Mark Williams reached the venue levels of the inaugural Xi’an Grand Prix with a cushty 5-0 thrashing of Liam Graham on Friday.
The Welshman compiled breaks of 140, 104, and 72 to ease previous the younger Scot on the Mattioli Area in Leicester.
Williams is scheduled to play once more on Sunday within the preliminary part of the Wuhan Open in opposition to Allan Taylor.
However it now appears as if the 49 year-old is likely to be withdrawing from that rating occasion, if his feedback on social media platform X are something to go by.
“That’s my cue away for just a few weeks #byebyecue,” Mark Williams wrote and later replied “no” to a remark asking if he’s acquired a qualifying match on Sunday.
One participant who was compelled to drag out of the Xi’an Grand Prix was Luca Brecel, who failed to show up for his match in opposition to Hammad Miah on Friday.
The Belgian Bullet has struggled for type and momentum since capturing the 2023 World Snooker Championship, and his fortunes haven’t circled this time period but.
It’s unknown exactly why Brecel was absent from the qualifiers, though it has been prompt that he might need run into site visitors issues whereas driving to the venue from Europe.
At any charge, it’s one other rating occasion the place the 29 year-old received’t be incomes any rating factors.
Regardless of being presently ranked as excessive as quantity 4 on the official standings, Brecel is definitely down as little as quantity 51 on the provisional end-of-season rankings.
Elsewhere, Championship League Snooker winner Ali Carter bowed out with an sudden 5-4 reverse to Daniel Wells.
Jak Jones, nevertheless, managed to flee with the identical scoreline after successful the final three frames to disclaim tour rookie Robbie McGuigan.
Among the many different high-profile names to make it by had been Barry Hawkins, Tom Ford, Joe Perry, Ricky Walden, and Chris Wakelin.
Chinese language opponents Pang Junxu, Yuan Sijun, Tian Pengfei, and Xu Si all managed to qualify for what can be their first rating occasion of the season on house soil.
Joe O’Connor and Matthew Selt superior unscathed as properly.
There can be yet one more day of motion within the round-of-128 for Xi’an earlier than the subsequent batch of qualifiers for Wuhan begins.
On Saturday, final week’s Shanghai Masters finalists Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy are among the many marquee names concerned.
The venue levels for the Xi’an Grand Prix begin on August nineteenth.
2024 Xi’an Grand Prix qualifying draw and schedule
Spherical of 128 (bo9)
Thursday, July 25
He Guoqiang 5-4 Ashley Carty
Fan Zhengyi 2-5 Sunny Akani
Jamie Jones 5-2 Mostafa Dorgham
Martin O’Donnell 3-5 Ma Hailong
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-3 Lei Peifan
Scott Donaldson w/o Lim Kok Leong
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Iulian Boiko
John Higgins 5-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
David Grace 0-5 Révész Bulcsú
Joshua Thomand 3-5 Amir Sarkhosh
Robbie Williams 3-5 Artemijs Zizins
Jordan Brown 5-2 Liam Pullen
Simon Blackwell 4-5 Ben Mertens
Ryan Day 5-4 Cheung Ka Wai
Neil Robertson 5-2 Allan Taylor
Hossein Vafaei 5-1 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Jackson Web page 2-5 Dylan Emery
Jack Lisowski 5-1 Ross Muir
David Gilbert 5-1 Reanne Evans
Dominic Dale 5-4 Mohammed Shehab
Matthew Stevens 5-0 Andrew Higginson
Friday, July 26
Elliot Slessor 5-0 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Chris Wakelin 5-4 Rory Thor
Xu Si 5-4 Jiang Jun
Yuan Sijun 5-1 Bai Yulu
Anthony Hamilton 4-5 Gong Chenzhi
Tian Pengfei 5-0 Farakh Ajaib
Joe Perry 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
Tom Ford 5-3 Stan Moody
Joe O’Connor 5-3 Duane Jones
Sanderson Lam 2-5 Zak Surety
Hammad Miah w/o Luca Brecel
Jak Jones 5-4 Robbie McGuigan
Wu Yize 3-5 Paul Deaville
Pang Junxu 5-2 Michael Holt
Ricky Walden 5-3 Liam Davies
Mark Williams 5-0 Liam Graham
Matthew Selt 5-2 Ian Burns
Ali Carter 4-5 Daniel Wells
Barry Hawkins 5-1 Kreishh Gurbaxani
David Lilley 5-3 Louis Heathcote
Saturday, July 27
Anthony McGill 5-0 Xing Zihao
Jimmy Robertson 5-1 Huang Jiahao
Mark Davis 5-3 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Lyu Haotian 5-2 Baipat Siripaporn
Noppon Saengkham 5-3 Andrew Pagett
Ben Woollaston 4-5 Julien Leclercq
Zhou Yuelong 5-1 Haydon Pinhey
Robert Milkins 3-5 Dean Younger
Si Jiahui 5-4 Jimmy White
Judd Trump 5-2 Antoni Kowalski
Gary Wilson 5-4 Lengthy Zehuang
Aaron Hill 5-2 Chris Totten
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Mitchell Mann
Stephen Maguire 5-1 Ken Doherty
Heldover Matches
Monday, August 19
Kyren Wilson vs Haris Tahir
Stuart Bingham vs Wildcard
Ding Junhui vs Alfie Burden
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Wang Yuchen
Zhang Anda vs Oliver Strains
Graeme Dott vs Wildcard
Mark Selby vs Wildcard
Jamie Clarke vs Wildcard
Mark Allen vs Liu Hongyu
watch the Xi’an Grand Prix qualifiers
Whereas there is no such thing as a entry for followers on the venue for the Xi’an Grand Prix qualifiers, supporters in Europe can watch the snooker on-line at no cost.
All three days of motion can be found to look at at no cost on the World Snooker Tour Fb web page.
In China, protection is on the market on Huya.com whereas followers in all different territories can watch by way of a subscription on Matchroom.Reside.
Featured picture credit score: WST