Slessor is looking for his big break on Crucible stage
ELLIOT Slessor has been drawn against 16th seed Yan Bingtao in the first round of the Betfred World Championship.
The Gateshead potter is heading to the Crucible for the first time in his career after brushing aside Martin O’Donnell in his final round of qualifying.
Slessor had never previously booked his place at the sport’s biggest event. However, he changed all that in style at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport, finding some of his most fluent potting form to beat O’Donnell 10-3.
The world No.70 struck breaks of 111, 89 and 76 to cap an impressive trio of qualifying performances, after easing past Antoni Kowalski and Ben Woollaston to tee up his fourth round qualifier against world No.33 O’Donnell.
The talented 25-year-old toppled Polish player Kowalski 6-2 after entering the draw at the second stage before emphatically beating world No.38 Woollaston to place himself on the cusp of reaching the pinnacle of the snooker calendar.
Slessor then defeated his second opponent above him in the world rankings during the qualifiers.
The Tyneside star had to do it the hard way in Sheffield, going 2-0
down against O’Donnell after the 2018 Shoot Out semi-finalist struck a first-frame 53.
A majestic third-frame 89 from Slessor reduced the deficit but O’Donnell soon opened up that two-frame lead once more as a 56 left Slessor 3-1 down.
Slessor then found some of his finest potting form against a player ranked 37 places above him, as breaks of 53 and 68 restored parity in the contest.
Three scrappy frames followed but that mattered little to Slessor, who clinched them all to open up a 6-3 lead and place him just four frames away from the Crucible.
A 10th-frame 76 and 11th-frame 50 extended his advantage even further and while there were no breaks of note as he won the 12th, a thrilling final-frame century was enough to see off O’Donnell and book Slessor’s place at the home of snooker.
The unpredictable Slessor has endured a mixed season on the snooker circuit, reaching the quarter-finals at the German Masters in Berlin but suffering early defeats at the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship.
After qualifying he revealed he must now keep his promise to marry girlfriend Stephanie.
Slessor, who will pocket £20,000 for reaching the main event, said: “We had a deal that if I qualified for the Crucible we had to start making plans for the wedding and start booking places, so she will be over the moon.
“I don’t think shew ill be too bothered about the snooker, just over the moon to start making plans to get married.”
Slessor had hoped to be paired with Ronnie O’Sullivan on his Crucible debut and added: “I know a lot of people will say they don’t want to play him. Yet for me if spectators are allowed in, you want to play the main man on the main stage.”