Wednesday saw some of the best comebacks of the week as Aditya Mehta turned around a 4-0 interval deficit to end up beating Sam Baird 6-5, while Jamie Cope came from 4-1 down to beat Rory McLeod in a deciding frame, which was effectively the deciding leg in winning my 30/1 15 fold accumulator on Wednesdays games ending quite a bad losing streak. Arguably the best came on Thursday when Fergal O'Brien was 5-2 down to Thor Chuan Leong, but won the next three to force a decider. They were then taken off with the evening session set to start imminently and had to wait a further 3 hours or more to play the decider but a break of 66 from Fergal did most of the damage earning a 6-5 victory.
I said it had been easy business for most seeds and Shaun Murphy was evidence of this as he cued superbly in beating local lad Ashley Hugill 6-1. John Higgins won 6-1, as too did Stuart Bingham, Judd Trump, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry and Ryan Day while Marco Fu was a 6-2 winner. Neil Robertson got through comfortably in the end 6-3, although he did lead 4-0 at the interval before losing three of the next four and a good clearance in the ninth prevented further nerves for the Australian.
Chris Wakelin and Matthew Stevens went down to the very final black in their match, with Chris eventually depositing it for a nice 6-5 victory. Some of the other seeded players to lose in round one included Mark King, Andrew Higginson and David Morris.
Here are all of the first round results in full from the York Barbican:
Stuart Bingham 6-1 Jordan Brown
Anthony Hamilton 6-4 Peter Lines
Dominic Dale 6-0 Michael Wild
Peter Ebdon 6-0 Lu Chenwei
Robert Milkins 6-0 Vinnie Calabrese
David Grace 6-1 Andrew Higginson
Jack Lisowski 6-4 Zak Surety
Graeme Dott 6-2 Nigel Bond
Martin Gould 6-2 Allan Taylor
Gary Wilson 6-3 Martin O'Donnell
Michael Georgiou 6-5 David Morris
Mark Allen 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Michael Holt 6-4 Fraser Patrick
Chris Wakelin 6-5 Matthew Stevens
Joe Swail 6-0 Joel Walker
Adam Duffy 6-2 Ding Junhui
Judd Trump 6-1 Hammad Miah
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Liam Highfield
Jimmy Robertson 6-4 Lu Ning
Liang Wenbo 6-1 Gareth Allen
Mark Williams 6-4 Hamza Akbar
Tom Ford 6-1 Scott Donaldson
Mike Dunn 6-3 Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Kyren Wilson 6-3 Paul Davison
David Gilbert 6-1 Jason Weston
Gerard Greene 6-0 Michael Leslie
Marco Fu 6-2 Hatem Yassen
Yu De Lu 6-2 Michael Wasley
Ross Muir 6-5 Mark King
Ben Woollaston 6-1 Steven Hallworth
Zhou Yuelong 6-3 Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Ashley Hugill
Neil Robertson 6-3 Alex Taubman
Aditya Mehta 6-5 Sam Baird
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 Darryl Hill
Fergal O'Brien 6-5 Thor Chuan Leong
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Jimmy White
Jamie Cope 6-5 Rory McLeod
Ken Doherty 6-0 Tony Drago
Mark Davis 6-1 Rhys Clark
Alan McManus 6-5 Eden Sharav
Jamie Burnett 6-1 Sanderson Lam
Li Hang 6-5 Lee Walker
Ricky Walden 6-1 Itaro Santos
Ali Carter 6-4 Alfie Burden
Daniel Wells 6-4 Rod Lawler
Tian Pengfei 6-1 Ian Burns
John Higgins 6-1 Leo Fernandez
Barry Hawkins 6-5 Andy Hicks
Robin Hull 6-4 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 6-1 Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Anthony McGill 6-3 James Cahill
Joe Perry 6-1 James Wattana
Robbie Williams 6-3 Mitchell Mann
Sean O'Sullivan 6-3 Kurt Maflin
Matt Selt 6-5 Zhang Yong
Ryan Day 6-1 Duane Jones
Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-4 Chris Melling
Mark Joyce 6-4 Barry Pinches
Sydney Wilson 6-5 Michael White
Xiao Guodong 6-5 Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones 6-4 Ian Glover
Oliver Lines 6-2 Cao Yupeng
Mark Selby 6-0 Joe O'Connor
As you can see it has been some effort over the last three days to get through the first round, and for the winners, they'll feel like they are part of the main event, because when they come back tomorrow and Sunday for the second round the BBC and Eurosport will be there as full TV coverage of the event begins. The tournament is continuing to prove popular, even with a shortened format and no Ronnie O'Sullivan playing, as my original UK Championship preview was the second most read piece in my blogs history, the only disappointment in that way is that my tournament winner prediction was Ding Junhui (oops). With that said some people may have waited until before the TV coverage starts to have an outright bet on the event so I will have another go with an "updated" one time only prediction at the bottom on the tournament winner. Before that, I am now going to preview each and every single one of the Last 64 games in detail.
