Ding & Doherty One Win From The Crucible – World Snooker Championship 2016

Ding Junhui and Ken Doherty are now only one match away in qualifying for the televised stages of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Read on for the full report...

After Stephen Maguire's semifinal run at the China Open, Ding Junhui was forced to qualify for the first time to get to snooker's biggest tournament.

After a convincing 10-4 win over Irish amateur Greg Casey, Chinese number one Ding stepped up another gear and saw off Scotland's Ross Muir 10-1 with a top break of 106 in the final frame.

The 11-time-ranking event winner now has a tough test in the shape of former Crucible finalist Nigel Bond. If Ding can beat Bond, then he'll be randomly drawn against one of the Top 16 players at the World Snooker Championship, the odds are in his favour but he could come up against a Ronnie O'Sullivan or Neil Robertson in the first round!

1997 world champion Ken Doherty looked in control during the early stages of his match against Iran's Hossein Vafaei Ayouri, racing to a 8-3 lead. There were nervy times for fans of the popular Irishman as Hossein made breaks of 84, 54, 57 and 138 to pull back to 9-7, but Doherty finished in style with a 77 to progress a 10-7 winner.

Doherty faces another tricky match in the shape of Ryan Day to qualify for the Crucible. Multiple ranking event finalist Day came from 9-5 down to beat Alfie Burden 10-9 with a 64 in the final frame.

2002 world champion Peter Ebdon also narrowly made it through to the final round of qualifying, battling from 9-5 down to beat Gerard Greene 10-9 just after 2am at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

Other selected others through to the final qualifying rounds today include 2006 world champion Graeme Dott, Crucible finalists Ali Carter and Matthew Stevens, and crowd favourite Liang Wenbo.

For all the latest scores and results from the World Snooker Championship 2016 qualifers, head to snooker.org.