Xiao Guodong produced a dominant display to thrash Scotland’s Chris Totten and set up an all-Chinese affair in the second round of qualifying for the 2018 World Championship. Guodong, who returned to the tour for the second time in 2009, made nine breaks of 50 plus as he dispatched Totten with ease in the first round of qualifying, winning 10-3.
The 29-year-old, who won gold for his country at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games, recorded breaks of 83, 71, 85, 80, 105, 87, 74, 57 and 137, which came in the final frame, to ease into the next stage. Next up for the world number 25 is a clash against compatriot Mei Xiwen after he was able to get the better of Egyptian Basem Eltahhan in a hard-fought encounter, winning 10-8. The 35-year-old, who has never made the main draw of the World Championship, made five breaks over 50 but he will need to up his performance in order to progress further. Guodong, who has reached three quarter-finals this season but is still yet to break his duck, lost the only previous encounter against Xiwen back in 2013 on the Asian Tour.
Despite that defeat, the 2017 Snooker shoot-out runner-up is still fancied to move into the third stage of qualifying where either Matthew Selt or Adam Duffy will be waiting. Elsewhere, there were routine victories for Ben Woollaston, Zhang Anda and Martin Gould as they dispatched Kacper Filipiak, Zhang Yong and Paul S Davison respectively. It was a tighter affair for England’s Stuart Carrington but he managed to edge past compatriot 1995 World Championship runner-up Nigel Bond 10-9.