Lisowski ends Bai's historic UK Championship bid

Jack Lisowski is currently ranked 21st in the world

Jack Lisowski ended Bai Yulu's bid to become the first woman to reach the last 32 of the UK Championship with a comfortable 6-1 win in the final qualifying round in Leicester.

The Englishman made breaks of 79, 69, 64 and 77 as he reeled off the first four frames.

Chinese world women's champion Bai, 21, made a half-century of her own to briefly reduce her arrears but her hopes of reaching the televised stages in York were dashed as Lisowski sealed his victory with runs of 85 and 66.

"Obviously, it was all about Bai," said Lisowski. "It would have been incredible if she could have qualified, but she had an incredible run anyway.

"It was just about trying to keep my concentration. I get easily distracted normally at the best of times. So obviously, that storyline was in the back of my head.

"I think she missed the blue to make it 1-1 and then I made 50s and 60s each frame. We sort of dragged each other down a little bit, but I'm happy to get through. If it goes 1-1 it’s game on, I think that was the key moment in the match.”

Lisowski, 33, who is regarded as one of the best players to have never won a ranking tournament, now goes into Thursday afternoon's draw for the first Triple Crown event of the season in York.

Bai Yulu's first win since joining the World Snooker Tour came on Saturday

Maguire and Bingham progress

Stephen Maguire won a tense 59-minute deciding frame to beat Elliot Slessor 6-5.

The Scot made breaks of 134 and 85 on his way to a 4-2 lead before England's Slessor took the next three with runs of 78, 61 and 69.

Maguire levelled with a 71 before coming through a nervy finale on the colours.

"That was the toughest frame I have ever played," said Maguire, who won the last of his six ranking titles in 2020.

"If I had lost that frame I don't know what I would have done - maybe given up. I was over the edge mentally."

England's Stuart Bingham, who has previously won both the Masters and World Championship also booked his place at the Barbican with a 6-0 win over compatriot Jimmy Robertson.

Jackson Page defeated Iran’s Hossein Vafaei 6-2, and Crucible runner-up and fellow Welshman Jak Jones compiled four half-centuries and two centuries in his 6-3 success against China’s Fan Zhengyi.

Meanwhile, Wales' Ryan Day swept past England's Sanderson Lam 6-2 and Englishman Barry Hawkins overcame Hong Kong's Wang Yuchen 6-3.