Anthony McGill will make his ninth appearance at the Crucible following a commanding 10-6 victory over Cao Yupeng in qualifying for the World Championship.
McGill came desperately close to reaching the final in 2020, losing in a deciding frame against Kyren Wilson in the last four, and he will be tough draw for any of the 16 seeds on this impressive showing.
The Scot had appeared in big trouble when falling 3-0 behind, but a blitz of big breaks that began with a century in frame four allowed him to turn the contest on its head.
In fact, McGill won six frames on the spin to lead 6-3 at the break, and though Cao briefly rallied in the evening session, he was never able to get back into a match that was the first to conclude on Tuesday.
Shortly afterwards, Fan Zhengyi wrapped up an impressive 10-6 victory over Stephen Maguire, completing a remarkable turnaround.
Maguire was firmly in control when racing into a 4-0 lead, but he struggled for his best form all day and had no answers when Fan started to find his range and put together a series of sizeable contributions.
Walden holds off Thepchaiya
Despite making three centuries and a host of other big breaks, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh came off second best against Ricky Walden, eventually losing 10-9.
Thepchaiya rallied brilliantly from 4-1 down to end the first session with a 5-4 lead, but Walden won three frames on the spin at the beginning of the evening and managed to keep his nose just about in front thereafter.
Thepchaiya did take the match the distance, but Walden kept his cool and produced a classy match-winning run of 69 in the decider to finish the job.
Former world champion Graeme Dott will have to wait until next year for another crack at snooker's Blue Riband, Matt Selt proving too strong for the veteran. So too will Barry Hawkins who lost 10-8 to Jak Jones.
Wu Yize will make his Crucible debut after beating Shoot Out champion Chris Wakelin 10-8.
