Congratulations to the Grove’s Zhang Anda, who is currently on his best-ever run at the World Championship Qualifiers. Anda followed up wins against Craig Steadman, former World Champion John Parrott and Andrew Higginson with a 10-8 victory against provisional world no 16 Ricky Walden in the final qualifying round to reach the final stages at the Crucible to cap his very first year on the Main Tour.

Anda, who turned 18 on Christmas Day, was already celebrating as his win against world no 32 Andrew Higginson on Friday guaranteed his place on the Main Tour for a second successive season. However he created the shock of the round to reach his first ranking event venue.

It was revenge for the current Asian under-21 champion as he lost 5-0 to Walden in the wild card round when the Englishman won last season’s Roewe Shanghai Masters.

Trailing 5-4 after the first session, former World under-21 finalist Anda levelled the score with a break of 74, then shared the next six frames as neither player was able to pull away. From 8-8, Anda stepped up a gear and fired in a tremendous 134 total clearance to go 9-8 ahead. Ricky Walden had the first chance in the next but could only make 32 and Anda finished in style with a 103.

Anda said, “I never thought I could get to the Crucible. I just wanted to win enough games here to stay on the Main Tour, so now I’m very happy. I didn’t feel nervous at all, I was very focused and my mind was totally into the match.”

Photos of Anda taken during his match with Ricky Walden, courtesy of Monique Limbos: