By Blake Bint
A Welsh teenager has become the youngest snooker player to win a match at the World Championship.
Fifteen-year-old Liam Davies achieved his feat with a 6-4 win over Aaron Hill in the first round of the World Snooker Championship qualifying stages.
The amateur from Tredegar broke the record by just two days as youngest winner of a World Championship match at 15 years and 277 days old. Belgian prodigy Ben Mertens had previously broken the record in the 2020 edition.
Davies had deficits of 1-0, 3-1 and 4-2 during the match but breaks of 127, 72 and 60 helped him over the line.
The teenager’s last professional match came at the Welsh Open where he fell to Ukranian 16-year-old Iulian Boiko despite a 3-0 lead in the best of seven tie.
Davies, coached by professional Lee Walker, will have to win three more matches to reach the main draw of the World Championship which would secure him a two year tour card and the right to play with professional status. Irishman Fergal O’Brien stands next in the amateur’s way, before a potential match-up with world No. 24 Jordan Brown.
Davies’ prodigy years have been well documented in recent years with his Welsh Open wildcard entry of late also producing eye catching performances in Q-School and youth events. He has also made two appearances at the snooker Shoot-out in his short career so far.
Elsewhere, fellow Welshman Andrew Pagett overcame six-time world finalist Jimmy White 6-2. White, now aged 59, hasn’t made a World Championship main draw appearance since 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Northern Irishman Robbie McGuigan also advanced to set up a draw with Scott Donaldson, beating Alfie Burden in the first qualifying round. McGuigan, stepson of former triple crown winner Mark Allen became the youngest Northern Irish amateur to play a match in the World Championship when he came up against Alfie Burden.