Judd Trump advanced from his Xi’an Grand Prix qualifier on Saturday with a 5-2 victory over new professional Antoni Kowalski.
The 34 year-old wasn’t at his best at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester – perhaps fatigued following his trip back from winning last week’s Shanghai Masters crown.
But despite giving his teenage opponent from Poland many chances, Trump still had enough in the tank to secure victory.
The world number two won five ranking titles during a prolific 2023/24 campaign and will be challenging Mark Allen for top spot in the world rankings in the early stages of this term.
Among the others to make it through the preliminary phase for the Xi’an Grand Prix were Shaun Murphy, Gary Wilson, and Si Jiahui.
Murphy, who was denied Shanghai success by Trump a week ago, comfortably beat Mitchell Mann 5-1.
It was much tougher for Wilson and Si, who emerged from titanic 5-4 tussles with Long Zehuang and Jimmy White respectively.
In what was the last day of the qualifiers for Xi’an, Stephen Maguire thumped Ken Doherty 5-1 and Zhou Yueling matched that winning margin against Haydon Pinhey.
There were triumphs elsewhere for Noppon Saengkham, Anthony McGill, Mark Davis, Jimmy Robertson, and Aaron Hill.
Arguably the biggest upset saw Dean Young overcome Robert Milkins with a 5-3 victory, although Ben Woollaston was also left stunned.
The Leicester lad let slip a 4-0 lead to Julien Leclercq and was eventually downed 5-4 in a spectacular collapse against the Belgian.
The venue stages of the Xi’an Grand Prix take place from August 19th to 25th.
Allen, Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Ding Junhui were among several marquee names who had their initial fixtures in the competition held over.
Next up on the schedule is the qualifying period for the Wuhan Open.
2024 Xi’an Grand Prix qualifying draw and schedule
Round 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 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 Young
Si Jiahui 5-4 Jimmy White
Judd Trump 5-2 Antoni Kowalski
Gary Wilson 5-4 Long 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 Lines
Graeme Dott vs Wildcard
Mark Selby vs Wildcard
Jamie Clarke vs Wildcard
Mark Allen vs Liu Hongyu
Featured photo credit: WST
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Publish date : 2024-07-28 03:03:55
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