Peter Ebdon defied his own low expectations to breeze past Michael White in the fourth qualifying round for the Roewe Shanghai Masters on Thursday night.
The 2002 world champion raised eyebrows recently by releasing a statement talking down his chances of qualifying for the ranking event.
However, Londoner Ebdon cruised through with a 5-1 win against Welshman White.
The 39-year-old’s warning about how he might have played was understood to have been made to provide bookmakers with advance notice about his prospects of qualifying for September’s tournament.
Snooker chiefs are determined for the sport to be free from suspicion, and by releasing his statement Ebdon made it clear he was going into his final qualifying round match with low expectations.
Ebdon had said last week: “I would like to make it known that I consider that I will not be in a position to play to the best of my ability in my Roewe Shanghai Masters qualifying match in Sheffield.
“This is down to personal circumstances, including the fact that I am getting remarried in Hungary this weekend... as always, I will be doing my utmost to win what is a very important match for me but in truth, my levels of expectation will not be very high.”
Meanwhile, two other former world champions Steve Davis and Ken Doherty, also won their final qualifying round matches to book their places in China’s ranking tournament between September 6 and 12.
Davis stormed to a 5-0 victory over Rod Lawler, keeping up the form he showed in reaching the quarter-finals of the World Championship last season in a commanding performance, highlighted by a 44 clearance to win the first frame on the black, and breaks of 75 and 63 in the last two frames.
“I nicked a couple of frames which I shouldn’t have, and potted most of the balls that I went for,” said Davis, who turns 53 later this month.
“It’s great to win my first round game early in the season and nice to be going to Shanghai because I didn’t qualify for China last season.”
Doherty squeezed through after a crucial error from Fergal O’Brien in the deciding frame of a 5-4 thriller.
The battle between two Dubliners lasted 3 hours 43 minutes.