I could not have wished for a better start for David Gilbert in his match against Xiao Guodong: after the first five frames, the Farmer is already five away from a place in the WC main draw, as he leads Xiao 5-0 at the moment. More of the same please! #147sf

Menu of the (Judgement) day:

Jamie Jones vs Neil Robertson
Hossein Vafaei vs Jiang Jun
Joe O’Connor vs Matthew Selt
Pang Junxu vs Cao Yupeng
Jackson Page vs Noppon Saengkham
Si Jiahui vs Wu Yize
Xiao Guodong vs David Gilbert
Scott Donaldson vs Ryan Day

Eight spots left.

#147sf

TEN YEARS LATER! TEN YEARS!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, THE SPACEMAN IS BACK TO THE CRUCIBLE!!!
10-8 vs He Guoqiang
I am so happy 🥹
#147sf #WorldChampionship

Steve Maguire survives the Judgement Day! The Scotsman tops Yuan Sijun 10-6 to follow Jack Lisowski into the main draw of the World Championship. Three centuries were also scored in the process by Steve, who absolutely deserved to clinch this spot #147sf

Probably the most surprising name in the quali draw along with Neil Robertson, Jack Lisowski defeats Matthew Stevens 10-3 thanks to a dominant performance and advances to the Crucible stage of the WC. A remarkable quali run for Jackpot: will he keep the momentum going? #147sf

Having both your favourite players in the Judgement Day lineup and feeling that neither of them will qualify is definitely a mood-changer. That said, fingers crossed for Dom and Dave; even more for Dom as he will hardly get a better chance in the future than today’s one #147sf

Judgement Day! (1/2)

Jack Lisowski vs Matthew Stevens
Ricky Walden vs Mark Davis
Dominic Dale vs He Guoqiang
Zhou Yuelong vs Jak Jones
Stephen Maguire vs Yuan Sijun
Louis Heathcote vs Stuart Bingham
Robbie Williams vs Chris Wakelin
Lyu Haotian vs Jenson Kendrick

#147sf #snooker

Judgement Day

Lisowski vs Stevens
Walden vs Davis
Dale vs He
Jones vs Robertson
Zhou vs Jones
Maguire vs Yuan
Heathcote vs Bingham
Williams vs Wakelin
Vafaei vs Jiang
O’Connor vs Selt
Cao vs Pang
Page vs Saengkham
Si vs Wu
Lyu vs Kendrick
Xiao vs Gilbert
Donaldson vs Day

Two more “NextGen” players (born after 1/1/2000), after He, Kendrick and Yuan, have reached the Judgement Day. They are Jackson Page, who dominated his match against Graeme Dott 10-5, and rookie Jiang Jun, who edged more experienced Sam Craigie 10-8 #147sf #WorldChampionship

A big fluke on the last red in the last frame helped Hossein Vafaei to defeat Marco Fu, 10-4 the final scoreline. The Iranian was by far the better player throughout the whole match, showing his level is there. A nice hug between the two at the end, Marco Fu is a class act #147sf

Hossein Vafaei with the big chance to score a maximum minutes after Saengkham’s one. The Iranian could have forced the cue ball towards the 10th black, instead he went for an easier blue. Frame was already secured, which made it almost look like an “O’Sullivanesque” move #147sf

MAXIMUM FOR NOPPON SAENGKHAM! A 147, the second of his career, for the Thai player to go 7-3 up against Andy Hicks. This is the first maximum of the current WC edition, therefore also the highest break of the event so far. Some good money already in the pocket for Noppon! #147sf

A very good first session for both Neil Robertson and David Gilbert, two of the main names forced to go through quali matches to get a Crucible spot. The Thunder ⚡️ is 7-2 up against Zak Surety while the Farmer 🧑🏻‍🌾 enjoys the same lead over David Lilley #147sf #WorldChampionship

The last eight matches of the third quali round will all be on this morning's menu. Players like Neil Robertson, Si Jiahui, David Gilbert, Joe Perry, Ryan Day, Xiao Guodong and Wu Yize will all be involved in today's action: who is ready for another nice day of #snooker ? #147sf

Players who would drop off the pro tour in case of a defeat today:

Lukas Kleckers 🇩🇪
James Cahill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Ashley Hugill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

#147sf #WorldChampionship

With the 102-break he scored in the fifth frame, Chris Wakelin has just become the 81st player in the history of snooker to compile 100 career centuries. He does it at the age of 32y1m, which puts him on 51st place in the all-time list #147sf #stats

In the previous round, Michael White rapidly went 0-4 down against Andrew Higginson only to produce a great comeback and win 10-8. Today, the Welshman is following a different strategy, as he is already 4-0 up against Yuan Sijun in less than one hour of play #147sf

Some big names are going to be in action today already from the morning session. I am talking about Stuart Bingham, Stephen Maguire, Zhou Yuelong, Yuan Sijun, Chris Wakelin who will all start their WC quali campaign #147sf #snooker

Crucible longest streaks:

1993-2023: O'Sullivan
1995-2023: Higgins
2005-2023: Selby
2005-2023: Robertson
2005-2023: Murphy
2007-2023: Ding
2007-2023: Allen
2011-2023: Trump
2011-2023: Bingham
2015-2023: McGill ❌

Anthony McGill’s nine-year streak comes to an end…

#147sf

He missed the easiest of the blacks early in the frame, went 1-42 down but received a last chance, which he took by cleaning the table and stealing the decider! Ben Mertens defeats Rod Lawler 10-9, sending the veteran out of the pro tour from next season (bar Q School)! #147sf