Last 64 Preview: (Picks in Bold)
Stuart Bingham Vs Anthony Hamilton - Stuart Bingham the world champion will be a big favourite once again when he takes on Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton did get a very nice win over Peter Lines, and this game is sure to be on one of the TV tables, something that Hamilton has not been able to say for quite some time and with no regularity. The Sheriff of Pottingham has hardly been on top form over the last couple of years and he is really struggling to keep hold of his tour card so could do with a result here. That will not be easy against Stuart Bingham and with Hamilton not in good form, Stuarts own lack of form should not be an issue if he can carry on with the scoring that saw him get two centuries against Brown in the first round as the scoring is the main part of his opponents game that has gone missing over recent times.Peter Ebdon Vs Dominic Dale - This match between Ebdon and Dale is very closely matched, especially if you take into account that both players recorded 6-0 victories in the opening round of the competition. You pretty much know what to expect from Peter, his very tight game gives you very little and when he is on scoring form he is really able to take advantage. However, Dominic Dale himself has really found some form this season and that was evident when he thrashed Matt Selt in Daqing, as well as the improved results he has shown in the European Tour events this season. This match is always going to be a close one and it is tough to work out the player that has the edge, as it really is all about how they turn up and play on the day, but in terms of consistency Dominic's has been improved this season and I feel that he will edge this one.
Robert Milkins Vs David Grace - Robert Milkins will be a big favourite again in round two after tearing Vinnie Calabrese apart 6-0 in round one as you would very much expect him to do. David Grace was more of a surprise winner when he beat Andrew Higginson 6-1. Milkins will be looking to improve on a pretty poor season so far and I think he has the opportunity to do that here. Grace is a good player but his results show little consistency as he struggles to ever put more than the odd win together and that is the main reason that is the main difference between these two players and the reason that Milkins has to be my pick to win this one.
Graeme Dott Vs Jack Lisowski - An interesting encounter lies ahead with these two guys and it will be another great test of how Jack Lisowski is progressing under Terry Griffiths coaching. Graeme is always a very tight player and offers his opponents very little to go at, which is why this will be such a big test of Jack as one of the main areas of his game that needed improvement was his shot selection and overall patience instead of trying to force chances in matches like these. Jack has had some good results this season and won a good percentage of matches that you would be expecting him to win, but he is far from beating guys like Dott consistently and he has played a couple of top players this season like Fu and Allen and been beaten on both occasions which is no great surprise. Dott played well in round one to make easy work in the end of what could have been a tough test against Nigel Bond, particularly at 2-1 down, but five frames on the trot gave him the win. Even though this shapes up to be a close match, you would still fancy Graeme to come out on the right side of it.
Mark Allen Vs Michael Georgiou - Mark Allen will be a massive favourite in this match and he should be able to score a pretty comfortable win. Michael Georgiou's 6-5 win in round one against David Morris was hardly convincing and he has failed to win many matches at all since qualifying for the Australian Open right at the very start of the season. Mark Allen meanwhile is in good form and dealt with the threat posed by Zhao Xintong very comfortably in round one and I think things will be just as comfortable against Georgiou if he continues his recent form.
Martin Gould Vs Gary Wilson - Martin Gould and Gary Wilson both managed to pull away at the back end of their first round ties. Gould won all four frames after the interval in a 6-2 win and continued some of the good form that he has displayed at different points in this season. Gary Wilson would have been slightly worried at 3-3 against Martin O'Donnell, especially given the very poor form that Gary has showed so far this season after promising much after his displays at last season's Welsh and China Open's. However, he scored well to get three frames in a row to finish it and that will help his confidence. As I say though, Gould has been far more consistent in this season so far and will be looking to build on that with a win here, which I make him a good favourite to achieve.
Michael Holt Vs Chris Wakelin - The match up between Michael Holt and Chris Wakelin is not necessarily the easiest one to call at first glance. Wakelin is a talented player and scored a very good win against Matthew Stevens in round one, even if I expected him to do that many others would not have. However, that match was far from easy and may have taken a bit out of Chris emotionally coming into this game as he was very fortunate to get through, winning the decider on the black after leading at several points of the game. Michael Holt got off to a slightly slower start in his match against Fraser Patrick, and even though Fraser came back at him well at the back end of the match also, Holty played very well in the middle scoring well and continuing his improved play of this season. He has been far more consistent with results and the general pattern of his season so far is that in each tournament it has taken a very good player and the form horse of the week to beat him. Wakelin does not quite fit the same description, that is not to say he will not break the mould even if I expect him not to this time around.
