Wales' Jamie Jones is one of seven players ranked outside the top 50 who will be competing in the final 32 of the World Championship after pulling off the shock result of qualification.
Liang stunned
Jones had been drawn against the form player of the week, Liang Wenbo, in the third and final qualification round. Yet a string of half-century breaks from the Welsh hotshot helped him dispose of the number 19 seed by a mammoth 10-0 scoreline, only the second whitewash of qualification.
20-year old Chinese youngster Lu Haotian is the lowest ranked player to progress but made a mockery of his number 68 rank and limited experience compared to his competitor. Lu eased past Rory McLeod 10-2.
Lu was is of only three Chinese players to qualify for the Crucible with Ding Junhui automatically involved and Xiao Guodong progressing after thrashing Adam Duffy, ranked 99, 10-1. However, Tian Pengfei was on the wrong end of a wide scoreline himself, losing 10-1 to Chris Wakelin, whilst Zhang Anda was edged out by Stuart Carrington.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh ensured that Thailand have a representative at the Crucible after defeating Alfie Burden 10-8. Liam Highfield then completed the selection of players outside the top 50 to qualify after he beat Daniel Wells.
Day and Maguire ease through
A quartet of familiar faces made sure they would be part of the 2018 World Championship framework. Ryan Day and Stephen Maguire only just missed out on automatic qualification but saw off Peter Ebdon and Hossein Vafaei respectively.
Ricky Walden overcame a potential banana skin in Andrew Higginson whilst Joe Perry ensured he would be at the Crucible again after easing past Mark Davis.
Ken Doherty will be donning his microphone again after being thrashed by fellow veteran Matthew Stevens, although Graeme Dott did ensure that one former World champion would make it through qualification after he defeated Mike Dunn.
Robert Milkins produced a slight surprise when he beat Michael Holt 10-3, whilst Jack Lisowski and Jimmy Robertson defeated Alan McManus and Michael White respectively.