Chinese duo Ding Junhui and Fan Zhengyi and Thai pair Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham all earned places in the televised stages of the MrQ UK Championship by coming through the final qualifying round.
Ding has won this event three times as well as finishing runner-up to Mark Allen last year, and despite having dropped out of the world’s top 16, he’ll be in the field at the Barbican this time.
He scored a 6-3 victory over Robbie Williams to ensure his name will be in the draw to be made on Thursday afternoon. The action in York starts on Saturday.
Breaks of 122, 67 and 54 helped Ding build a 5-1 lead, and despite missing chances in each of the next two frames, he got the job done in the ninth with a run of 113.
“I love playing in York and I didn’t want to miss this one, I tried my best,” said Ding, who lifted the trophy in 2005, 2009 and 2019. “At 5-3 I still felt I would win the match, even though I had missed a couple of shots badly.”
World number 40 Un-Nooh scored a 6-3 success over Ricky Walden. In a high quality contest, Walden made breaks of 108 and 130 but was still beaten by talented Un-Nooh who fired runs of 66, 71, 86 and 102.
“I’m so happy, especially as I have never beaten Ricky before,” said former Shoot Out champion Un-Nooh. “At the last tournament in China I was 5-1 up against Barry Hawkins and lost 6-5, so of course I was thinking about that today at 5-2. I had to stay focussed. It’s an important win for me in terms of qualifying for the World Grand Prix.”
Saengkham saw off Wu Yize 6-4 with a top break of 68 while Fan edged out Michael White 6-5
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