Bai Yulu extended her progress at the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers with a superb 6-4 triumph over Jamie Jones on Sunday in Leicester.
The reigning women’s world champion had been struggling to make an impact on the main tour in what is her rookie season as a professional.
But a breakthrough victory over Farakh Ajaib in the opening round of this qualifying competition has spurred her on, and she immediately backed it up with an even more impressive triumph in the second round.
Bai won the opening two frames against Jones, a former World Championship quarter-finalist, and responded tremendously to losing the following three.
Contributions of 58, 56, and 68 saw her move 5-3 in front, and even though Jones reduced the arrears to one again, the young Chinese cuiest sealed the success in the tenth frame.
The 21 year-old, who has been widely regarded as the most talented of the emerging young stars from the women’s scene, will face Scott Donaldson in round three.
Bai Yulu is halfway to securing what would be an incredible berth at the venue stages of this year’s UK Championship in York.
The reigning women’s UK champion needs two more victories in the qualifiers to make an appearance at the Barbican Centre next week.
It was another busy day of action at the Mattioli Arena with plenty of other interesting results in the second round.
Amateurs Florian Nüßle and Oliver Sykes upset main-tour opposition for the second day in a row after recording respective triumphs over Jordan Brown and Stuart Carrington.
Latvian teenager Artemijs Zizins also defied his rookie status to oust former UK Championship semi-finalist David Grace.
Among the others to reach the penultimate round were Jamie Clarke, Daniel Wells, Long Zehuang, and Alfie Burden.
Earlier on day two, the first round of qualifying concluded with the likes of Jimmy White and Michael Holt emerging unscathed.
White, the UK champion all the way back in 1992, beat Paul Deaville 6-2 with the help of 78 and 55 breaks.
The 62 year-old memorably went all the way from the first qualifying round to reach the Barbican in 2022 and will face Ross Muir next.
Former Shoot Out king Holt ousted Steven Hallworth while invited amateur Dylan Emery recorded a 6-2 defeat of veteran Andrew Higginson.
Many of the same players will be participating again on Monday, with the remaining second round clashes to be immediately followed by the start of the third round.
The latter is where the highest seeds in the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers will enter the fray.
Among the bigger names playing on Monday are Jack Lisowski, Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham, and 2004 UK champion Stephen Maguire.
2024 UK Championship qualifiers
Sunday, November 17th
Results (Round 1)
Dylan Emery 6-2 Andrew Higginson
Jimmy White 6-2 Paul Deaville
Robbie McGuigan 6-3 Habib Subah Humood
Michael Holt 6-3 Steven Hallworth
Kreishh Gurbaxani 6-4 Allan Taylor
Duane Jones 6-3 Ryan Thomerson
Chris Totten Ryan Davies
Manasawin Phetmalaikul 6-4 Andres Petrov
Results (Round 2)
Florian Nüßle 6-2 Jordan Brown
Artemijs Zizins 6-3 David Grace
Ian Burns 6-0 Gong Chenzhi
Ma Hailon 6-3 Liam Pullen
Long Zehuang 6-3 Liam Graham
Oliver Sykes 6-3 Stuart Carrington
Louis Heathcote 6-0 Mohammed Shehab
David Lilley 6-2 Liam Davies
Rory Thor 6-4 Zak Surety
Sanderson Lam 6-3 Haydon Pinhey
Ashley Carty 6-4 Iulian Boiko
Jamie Clarke 6-4 Mostafa Dorgham
Bai Yulu 6-4 Jamie Jones
Daniel Wells 6-4 Haris Tahir
Alfie Burden 6-4 Alexander Ursenbacher
Wang Yuchen 6-5 Mark Davis
Monday, November 18th
Schedule (Round 2)
9:30am UTC
Hammad Miah vs Lei Peifan
Joe Perry vs Hatem Yassen
Marco Fu vs Amir Sarkhosh
Aaron Hill vs Cheung Ka Wai
Anthony Hamilton vs Antoni Kowalski
Jiang Jun vs Zhao Xintong
Graeme Dott vs Julien Leclercq
Xing Zihao vs Mitchell Mann
2:30pm UTC
Ross Muir vs Jimmy White
Tian Pengfei vs Chris Totten
Stan Moody vs Duane Jones
He Guoqiang vs Robbie McGuigan
Liu Hongyu vs Kreishh Gurbaxani
Ishpreet Singh Chadha vs Michael Holt
Matthew Stevens vs Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Oliver Lines vs Dylan Emery
Schedule (Round 3)
7:30pm UTC
Jak Jones vs Ian Burns
Fan Zhengyi vs Florian Nüßle
Elliot Slessor vs Long Zehuang
Stephen Maguire vs Artemijs Zizins
Jimmy Robertson vs Daniel Wells
Stuart Bingham vs Oliver Sykes
Jackson Page vs Jamie Clarke
Jack Lisowski vs Rory Thor
Click here to view the full draw
(snooker.org)
How to watch the UK Championship qualifiers
Watch worldwide on WST’s Facebook or YouTube channels (outside China). You can also watch live on discovery+ throughout Europe including the UK and Ireland.
Featured photo credit: WWS