Joe Swail Vs Adam Duffy (a) - I think that this match-up in the draw is one of the most intriguing ones. Starting with Duffy, he of course was the man who overcame Ding Junhui in the first round, but after a win like that players will always find it difficult to follow that up. That is a very common trend especially if the chances are that they just caught said top player on a day when they looked far from that which was very much the case for Ding on Tuesday. Joe Swail meanwhile beat Joel Walker 6-0 in a match that I and many people would have expected to be closely fought. Joe though played very well and he puts this down to his recent laser eye surgery which he seems to have come to terms with and something like that can seriously rejuvenate your snooker as eyesight is one of the obvious keys to the game. He said afterwards that he was finally starting to give Mark Allen his regular practice partner a 'good game' which Allen responded to on Twitter by saying that he'd been 'bashing him up' on the table, and we know how good Mark's form has been. This match has been priced up very fairly from what I have seen for a bet on Joe to win, and my thoughts are that that is very much something I would do.
Judd Trump Vs Stuart Carrington - This is of course a repeat of a Last 32 encounter from this years World Championship, and sections of that game are very important when thinking about how this game will go. Judd Trump complained of a cold in his 6-1 first round win, which I would respond to by telling him to man up a little as it clearly did not affect his game against a good player like Miah. Trump is the joint favourite to win the competition but his results this season have hardly been extraordinary or showed the kind of consistency that he will need to in York. Stuart Carrington gave Judd a good match at the Crucible and regularly gets good results on the European Tour something that he needs to translate into his performance in main ranking events. If he would have proven himself more in main ranking events against top players I would actually be tempted into tipping him to win this match, but on the other hand he also has to start somewhere and winning this match would not be a bad place to begin on that front.
Liang Wenbo Vs Jimmy Robertson - Again I believe this is another of the most close second round match-ups. Liang Wenbo played very well at the back end of his match against Gareth Allen in terms of his scoring, but the overall match did not really offer the type of challenge that the Chinaman will get here. Jimmy Robertson meanwhile has been quietly going under the radar and getting some great results and putting decent tournament runs together, something that has not gone unnoticed by myself. He came through a tough test against Lu Ning in the first round and could easily have been distracted by the long waits between certain frames as Lu went out for the toilet after 6 frames, which in itself is some achievement. This match could go right down to the wire and I expect it to be high scoring so as always in those types of games, any scrappy matches could be the key to the outcome. With how impressed I've been with Robertson this season I am far more tempted to sway towards him for this contest.
Kyren Wilson Vs Mike Dunn - The good games certainly keep on coming in this draw as Kyren Wilson faces Mike Dunn. Kyren of course has been playing brilliantly this season and he did well to come through against Paul Davison in a contest which seemed to go quite slow and scrappy towards the end which would not necessarily suit him. Mike has also been playing well this season, beating Fu in the Shanghai Masters and playing well in the last couple of European Tour events so he has been displaying that he is no pushover for the top players. However, Mike was not entirely convincing in his first round match especially after leading 3-0 early on, before getting pegged back to 4-3 at one stage. The way Wilson has been going lately I feel that he will be a little bit too strong for Mike at the key points.
Mark Williams Vs Tom Ford - Mark Williams could certainly have had things easier in the first round where after leading 4-0 he was pegged back to 5-4 before getting over the line and he will need to tighten up if he is to get over the line against Tom Ford. Ford scored very heavily in his 6-1 win against Scott Donaldson making two centuries, but that is something that Ford never seems to be able to repeat with the same regularity against top players in the main arenas. On most occasions that these two meet Williams comes out on top with a fair amount of comfort and now that he has played himself into the tournament I think he will get stronger and start showing the form that he has done throughout 2015 making him very tough to beat.
Marco Fu Vs Yu De Lu - Marco Fu will have a tough game on his hands here against Yu De Lu, especially after the win that De Lu scored in the International Championships against Stuart Bingham. Fu though, does seem to be returning to a little bit of form making the quarter-finals of the International Championship and despite not being too impressive in the first round here, that may be a reaction to playing in the General Cup last weekend which he was the overall winner of and played very well during. Marco is still a good favourite to win this match and despite a nice win for Yu in the Last 128 his opponent there offered very little challenge which will surely be in deep contrast to this game.
