2026 World Snooker Championship: Former winner Luca Brecel misses out on Crucible spot

England’s Jack Lisowski, who claimed his first ranking title with victory at the Northern Ireland Open in October, was also eliminated – going down 10-5 to China’s He Guoqiang.

It was a great day for China as Zhang Anda, Fan Zhengyi and Lei Peifan also gained wins over Zak Surety, Ben Mertens and Ryan Day respectively.

That means there will be 11 Chinese players in the 32 at the Crucible, a new record – beating the previous high of 10 who played last year.

It was nearly a dozen men from China through as Xu Si was 9-8 ahead and 44-0 up against Gary Wilson, but the Englishman, who had earlier led 7-2, won the last two frames, including a break of 126 in the decider to advance.

“That was absolutely nuts,” said Wilson. “From ball one I just had no cueing, but I got a good lead so maybe he was a bit nervous. But tonight it was even worse and I thought ‘this is a complete embarrassment’.

“At the end I thought ‘it’s the biggest tournament we have and if you can’t try everything then when would you?’. So, I was just trying everything. It was just bottle, and I don’t know how I did it.”

Zhang made five centuries and four half-centuries in his 10-3 success over Surety.

Lei defeated 2024 winner Kyren Wilson in the first round at the Crucible in 2025 and will return there after never falling behind in his 10-5 triumph over Welshman Day.

There will be four players making their first appearance at the Crucible – England’s Stan Moody and Liam Pullen, and Poland’s Antoni Kowalski qualified on Tuesday, with He joining them on Wednesday.

The draw will feature the top 16 and 16 qualifiers, and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live at 08:45 BST on Thursday.

The first round begins on Saturday, with the final starting on Sunday, 3 May and concluding the next day – with full coverage of the tournament live on the BBC.