Luca Brecel and Jack Lisowski beaten in World Snooker Championship qualifiers

Former world champion Luca Brecel and Jack Lisowski were high-profile casualties on the final night of World Championship qualifying at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Brecel, the 2023 champion from Belgium, was beaten 10-5 by 2024 finalist Jak Jones.

Welshman Jones trailed 4-3 in the early stages, but some stunning potting that included century breaks of 100, 114, 114, 132 and 136 took him into the first round proper.

Lisowski, a World Championship quarter-finalist in 2022, also went out 10-5 to He Guoqiang as the Chinese player reached the last 32 of the tournament for the first time.

He seized control by winning the first five frames and made a statement break of 138 in the last of those.

Lisowski battled back to reduce the gap to 6-3 and 7-5, but He got over the line on the black in the 15th frame after the Englishman had taken command with a break of 64.

Ali Carter, who lost World Championship finals to Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2018 and 2012, rattled off five successive frames to beat Anthony McGill 10-7.

Liam Highfield booked his first Crucible appearance since 2022 by easing through 10-2 against fellow Englishman Oliver Lines.

Gary Wilson held his nerve to beat Xu Si 10-9 in a thrilling affair.

Wilson was in command at 8-4, but Xu then won five frames in a row and took the lead with his third century.

But Wilson edged a tight 18th frame to level and a superb 126 – his third century of the match after two breaks of 136 – sealed a dramatic win.

Chinese trio Fan Zhengyi, Lei Peifan and Zhang Anda also progressed into the main first-round draw on Thursday with respective wins over Ben Mertens, Ryan Day and Zak Surety.