Bai Yulu reached the second round of 2024 Snooker Shoot Out draw with victory over Jamie Clarke on Thursday in Leicester.
The reigning women’s world champion edged the single-frame contest 47-36 to set up a last-64 clash against fellow Chinese competitor Zhang Anda.
Bai generated headlines for her impressive run in the UK Championship qualifiers last month, where she fell one hurdle short of reaching the venue stages in York.
The 21 year-old is arguably the most promising young player ever to emerge from the women’s scene, and she is starting to back that potential up with positive results on the main tour.
The Snooker Shoot Out, with its short and unpredictable format, offers players down the lower end of the rankings with a rare opportunity to go far in the draw.
Several top-up amateurs have progressed from the opening round as well, including Moldovan teenager Vladislav Gradinari.
The 16 year-old upset established pro Daniel Wells, while Riley Powell edged Stan Moody in a dramatic finale where he potted the winning ball in the dying seconds of their 10-minute frame.
Nine amateurs have reached the second round in total, including veteran former professionals Mark Joyce and Gerard Greene.
While a lot of the highest-ranked players chose to skip this week’s action at the Mattioli Arena, there are still a few marquee names in the 2024 Snooker Shoot Out draw.
Most of them enjoyed early triumphs in this year’s competition across the opening two days of play on Wednesday and Thursday.
Reigning champion Mark Allen easily outscored Ross Muir, pre-tournament bookies favourite Mark Selby ousted Baipat Siripaporn, and Neil Robertson defeated Simon Blackwell.
There were wins elsewhere for the likes of Shaun Murphy, Gary Wilson, Ali Carter, Si Jiahui, and Jak Jones.
Among the high-profile cueists already out of the running, though, are former world champion Stuart Bingham, Jack Lisowski, and 2023 winner Chris Wakelin.
Hossein Vafaei, Ryan Day, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Anthony McGill all know what it’s like to be the last person standing in this event and have each reached the next round.
The round of 64 takes place on Friday, with live coverage for European viewers available on discovery+ and Eurosport.
The random draw has thrown up a few tasty ties, including Mark Allen vs Si Jiahui, Mark Selby vs Jak Jones, and Shaun Murphy vs David Gilbert.
The full draw for the second round is below.
2024 Snooker Shoot Out draw
Round of 64 (bo1)
Friday, December 6th
1pm UTC
Matches approximately every 10-15 minutes
Graeme Dott vs Robert Milkins
Iulian Boiko vs Florian Nuessle
Bulcsu Revesz vs Fan Zhengyi
Artemijs Zizins vs Ashley Carty
Zhang Anda vs Bai Yulu
Antoni Kowalski vs Riley Powell
Gong Chenzhi vs Huang Jiahao
Hossein Vafaei vs Andrew Higginson
Wu Yize vs Matthew Stevens
Ryan Day vs Dylan Emery
David Lilley vs Noppon Saengkham
Anthony McGill vs Duane Jones
He Guoqiang vs Liam Graham
Ishpreet Singh Chadha vs Jamie Jones
Neil Robertson vs Jackson Page
Mark Allen vs Si Jiahui
7pm UTC
Matches approximately every 10-15 minutes
Shaun Murphy vs David Gilbert
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Aaron Hill
Liam Pullen vs Zak Surety
Gary Wilson vs Liam Davies
Elliot Slessor vs Mark Joyce
Alfie Burden vs Robbie Williams
Kreishh Gurbaxani vs Xu Si
Xiao Guodong vs Martin O’Donnell
Joe O’Connor vs Allan Taylor
Long Zehuang vs Vladislav Gradinari
Haydon Pinhey vs Gerard Greene
Tom Ford vs Paul Deaville
Ma Hailong vs Lewis Ullah
Zhou Yuelong vs Louis Heathcote
Ali Carter vs Lyu Haotian
Mark Selby vs Jak Jones
Click here for up-to-date results
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Neil Robertson has changed his tune quickly on the Shootout. He described it as a circus last year when reacting to Shaun Murphy’s 147. He’s now coming out with hogwash such as the event has provided us with some of the sport’s greatest moments.
Bai Yulu looks perfectly suited to this tournament. She plays Stephen Hendry style snooker, and whereas in longer duration matches her inability to consistently “win frames in one visit” in true Hendry manner hinders her, in this ten minutes duration single, frame matches tournament, her game looks almost perfect to me: very good at half ball long pots and attacks the bunch immediately and makes 30/40 breaks around the spots.