John Higgins, Mark Williams, and Shaun Murphy were among the big names to progress as the International Championship qualifiers concluded on Saturday in Leicester.
The International Championship is one of only a few events on the calendar that still incorporates a flat draw, meaning all the top seeds enter at the round-of-128 stage.
A few of the marquee names had their matches held over to the venue stages in Nanjing, including Chinese trio Wu Yize, Zhao Xintong, and Ding Junhui.
Judd Trump was also given the benefit of being able to skip the trip to the qualifying cubicles at the Mattioli Arena.
But the likes of 2025 runner-up Higgins, Williams, and Murphy were all forced to attend.
They each managed to avoid an early exit, with Higgins thumping Craig Steadman 6-2 and Williams and Murphy recording respective 6-4 triumphs over Andrew Higginson and Zhao Hanyang.
The biggest shock of the qualifying round was probably the loss of Ali Carter, who came quickly crashing back down to reality following his success at last week’s English Open.
The Captain suffered a surprise 6-2 defeat to Anton Kazakov, which could damage Carter’s aspirations of getting an automatic spot at the Barbican Centre for the UK Championship.
Xiao Guodong was the highest seed to crash out, with the Chinese competitor losing 6-4 to Dylan Emery.
Jack Lisowski and David Gilbert were other notable losers after being pipped in close encounters by Ashley Carty and Wang Xinbo respectively.
Among the others to make it through unscathed, meanwhile, were Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Barry Hawkins, and Chris Wakelin.
Robertson, Hawkins, and Wakelin each recorded whitewash scorelines, but it was much tougher for Wilson who narrowly avoided defeat in a 6-5 thriller against Leone Crowley.
The in-form Mark Selby had little trouble in dispatching of Luo Zetao 6-1, meanwhile.
Chang Bingyu, Stuart Bingham, Luca Brecel, Marco Fu, and Jimmy White were other familiar faces to advance.
The full list of results from the International Championship qualifiers is below. The tournament itself runs from October 31 to November 7 in Nanjing.
2026 International Championship qualifiers results
Round of 128
Wu Yize vs Hammad Miah (Held over)
Robbie Williams 6-2 Gong Chenzhi
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Mateusz Baranowski
Jackson Page vs To be decided (Held over)
Ding Junhui vs Sahil Nayyar (Held over)
Gao Yang 6-5 Jordan Brown
Zhang Anda 6-0 Artemijs Zizins
Huang Jiahao 6-5 Jimmy Robertson
Ben Woollaston 6-2 Sean O’Sullivan
Yao Pengcheng 6-2 Elliot Slessor
Oliver Lines 6-0 Connor Benzey
Dylan Emery 6-4 Xiao Guodong
Ryan Day 6-4 Liam Graham
Lei Peifan 6-1 Iulian Boiko
Liam Highfield 6-3 Ben Mertens
Kyren Wilson 6-5 Leone Crowley
Judd Trump vs To be decided (Held over)
Fan Zhengyi vs To be decided (Held over)
Pang Junxu vs Wildcard (Held over)
Mina Awad 6-1 Zak Surety
Barry Hawkins 6-0 Oliver Sykes
Ricky Walden 6-1 Paul Norris
Zhou Yuelong 6-3 Ashley Hugill
Liam Davies 6-1 Anthony McGill
David Grace 6-5 Tom Ford
Si Jiahui 6-0 Liu Yang
Liu Hongyu 6-3 Lan Yuhao
Louis Heathcote 6-3 Joshua Thomond
Stuart Carrington 6-4 He Guoqiang
Hossein Vafaei 6-1 Cheung Ka Wai
Jimmy White 6-5 Matthew Stevens
Mark Selby 6-1 Luo Zetao
Neil Robertson 6-0 Alexander Ursenbacher
Jiang Jun 6-3 Florian Nuessle
Jak Jones 6-3 Liam Pullen
Wang Xinbo 6-4 David Gilbert
Ashley Carty 6-5 Jack Lisowski
Julien Leclercq 6-4 Martin O’Donnell
Stuart Bingham 6-1 Alfie Burden
Marco Fu 6-3 Michael Holt
Luca Brecel 6-3 Jamie Clarke
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-0 Chatchapong Nasa
Ishpreet Singh Chadha 6-1 Deng Haohui
Mark J Williams 6-4 Andrew Higginson
Xu Si 6-3 Xu Yichen
Gary Wilson 6-2 Ng On Yee
Lyu Haotian 6-3 Mahmoud El Hareedy
John Higgins 6-2 Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Zhao Hanyang
Mitchell Mann 6-3 Jamie Jones
Joe O’Connor 6-5 Bai Yulu
Yuan Sijun 6-4 Scott Donaldson
Chris Wakelin 6-0 Michael Larkov
Long Zehuang 6-2 Phil O’Kane
Chang Bingyu 6-0 Fergal Quinn
Ross Muir 6-2 Matthew Selt
Aaron Hill 6-3 Antoni Kowalski
Anton Kazakov 6-2 Ali Carter
Daniel Wells 6-2 Oliver Brown
Duane Jones 6-3 Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon
Stan Moody 6-0 Panchaya Channoi
Sam Craigie 6-3 Noppon Saengkham
David Lilley 6-1 Reanne Evans
Zhao Xintong vs Ian Burns (Held over)
Featured photo credit: WST
>Joe O’Connor 6-5 Bai Yulu
A pretty good showing by her.
Haotian scored extremely heavily to win six frames on the spin.
I could not resist, I ended up watching plenty of the Mark Selby. There two types of snooker players; those that resemble a gymnast as they reach for the cue ball and those that look as if they are humping the table.
Mark Selby actually looks like an athlete from the way his core stance down to his position of his head when he goes down to to make his next play. I even like the fact that he is right handed. Playing in the qualifier you could actually feel that he was prepared to play unlike the long stint of snooker he played from China and England. Months ago I listened to an interview with one of the head chiefs at WST and his comment was now snooker have many tournaments on the tour, so if players want to miss a tournament here or there they can afford to do so.
As an old grump it is easy to say ; well that surely is passing the buck. But in hind sight; the better players usually find themselves playing in the final rounds of a tournament and if you are like Mark Selby or John Higgins you are likely take a lot longer to finish their matches because of their style of play. I swear recently I do not even think John Higgins had time to fetch some clean clothes after playing late into the night and then early afternoon.
John Higgins skipped the English Open and should be better for it. Personally, the way Ali Carter answered the question about what is his plans for his next tournament he seemed quite unsure.