The 47-year-old Maltese will now meet fellow veteran Alan McManus at the World Snooker Academy.
Another old hand joins the fray in Thursday's second round as Jimmy White plays Kurt Maflin, who beat Michael Wild in his first-round encounter.
The qualifying rounds of the 2013 China Open run from Wednesday to Saturday, with the 16 qualifiers going through to the final stages in Beijing, to be held from March 25 to 31.
Round one results
Kurt Maflin 5 - 2 Michael Wild
Li Yan 2 - 5 Daniel Wells
Pankaj Advani 4 - 5 David Grace
Robbie Williams 5 - 1 Mohamed Khairy
Paul S Davison 5 - 3 Joel Walker
Zhang Anda 4 - 5 Fraser Patrick
Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon 5 - 1 Justin Astley
Tony Drago 5 - 3 Gareth Allen
Ian Burns 5 - 2 Michael Leslie
Dechawat Poomjaeng 5 - 4 Sam Baird
Craig Steadman 2 - 5 Sean O'Sullivan
Tian Pengfei 5 - 1 Martin O'Donnell
Aditya Mehta 5 - 0 Simon Bedford
Chen Zhe 5 - 4 Scott Donaldson
Michael Wasley 5 - 4 Jamie O'Neill
Liam Highfield 5 - 2 Passakorn Suwannawat
