Bai Yulu beats Scott Donaldson in UK Championship qualifying

Bai Yulu is one win away from becoming the first woman to reach the last-32 of the UK Championship after a record third victory in the qualifiers.

The 21-year-old Chinese won the final three frames to defeat world number 44 Scott Donaldson 6-5.

Bai, who won the Women’s World Championship earlier this year, will play England’s world number 21 Jack Lisowski in the final qualifying round on Wednesday (19:00 GMT) for a place in the main draw in York.

The last-32 stage gets under way on Saturday, 23 November and will be televised on the BBC. The top 16 seeds will be drawn against 16 qualifiers, with record eight-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan defending the title.

Bai, 120th in the rankings, had already become the first woman this century to win back-to-back matches at a ranking event with victories over Jamie Jones and Farakh Ajaib.

She is playing on the professional tour for the first time this season and had not won a match on the main tour before this week.