüßle 6-1 Jonas Luz
Artemijs Zizins 6-1 Mark Joyce
Gong Chenzhi 6-2 Daniel Womersley
Liam Pullen 6-3 Joshua Thomand
Haris Tahir 6-3 Craig Steadman
Haydon Pinhey w/o Reanne Evans
Mostafa Dorgham 6-4 Huang Jiahao
Alexander Ursenbacher 6-1 Joshua Cooper
Mohammed Shehab 6-4 Dean Young
Liam Davies 6-3 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Zak Surety 6-4 Simon Blackwell
Wang Yuchen 6-2 Lewis Ullah
Iulian Boiko 6-3 Bulcsu Revesz
Bai Yulu 6-4 Farakh Ajaib
Julien Leclercq w/o Hamza Ilyas
Cheung Ka Wai 6-1 Harvey Chandler
Lei Peifan 6-0 Vladislav Gradinari
Hatem Yassen 6-0 Mink Nutcharut
Oliver Sykes 6-4 Ben Mertens
Amir Sarkhosh 6-1 Anton Kazakov
Zhao Xintong 6-3 Sunny Akani
Mitchell Mann 6-3 Andrew Pagett
Antoni Kowalski 6-4 Igor Figueiredo
Sunday, November 17th
Schedule (Round 1)
9:30am UTC
Jimmy White vs Paul Deaville
Chris Totten vs Ryan Davies
Duane Jones vs Ryan Thomerson
Robbie McGuigan vs Habib Subah Humood
Allan Taylor vs Kreishh Gurbaxani
Michael Holt vs Steven Hallworth
Manasawin Phetmalaikul vs Andres Petrov
Andrew Higginson vs Dylan Emery
Schedule (Round 2)
2:30pm UTC
Ian Burns vs Gong Chenzhi
Jordan Brown vs Florian Nüßle
Long Zehuang vs Liam Graham
David Grace vs Artemijs Zizins
Daniel Wells vs Haris Tahir
Stuart Carrington vs Oliver Sykes
Jamie Clarke vs Mostafa Dorgham
Ma Hailong vs Liam Pullen
7:30pm UTC
Rory Thor vs Zak Surety
Jamie Jones vs Bai Yulu
Louis Heathcote vs Mohammed Shehab
Sanderson Lam vs Haydon Pinhey
David Lilley vs Liam Davies
Ashley Carty vs Iulian Boiki
Mark Davis vs Wang Yuchen
Alfie Burden vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Click here to view the full draw
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Zhao seems to be rebuilding his career quite nicely, and he looks like a real handful for the lower ranked main tour players in early qualifying rounds.
Bai Yulu has taken half a season to do it but she’s finally won a first qualifying round match. I thought she might break her duck on the pro tour a little quicker but let’s see what a first win does for the remainder of her season.