David Gilbert Vs Gerard Greene - David Gilbert will be a big favourite for this one on paper the way he has played in the last month or so, reaching his maiden ranking final in Daqing, and he displayed the heavy scoring that got him there in his first round win in York which will continue to keep his confidence levels high. Gerard Greene also scored very well in beating Michael Leslie, but on the whole his season has been poor and has lacked any form of consistency whenever he has showed a glimpse of a good result and with his tour place on the line he will be under far more pressure than Gilbert to win here and that could be a deciding factor additionally.
Ben Woollaston Vs Ross Muir - Ben Woollaston is clearly the favourite to win this match against Ross Muir but after Muir's win in the first round, victory for Ben is no formality. Muir came from behind to beat Mark King in the Last 128 6-5, which is a good win despite how inconsistent King can often be. While Muir played reasonably well in that match he did not show the type of form that he would need to trouble someone more consistent like Ben Woollaston who won easily in round one and if he scores well when his chances come and keeps it generally pretty tight which he does a good job of usually, then he should not fall foul to another surprise Muir win.
Shaun Murphy Vs Zhou Yuelong - This for me is the match of the second round between Shaun Murphy and the young Chinese Zhou Yuelong. Of course the first thing to point out here (which Shaun will love me for doing) is that Murphy lost to Zhou's World Cup winning partner Yan Bingtao in the first round of the Champion of Champions, and he'll be looking to play better than he did on that occasion to avoid the same fate that he suffered there. Yuelong will not make that easy though as he has been in very good form, potting balls off of lampshades as the famous saying goes, and generally scoring for fun. Shaun will certainly feel like he has a point to prove and he will want to stamp his authority on the match as he did against Ashley Hugill with some big scores early on and generally it seemed like Shaun was striking the ball as well as he has since the World Championships which goes with my thoughts that he generally tries to play his season like the top Golf professionals and peak for the three majors, putting by far the most work in at this time, but also focussing all aspects of his mind to winning these Triple Crown events. I fancy this to be a nervy match, but if Murphy's on his game then he should be able to take advantage of some of Zhou's youthful inexperience.
Neil Robertson Vs Aditya Mehta - Aditya Mehta played well in the first round to come back from a 4-0 deficit to win, but from the comments of Baird afterwards and some of the breaks in the match it seemed that Sam seemed to crumble, something that we certainly won't expect from Neil Robertson. Neil will be weary of the fact that he did lose three out of four frames after the interval in the first round before wrapping the match up. Knowing what Aditya did Neil will be determined to get ahead early and then keep his focus to ensure no way back into things for the Indian, and to be honest I do not think that that will be too far away from what happens in the match as Neil will be a massive favourite considering the form of both players.
Fergal O'Brien Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Two more very closely matched players come head to head here as O'Brien plays Un-Nooh. Fergal will be buoyed by his fight back in the first round from 5-2 down to win, and with some nice breaks made in those frames too and he knows he will have to score like that again to keep up with a force like Thepchaiya. The Thai has been in fantastic form this season as he showed en route to the semi-finals of the International Championship. He is an extreme talent and when he is on top scoring form it usually takes great snooker from his opponent to stop him and Fergal will have to be on his usual form to not give his opponent an inch in this one. I expect the match to run close but Un-Nooh has showed over the last few months he has plenty of bottle to get over the line in these close tussles.
Mark Davis Vs Ken Doherty - Mark Davis knows he will have quite the match on his hands here against Ken if the former World Champion plays anything like his first round match. Doherty blitzed past Drago 6-0 with two century breaks included in that, and by Kens own admission it was the best he had played for quite some time. Mark meanwhile won 6-1 in the opening round and is a player who has a good record at the York Barbican where he seems to play some of his better snooker. The one thing Ken lacks now that he is far from his peak is the consistency to come out and perform how he did in round one against Davis also and for that reason if his opponent is in reasonable form you would fancy him to move on to the Last 32.
Stephen Maguire Vs Jamie Cope - Both of these two guys will consider themselves very lucky to even be here in the second round, making for an interesting match as they may well play with a lot more freedom. Stephen Maguire had to play very well against Jimmy White who showed glimpses of his old self and was very unlucky in the decider as Maguire fluked the initial red that he made the match clinching break of 72 from. Jamie meanwhile seemed like he was getting bogged down against Rory, but despite this he was still able to win four frames in a row from 4-1 down and eventually win 6-5. As good as Cope is, Maguire has showed better scoring form since having around a month off before the Champion of Champions and I believe he can go on a very nice win here.
