There we easy victories on the first day of the Last 64, and televised action at the Welsh Open for the likes of Mark Selby, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Joe Perry, Marco Fu and Mark Allen, while Stephen Maguire came from 3-1 behind to beat Sam Baird 4-3.
Meanwhile there were also good victories for home favourites Andrew Pagett and Dominic Dale, while another home favourite in Michael White was knocked out by Xiao Guodong in a great match and Mark Davis was knocked out by Joel Walker.
Let's take a look at Monday's Last 64 results:
Stephen Maguire 4-3 Sam Baird - Maguire was in quite a bit of trouble in this one, especially as he was suffering from a bad back during the match, revealing post match that he was on pain killers. The Scot took an early 1-0 lead in the match, but Baird was soon 2-1 with breaks of 75 in the second and a 60 helping the youngster to the third. Baird needed a couple of chances to move 3-1 ahead, and put the defending champion in trouble, and after going 43 points up early in the fifth frame, Maguire couldn't afford many more mistakes. He went on to win the fifth by just 2 points, and then saw a break of 42 late in the sixth frame force the decider. Stephen had the first chance in the decider, and he made the most of it bringing out his highest break of the match, a 68, to seal a good comeback win 4-3.
James Wattana 4-2 Tom Ford
Dominic Dale 4-1 Dechawat Poomjaeng
Joel Walker 4-3 Mark Davis
Matthew Stevens 4-2 Ian Burns - To start with this match was a struggle for both players, with Stevens particularly in poor form, as he had been for the last few weeks. It was the Welshman that took the opener with a 35 clearance, before Burns levelled at 1-1 taking a fairly scrappy second frame. A break of 82 from Burns gave him a 2-1 lead, and with Stevens 50 points down in the next the home favourite was in trouble. However, the game turned on a superb clearance of 60 from Stevens that really didn't look on at the time, as he squared again at 2-2. Ian Burns had the first chance again in the fifth before he missed a tricky pink, and Stevens was able to do enough with another good 61 this time to go 3-2 in front. Stevens made the early running in the sixth frame this time, and once he went 58 points ahead, Burns could never recover and Matthew was able to close out a 4-2 win, looking in much better form towards the end.
Mark Allen 4-2 Noppon Saengkham
Scott Donaldson 4-1 David Gilbert
Andrew Higginson 4-3 Jimmy Robertson
Mark Selby 4-1 Dave Harold - This one got off to quite a scrappy start with neither player being able to settle, but a break of 33 followed by a good snooker on the blue from Selby, was eventually enough after Harold stuck the blue up from the snooker. Dave looked in much better form in the next, with a decent break of 72 to make it 1-1. The Jester dominated the third frame, with an early break of 52 helping Selby towards a 2-1 lead. Harold should've won the fourth frame, but when his break of 59 ended abruptly, Selby cleared the colours to force a re-spotted black, and after a long battle on it, it was eventually Dave that left it cuttable for Selby, and he obliged to make it 3-1. Mark looked in much better form in the final frame, once he'd got some breathing space, with a run of 61 giving him the match and a nice 4-1 victory.
Marco Fu 4-1 Kurt Maflin
Andrew Pagett 4-3 Gerard Greene
Joe Perry 4-0 Liu Chuang
Judd Trump 4-1 Jamie Burnett - Judd started the match off in fine form and in high confidence, but still giving Jamie Burnett chances, which he couldn't convert, as an earlier break of 49 from Trump proved enough to make it 1-0, Trump needed a couple of scoring chances in the next, but he took them well and moved into a swift 2-0 lead, with a quick end in sight. Trump took on a very confident, but ultimately fatal thin cut red, opening the reds right up for Burnett from the start, who made a nice 80 break to close to 1-2. Both players had lots of chances in a scrappier fourth frame, but once Trump made enough on the colours to go 3-1 ahead, that looked like game over. So it was proved in the next frame as Trump, needing a few chances, was let in once too often by a bad Burnett miss and he did what was required to complete a 4-1 win. It was hardly vintage Trump, but he didn't need to be to get the job done.
John Higgins 4-0 Ken Doherty
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Michael White
Michael Holt 4-2 Peter Lines
The seeds continuing to dominate things then in Newport, but will things be the same today? Well we'll just have to wait and see, but you can have a look at what I think about the remaining Last 64 games here: cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/welsh-open-update-last-64.html
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