Mario He battled back from six racks behind in the losers qualification round to reach the last 64 at the UK Open Pool Championship at the Telford International Centre, where he will encounter defending champion Eklent Kaci.
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Austria’s He was beaten in the winners qualification round against English eight-ball star Clint I’Anson, and soon found himself 6-0 behind against British qualifier Phil Burford and on the verge of elimination.
However, the former European Open semi-finalist somehow managed to stage a remarkable comeback and avoid an early exit to arrange a last 64 match against Kaci, who maintained his winning title defence with a 9-6 victory over Mickey Krause.
Snooker star Gary Wilson reached the single elimination phase for the third time in four open championships, overcoming world number eight David Alcaide in a deciding rack. Alcaide was the highest-ranked player to exit after a losers qualification loss to Germany’s Tobias Bongers.
Bulgarian number one Georgi Georgiev pulled off a spectacular victory over world number seven Albin Ouschan, with Ouschan subsequently beating Kosovo’s Fitim Haradinaj to qualify for the last 64.
Scottish Open champion Duong Quoc Hoang and Filipino Marvin Asis both battled through hill-hill affairs against Petri Makkonen and Marc Bijsterbosch, while Skyler Woodward reeled off five racks from 8-4 behind to beat 2023 quarter-finalist Dimitris Loukatos in a decider.
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Jayson Shaw were forced to work for their safe passage through against Joao Grilo and Besar Spahiu, the latter of who missed a six-nine combination for an 8-7 lead, while Fedor Gorst and Joshua Filler advanced in comfortably fashion.
Estonian youngster Karl Gnadeberg ended the hopes of Karl Boyes in the third losers round and then qualified for the last 64 courtesy of a 9-3 win over BJ Ussery, while his fellow teenager Szymon Kural also advanced.
Sanjin Pehlivanovic and Niels Feijen accompanied Alcaide in exiting the tournament, with Pehlivanovic enduring an 8-1 rout against Billy Thorpe before Feijen suffered back-to-back defeats against Jeffrey Ignacio and Welsh qualifier Stephen Ellis.
Two-time ranking event winner Moritz Neuhausen was also eliminated following a defeat to German countryman Niklas Dohr as well dramatic hill-hill loss at the hands of Spanish qualifier Jose Alberto Delgado.
