Ryan Day has failed to qualify for the main draw of the World Championships for the first time since 2013 after losing 10-3 to Tian Pengfei in the second round of qualifying on Monday.
The Welshman, who is a two-time ranking event winner and last month made it through to the final of the Gibraltar Open, had only missed out on securing an automatic place in the main draw at the Crucible by one spot in the rankings.
That made the 39-year-old the top seed during qualifying, but he was outclassed by Chinese star Pengfei, who won six frames on the spin to set up a showdown with Matthew Stevens in the final round of qualifying on Tuesday.
Pengfei has never made it through to the main draw of the World Championships before and he remains a 501.00 outsider to go on and claim overall glory at the Crucible next month.
Day wasn’t the only big-name casualty to fall during the second round of qualifying as former World Championship semi-finalist Rickey Walden lost 10-9 to Israel’s Eden Sharav – a defeat that was made even more painful as the Englishman had been leading 9-6.
There were also defeats for two-time ranking event winner Michael White, who was beaten 10-6 by John Astley, while the experienced Mark King saw his chances of qualifying for the main draw for the first time since 2013 disappear following a 10-5 loss to Lu Ning.
Former world champion Ken Doherty will also have to take a watching brief in Sheffield this year, as he was beaten 10-4 by Scott Donaldson, although the 1997 world champion will take solace from the fact he has returned to the top 64 of the world rankings following some consistent displays of late.
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