On April 9, Beijing time, the snooker World Championship qualifier ushered in the first world champion out. 1997 World Championship champion Dahdi, who fought 10 innings and finally lost 4-6 to Jamaica's McLeod, missed the third round, and the match took 5 hours. Dahdi also became a former world champion in the qualifying rounds of this World Championship. In the rest of the competition, the famous Players Matthew Stevens, David Grace, Slather and others successfully advanced.
The 53-year-old Dahdi won the World Championships in 1997 and has long been in the top 10 in the world. However, as he grew older, Dahdi began to fade out of the game. Today, Dahdi is ranked 78th in the world. His opponent, McLeod, is the only black player in the professional snooker arena and is now ranked 83rd in the world.
After the match began, Dahdi won the first set 62-60. But then the game came under McLeod's control. He shot consecutive 87 and 64 straight points, and after winning 68-35 in the fourth inning, McLeod led 3-1 to end the first half. Dahdi did not give up and then won two consecutive sets to tie 3-3. The two then won another set each, 4-4.
In the 9th set, McLeod won 89-39 to take the lead in match points. In the 10th set, the two fought each other, and the red ball pile went from the bottom half to the top half, and the game time was close to midnight. However, at the crucial moment, McLeod scored a red ball from the far table and finally won 6-4. Dahdi also became the first world champion to be eliminated at the World Championships.
In the rest of the matches, Matthew Stevens beat Gerald Green 6-1, Grace beat Boyco 6-4, Slather swept Burns 6-0, Reines beat Deflin 6-1, MicroParticle beat Wilson 6-2, Page beat Cady 6-1 and Cahill beat Davis 6-5. China's 3 players, Cao Yupeng, Yuan Sijun and Gao Yang, all advanced.