Ahmed Aly Elsayed's first season on the World Snooker Tour comes to a conclusion after defeat in qualifying Round 1 of the 2024 World Championship at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, England.

There are four qualifying rounds to be played in order to find the sixteen players who will advance to face the top-16 ranked players in professional snooker's annual showpiece event at the Crucible in Sheffield, which this year will be played from April 20 - May 6.

The American was up against Estonia's Andres Petrov in this best-of-19-frames tie, which was scheduled to be played over two sessions on April 8 & 9.

The first session of nine frames got underway on April 8 at 2:30pm local time. The six-times former United States National Snooker Champion made a confident start as he won the first frame, but the remaining eight frames of the session proved tough going for him as the 27-year-old from the Estonian capital of Tallinn raced away to an 8-1 advantage assisted with breaks of 87, 52, 77 and 95.

This left a mountain to climb for Aly in the second session of the match, which commenced at 2:30pm on April 9.

An opening run of 95 put Petrov on the hill at 9-1, and he quickly wrapped up the match by securing the following frame for a comprehensive 10-1 victory (Match scoresheet).

There watching the match was Alan Morris, Executive Director of the United States Snooker Association (USSA), who commented: "I was pleased to be able to watch Ahmed play in his last event of the season, though it was a difficult watch for me as his opponent Andres is also a very good friend of mine too.

"Aly's first season on the World Snooker Tour has been a huge learning curve as he gains valuable experience to take into his second season. He still feels frustrated however that he cannot take his excellent practice form onto the match table, and accounts it to the fact that he is still trying to get used to the very different playing conditions in the venues on Tour.

"I really do wish him success next season though he has been a fine ambassador for snooker in the United States throughout this season."

Aly is planning to spend some of the off-season back in New York City, and will return to his Sheffield base with his wife and child in mid-June full of enthusiasm and a positive outlook for the new 2024-25 season.