Snooker star Jack Lisowski was demolished in his bid to qualify for the World Snooker Championship as He Guoquiang progressed following an impressive win
Jack Lisowski has crashed out of the World Snooker Championship after being upset in the qualifying rounds of the Crucible tournament. The World number 18 was unable to complete a comeback against He Guoqiang, who prevailed on the final day of qualification with a 10-5 win.
Snooker’s top 16-ranked players receive automatic qualification to the Crucible, celebrating its 50th edition, and a further eight players sealed their entry on Tuesday, including Stan Moody, Liam Pullen and Antoni Kowalski going through. Wednesday sees the final eight players claim their place, with Lisowski’s chances now in tatters, along with Luca Brecel, who was defeated 10-5 by Jak Jones.
Lisowski lost the opening five frames of his clash before getting on the scoreboard as Guoqiang stamped his authority on the match with a break of 138. But Lisowski was able to hit back to take the sixth frame 65-36.
It was a short-lived hope of a comeback for the 34-year-old Lisowski as Guoqiang got back to winning ways to take the seventh frame 79-33. Lisowski found some form in the eighth frame and reeled in his opponent’s scoring with a break of 90 to once again narrow the gap.
The English star was able to retain his momentum to claw another frame back to bring the score to 6-3 after a couple of visits to the table as he made it to the interval.
READ MORE: World Snooker Championship 2026: When is the draw, how to watch on TV and listen on radioREAD MORE: Snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan dubbed ‘amazing talent’ reaches Crucible aged just 19
The pair returned from the break and Lisowski missed an opportunity to continue where he left off, and Guoqiang prevailed in a back-and-forth frame as the final session got underway. Lisowski missed a key blue with the scores level to allow his opponent to take the frame.
But he was not about to give up without a fight as he claimed back-to-back frames to fire himself back into contention at 7-5. He was stopped in his tracks as Guoqiang picked up two frames of his own to put himself within touching distance of competing in the World Championship.
Guoqiang went ahead, but let Lisowski in to claim a 68-36 lead. The English star could not end the frame there, as Guoqiang capitalised on the opportunity left to him to win the frame by a single point.
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! All the best sports news and much more on our dedicated Facebook page
The 47th-ranked player held his nerve after a stunning opening salvo to begin the match.
Heading into this year’s tournament, Zhao Xintong will look to overcome the Crucible curse to become the first player to defend his maiden title. Last year, he prevailed over Mark Williams in the final to cap off a stunning tournament.
The draw for this year’s tournament will take place on Thursday, following the culmination of qualifying on Wednesday. The 16 seeded players will be matched up at random against the 16 qualifiers.
Guoqiang will be in the hat on Thursday morning and could be drawn against some of snooker’s biggest names in Ronnie O’Sullivan or Judd Trump.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
READ MORE: How to watch TNT Sports on HBO Max as discovery+ coverage disappears



You must be logged in to post a comment Login