The third leg of the WPBSA Amateur Players Tour European Q-Tour is in full swing in Stockholm, Sweden, with Chinese players Zhao Xintong and Liao Yusheng appearing on the tournament signing table on October 4-6.
As of 20:35 on October 5, the first two match days of the European Q-Tour 3 involving Chinese players were all decided.
On the first day of qualifying, Zhao Xintong won two games in a row and broke into the top 64 of the main competition:
In the first round of the qualifying round, Zhao Xintong hit 3 single-stroke 50+ and defeated Belgium player Daan ·Leyssen (Daan Leyssen) 3-0;
In the second round of qualifying, they played 3-0 again, eliminated ·Poland player Michał Kotiuk (Michał Kotiuk), and entered the Q-Tour 3 main event.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Xintong encountered 14-year-old Hong Kong, China teenager Liao Yusheng in the first round of the main competition, you must know that in the entire European Q Tour Amateur Players Tour, only two Chinese players signed up, and they actually fell into each other in the first round of the main competition.
In the Chinese derby of this amateur player tour, Zhao Xintong played a single stroke of 80 in the first game and took the lead; In the second game, the 14-year-old Liao Yusheng returned with a single stroke of 57 to equalize the big score; In the third game, Xiao Zhao Biao shot a single stroke of 68, 2-1 to reach the match point, and in the last game of the game, Zhao Xintong blasted out a 147, the first perfect score of the Q-Tour event. This sealed the victory and made it to the round of 32, which is an improvement from the previous stop, and the next round is against England amateur Luke · Pinches.
In the first round of the last Sofia tournament in Bulgaria, Zhao Xintong was reversed and eliminated by Craig · Stedeman, and staged a round of the amateur player tour, which immediately became a hot search. This time, I hope to go a little further and hope to challenge for the championship.
After Zhao Xintong was disqualified from the profession in 2022, he did not even have amateur points, and theoretically the time to return to the professional circuit is next season (2025/26) at the earliest. Zhao Xintong's return to the profession has two most realistic paths: the first is to participate in the Amateur Players Tour [Q Tour], if he can rank first in the total points of the season, or enter the top three in the Q Tour playoffs in which the amateur players are ranked 2nd-17th in the season, he can win one of the three professional spots; The second path, Q School before the start of next season's Pro Tour, is to compete for as many as one of 12 Pro spots.
According to the official website of the World Professional Billy and Snooker Association WPBSA and the World Snooker Professional Tour WST, the European Q Tour has 7 matches this season, and the schedule is as follows:
Q Tour 1: 16-18 August 2024, United Kingdom; The champion is former professional Andreas · Petrov, Zhao Xintong is suspended;
Q Tour 2: September 20-22, 2024, Sofia, Bulgaria, Zhao Xintong signed up to participate, won two rounds of qualifying, lost to former professional player Stedman in the first round of the main competition, staged a round of tours, and the final champion was Dylan · Emery;
Q Tour 3: October 4-6, 2024, Stockholm, Sweden;
Q Tour 4: 8-10 November 2024, Manchester, United Kingdom;
Q Tour 5: December 13-15, 2024, Austria;
Q Tour 6: 10-12 January 2025, Switzerland;
Q Tour 7: February 7-9, 2025, Randy Wood, United Kingdom.
For Zhao Xintong, he missed the first stop of the Q Tour due to time constraints, and the second round of the first round of tours; If they finish well in the remaining five races, they will earn a professional qualification for next season, and if they do not finish first, they will be able to compete in the "Q Tour Playoffs" for one of the three professional qualifications as long as they are within 2-17 of the standings. Of course, if you can win the "Q Tour" sub-station championship, you will also get the British Championships, the World Championships wild card qualification, if you can break into the World Championships, you can directly obtain professional qualifications, if you can achieve outstanding results in the British Championships, you also have the opportunity to obtain professional qualifications through the professional tour single-season rankings, if the above paths fail to obtain professional qualifications, then you can only squeeze Q School this last single-plank bridge.
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