Kyren Wilson. Picture by Monique Limbos

KYREN Wilson is just one win away from World Championship qualification for the first time after his fine form continued with an cruising win over Alfie Burden.

The Kettering potter followed up his two previous wins against Chris Norbury and Rod Lawler with a 10-3 win over the Londoner which secured him a spot in next week’s final qualifying round.

Wilson, who reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters last year, will face former world champion Graeme Dott on Tuesday in a bid to make his debut at the Crucible.

Breaks of 84 and 56 helped Wilson make a dream start in his third round clash as he stormed into a 3-0 lead early on. Burden then won the fourth frame with a run of 75 but Wilson continued his dominance by extending his lead to 7-2 going into the evening session.

Burden pulled another frame back but Wilson was not to be denied a third straight win in this qualifying event as breaks of 90, 66 and two break of 62 in the final frame helped clinch a deserved win.

The first day’s action of the penultimate round proved one to forget for Belgian’s Luca Brecel who crashed to a huge 10-1 defeat to Tom Ford. Breaks of 68, 85, 101 and 66 sealed the Leicester potter a final round tie against Matthew Stevens.

Welshman Jamie Jones, who yesterday battled back from 9-4 down to beat Joel Walker, continued his hopes of reaching snooker’s biggest tournament after a 10-5 win over Aditya Mehta. Jones will play Michael Holt on Tuesday.

Andrew Higginson followed up his second round success over Martin O’Donnell with a 10-3 win against Norway’s Kurt Maflin – a win which means he faces Dominic Dale in the final round.

Thailand’s Dechawat Poomjaeng, who beat Stephen Maguire in the first round of the World Championship last year, earned a 10-6 win over the man who relegated Steve Davis off the tour on Thursday – Craig Steadman. Poomjaeng will make the World Championship for a second year running if he beats 1997 world champion Ken Doherty in the final round.

Jamie Cope and Alan McManus held their nerve late on to record wins against Alex Borg and Peter Lines respectively. McManus will next face former world champion Mark Williams and Cope plays Mark King.

And Jimmy Robertson came back from 9-8 behind to beat Anthony McGill via a deciding frame shoot-out to set up a final round tie against David Gilbert.

The eight remaining third round qualification ties will be played on Sunday.

Player of the Day: Kyren Wilson – Another Impressive performance from Wilson who looks to be getting sharper and sharper game by game. A lovely player to speak to, it will be great see him make the Crucible for the first time.

But in Graeme Dott he faces a tough ask. Will be a big test for Kyren and certainly is one of the matches to keep your eye on.