Sixteen-year-old Stan Moody earned the first of four wins needed to reach the World Championship with victory in the first round of qualifying.
The Yorkshireman beat Estonia’s Andres Petrov 10-7 in Sheffield.
“Potting those winning balls – the relief – I couldn’t stop shaking,” Moody said. “I couldn’t breathe.”
Earlier this year Moody won the World Junior Championship, earning him a place in this week’s qualifiers and on the senior tour full-time next season.
He made his debut on the professional tour last year, winning his first match against Lu Ning at Snooker Shoot Out.
Moody has been tipped for success by seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, who he played in an exhibition aged 13.
Against Petrov, his first appearance in the competition, he made a break of 110 in the fifth frame and five more half-centuries in the match.
“It means everything,” said the teenager, who recently starred in a CBBC documentary about his early career. “All of the practice has paid off. I came here not expecting anything.”
He will play China’s world number 68 Zhang Anda next.
“I am just going to enjoy it,” he said. “All of the pressure is off. I have got over the hurdle of winning the first one.”
Elsewhere, former UK Championship and Masters finalist Marco Fu was beaten 10-5 by England’s Martin O’Donnell.
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