World Open: Round 1 Round-Up

Most Seeds Through, Williams Out.

It was busness as usual for most of the top stars at the Haikou World Open in Round 1, as 13 of the 15 seeds (after Carter's withdrawal) got through to the 2nd round, so that we head into Day 4 with an incredibly strong line-up.

Day 1 saw only 2, 1st round matches as Ricky Walden overcame Peter Ebdon 5-2. That was not the only thing that Walden had to overcome, as he turned up on the Hainan island without his cue and the rest of his luggage (and wasn't the only victim of this). Luckily for him Stephen Maguire lent him his cue, as well as his waistcoat and even his socks. This didn't affect his game though as he made a 125 break with the recent Welsh Open champions cue and continued to heep misery on Ebdon his poor form continued. Later on Day 1 Robert Milkins scored another good victory, this time over Mark Davis. Milkins took early leads of 3-0 and 4-1, before being dragged back to 4-3 as Davis made a break of 100. It wasn't enough though as Milkins won the next and the match 5-3 and played quite well for someone who'd had 5 hours sleep across 3 nights!

On Day 2 defending champion Mark Allen came from 2-0 down to beat Ryan Day 5-2, despite a delay during frame 5 as drops of water from a leaking roof fell onto the table. Meanwhile there were also victories for Shaun Murphy, 5-4 over Martin Gould. In a high quality match Gould's top break of 94 came in the opening frame and last month's Snooker Shoot-Out champion lead 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, but was continually pegged back by Murphy who made a 118 break to force the decider. The 2005 World champion had to come from behind in the decider before winning the match on the final pink.
Later on Judd Trump thrashed Mark Joyce 5-0, Matthew Stevens came from 4-2 down to beat David Gilbert 5-4. Also, Graeme Dott made the highest break of the tournament so far, making a 139 break after coming from 2-0 behind to overcome Jamie Cope 5-2 and finally on Day 2 Neil Robertson beat Dominic Dale 5-2.

Day 3, the final day of the first round, saw wins for home favourites Ding Junhui, 5-4 over Michael Holt, while Hong Kong's Marco Fu continued Mark Williams poor run of form with as the German Masters runner-up was a 5-2 victor. Barry Hawkins and Mark Selby were the other winners in the first session, Hawkins 5-1 over Ian Burns and Mark Selby 5-0 against Lu Haotian. In the all Scot clashes of the final session, Stephen Maguire beat Marcus Campbell 5-3 and we rolled back the years as John Higgins overcame Alan McManus by the same scoreline.

2nd Round Draw

Mark Allen Vs Robert Milkins
Stephen Maguire Vs Ricky Walden
Marco Fu Vs Ding Junhui
John Higgins Vs Stuart Bingham
Judd Trump Vs Nigel Bond
Shaun Murphy Vs Matthew Stevens
Mark Selby Vs Barry Hawkins
Neil Robertson Vs Graeme Dott

My Picks: Allen, Maguire, Ding, Higgins, Trump, Murphy, Selby and an outside shot on Dott.

That's all for now another update coming up tomorrow ahead of the Quarter-Finals.

Thanks for reading!