Fergal Quinn won the all-Irish clash against Robbie McGuigan in the first qualifying round of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Leicester on Friday.
The Coalisland rookie led 2-0 against the 21-year-old from Antrim, but then found himself one down with two to play when McGuigan reeled off three frames on the spin, the middle one with a break of 75.
However, Quinn forced the decider with breaks of 47 and 53 and took a scrappy seventh frame to set up a match with Zak Surety on Sunday (4pm).
Victory in that will earn Quinn a place in the final stages at the Waterfront in Belfast next month (October 19-26).
Ken Doherty and NIBSA amateurs Zak Sheldon and Joel Connolly were first-round losers on Thursday, Dublin veteran Doherty lost 4-1 to Yao Pengcheng of China, Sheldon 4-0 to Poland’s Antoni Kowalski and Connolly 4-1 to England’s Sam Craigie.
Leone Crowley came through 4-2 against Bulcsu Revesz of Hungary on Friday night and joins fellow Cork man Aaron Hill and Antrim’s Jordan Brown in round-two action on Sunday evening (7pm). Crowley takes on David Lilley, Hill faces Gao Yang of China and Brown plays Mitchell Mann.