Tour rookie Liam Pullen scored his first ever Cazoo World Championship match win with an impressive 10-3 defeat of Ukrainian Anton Kazakov in qualifying at the English Institute of Sport.
Pullen earned his professional status at Q School last year, when he bounced back from the disappointment of losing the WSF Junior Championship final to Stan Moody.
Since then, he has shown glimpses of his considerable talent, highlighted with a run to the last 32 of the International Championship in Tianjin, which included a 6-5 defeat of Thai number one Noppon Saengkham.
Much of the damage in today’s clash was done this morning, when Pullen fired in breaks of 96, 73, 88 and 93 on his way to an 8-1 lead at the close of the first session.
Kazakov did mount a fightback of sorts by taking two of the first three frames this evening. However, a break of 66 from Pullen in the 13th saw him over the line. Defeat for Kazakov sees him suffer relegation from the World Snooker Tour.
Pullen now faces close friend and practice partner Sanderson Lam, who he lost to in Crucible qualifying last year.
“I’m very pleased in the end, but a bit annoyed with how I finished off. It was a bit nervy. Overall I played pretty well,” said 18 year old Pullen.
“Sanderson beat me last year and there were no hard feelings on my side. It obviously isn’t ideal and I would rather play someone else but it is what it is.
“The target is the Crucible, for anyone really. It is tough though. Now I’ve won my first game I can try to get into the competition and aim to play some good stuff.”
Mohammed Shehab of the UAE scored a 10-6 win over Stan Moody to book his place in the second round.
Shehab, who previously spent two seasons as a professional, in 1996 and 2006, hasn’t appeared on the World Snooker Tour since the 2019 Six Red World Championship. However, the 47-year-old will be on the circuit next season after coming through the Q Tour Global Playoff.
Shehab won five frames on the bounce, from 6-5 down, to win this evening. Next up he faces Tian Pengfei.
China’s Gao Yang beat India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha 10-6, while Ashley Carty scored a 10-4 win over Liam Graham.
The afternoon session saw Jimmy White end 7-2 down against Liu Hongyu and Jimmy Robertson establish a 7-2 lead over Liam Davies. They resume tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm.