UK Qualifiers Day 1 - Igor Exit's

It's the first day of competition at the UK Championship qualifiers in Sheffield, where all the players ranked 65-96 battle it out to reach the next round and possibly a chance to get to Telford. It didn't go according to plan for tour internationals Patrick Einsle and Igor Figueiredo though.

First up today was Brazilian Igor Figueiredo who has had a strong start to the season reaching the final 64 of both the Shanghai Masters and appearing in front of the TV cameras in the 12BET.com World Open last 64, but failed to expand upon those triumph's in this third ranking event. He was up against China's Liu Chang and seemed to struggle in this longer match format, losing 9-4.

Also in competition today was German youngster Patrick Einsle. He had shown some promise at the start of the season, winning a couple of matches in the PTC events but has recently seen a dip in form and it continued today. He lost his match against Welsh player Paul Davies 9-7. Now that the PTC events are over, Patrick needs to shift to a higher gear for the German Masters and the Welsh Open or he could be off the tour as he currently stands at 88th on the ranking list.

Players that have made it through the first round include rising young stars; Liam Highfield and Jamie Jones, both of which have had decent seasons so far (Jamie even reached a PTC final). Highfield beat Kuldesh Johal 9-7 and Jones beat Dermot McGlinchey 9-4 and are through to face Tony Drago and Joe Jogia respectively.

Full Results:

Paul Davies 9-7 Patrick Einsle

Liam Highfield 9-7 Kuldesh Johal

Jamie Jones 7-4 Dermot McGlinchey

Andrew Pagett 9-2 Noppon Saengkham

Ben Woollaston 9-2 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon

Liu Chuang 9-4 Igor Figueiredo