Michael Holt joins maximum break club on second day of new professional snooker season

Former Snooker Shoot Out ranking event winner Holt - who is 47-years-old - completed the feat of green baize perfection in frame three of his second qualifying round match against Mark Joyce on Thursday night at the Mattioli Arena.

Runs of 54 and 84 helped put Englishman Holt 2-0 up before he sank 15 reds with blacks and all the colours to record the first maximum of the new 2026/27 professional season, and the 242nd in top-flight snooker history overall.

Holt - now in line for the tournament’s £15,000 highest break prize - went on to register further efforts of 71 and 64 in a 6-1 win to reach the penultimate qualifying round where he will meet Noppon Saengkham.

Last season there was a record-breaking 24 maximum 147 breaks made on the World Snooker Tour, smashing the previous benchmark of 15 from the term before.

Elsewhere on the second day of the fledgling term, Jimmy White’s hopes of qualification for the main draw in Taiyuan this August were extinguished by home city player Louis Heathcote who was a 6-2 victor. Former Masters and UK champion White had defeated Sean O’Sullivan in his opener on Wednesday.

Marco Fu - breaking off his 29th season as a professional - produced a fine display of scoring as he rattled in efforts of 79, 78, 58, 84, 134 and 62 in a 6-1 victory over Oliver Brown.

Liam Highfield's last engagement on the pro tour was at the Crucible where he made then-defending champion Zhao Xintong work hard for victory on the opening day. He returned to the more sedate surroundings of qualifying, but appeared to be in brilliant nick as runs of 86, 135, 77, 103 and 67 aided him in a 6-2 win against Florian Nuessle, who himself scored a 122.

Lyu Haotian could face a battle this season to keep his professional tour card as he is currently projected 69th in the end-of-season provisional rankings. However, the Chinese cueist gave himself an early morale-boost as he constructed a brace of centuries during a 6-3 success over Julien Leclercq.

Despite making a 61, 17-year-old Lan Yuhao lost the opening frame of his match with rookie Oliver Sykes on the final black, but went on to fashion contributions of 61, 118, 52, 59, 91 and 74 in a 6-2 win.

Sam Craigie crafted two breaks of 125 as he progressed in the £1.2 million ranking event; Ian Burns (116), David Lilley (114) and Ricky Walden (100) also hit three figures en route to their respective victories.

There was an incredible encounter between the youngest player on tour, 15-year-old Michal Szubarczyk, and Ross Muir.

Scotsman Muir was coasting at 5-0 up, but Pole Szubarczyk strung together five frames of his own to force an unlikely decider. However, Muir regrouped, making a crucial 73 in the 11th to eventually advance into qualifying round three.

Currently without a tour card, Duane Jones recovered from 3-0 against Alexander Ursenbacher - slotting in breaks of 74, 66, 114, 64 and 86 - to record a 6-5 win.

Sahil Nayyar, Daniel Womersley, Hammad Miah, Haohui Deng, Huang Jiahao, Martin O'Donnell, Jamie Clarke, Gao Yang, Ben Mertens, Peter Lines, and Ishpreet Singh Chadha were also match winners on Thursday in Leicester.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 China Open qualifiers, visit our tournament information centre here.