Ricky Walden Vs Li Hang - Ricky Walden got his tournament off to a good start when he beat Itaro Santos 6-1, scoring well in the middle of the match and he'll be happy just to play himself into the tournament and hope his best snooker comes when it is required. Li Hang scored well in coming from behind to overcome a tricky opponent in Lee Walker and he will fancy his chances of upsetting Walden here. Li is a very tough opponent to play when in good form because he can score very heavily, as Ricky also does so well. Walden's record in the UK Championship is good and if he can make his mark on the match early he should be able to keep Hang at bay, but he will need to remain focussed throughout the match with no mid-match concentration dips.
Alan McManus Vs Jamie Burnett - Alan McManus will hardly be pleased to be playing in yet another tough all-Scottish tie. He has expressed on a couple of occasions this season how tough it has been for him to play so many other Scottish players as many of the younger ones look up to him. From 5-2 ahead against Eden Sharav in round one Sharav appeared to find some form pulling him into a decider before Alan got over the line. Jamie Burnett had it much easier in the 128 round as he strolled past Sanderson Lam 6-1 with plenty of heavy scoring to match. When Burnett plays like that it is difficult to see why he loses so many matches that on paper you would give him a great chance in. The key is consistency but also Burnett's mental attitude after admitting a year or so ago he had little motivation for the game, but hopefully with a performance like the other day he will be pumped up to go on much deeper into this tournament.
Ali Carter Vs Daniel Wells - Both of these two guys had tough games in round one and played very well to get through. Firstly, Carter had a very tough draw against Alfie Burden who never let Ali get too far ahead and Carter had to be close to his best not to be taken to a deciding frame. Daniel Wells had the draw nobody wants against Rod Lawler because it means that you're going to have to be on your game and give it absolutely everything to get a victory and after a wait of around seven or eight hours after being taken off in a 5-4 lead, he did equally well to zone in again and get the frame he needed for victory without going into a decider. You have to make Carter a favourite because he is certainly on the way back to his very best and where he should currently be in the rankings as he showed in Furth earlier this season. As for Wells he still has a lot of work to do in my opinion to beat the very top players like Ali because he like many lower ranked players lacks the key element of consistency which some of the top players have naturally.
John Higgins Vs Tian Pengfei - This is all set up to be another very tough early test for John Higgins. His game against Leo Fernandez could have been much tougher than the 6-1 result Higgins came away with, but yet again he continued his fine run of form that he has been on since winning the International. Tian Pengfei has also been playing well in this period however, and Higgins will certainly have no walkover here. If Pengfei is playing well his scoring will leave John sweating to not allow the Chinese player too many chances and to continue on his way of winning most frames in a single visit. As Pengfei showed at the International when he overcame Ricky Walden he has no fear and is able to eliminate how his opponent is playing from the picture if he takes his own chances. If John keeps it as tight tactically as he usually does then he can seriously limit his opponents opportunities and that for me will be the key factor here.
Barry Hawkins Vs Robin Hull - Barry Hawkins stressful affair with York continues after he somehow managed to overcome Andy Hicks in the decider on Thursday morning. After going 3-1 down early he fought back into a 4-3 lead before going behind 5-4, but somehow winning the decider on the colours. This comes after his Last 64 loss last year from 5-0 up and his quarter-final loss in 2013 from 5-3 ahead, and generally this does not appear to be an event Barry does well in. Robin Hull however, may have just managed to win his first match of the season against Zhang Anda but that is a flawed statistic considering how few events he has actually entered. I rave constantly about how good a player Hull is and it showed yesterday against Anda when he managed to recover from losing four frames in a row from 3-0 to 3-4 to end up winning 6-4 in a tense battle. Robin has given many a good player a good battle, and is unlucky in the sense that on qualifying for the World Championship in 2014 and this year that he lost to the eventual runner-up. As I always say it's a great achievement that he is even still in the top 64 and on tour given how few and fair between his tournament appearances are. If Hawkins is still not at his best in this one then I believe Hull is fully capable of causing an upset.
Anthony McGill Vs Luca Brecel - This is arguably one of the toughest matches of the second round to call, and was certainly the last one that I made my mind up on. McGill was simply sublime in the first round making three centuries in the first four frames including the current high break of 142. When someone like McGill, with a very clever tactical game like most of the other Scottish players, comes out and scores as heavy as that too he will be very tough to beat. Luca Brecel meanwhile made very easy work out of what could have been a tough match with Hossein Vafei Ayouri but once again Luca's scoring was the main thing that shined on through. If Luca gets enough chances he certainly is scoring well enough to put McGill away quite comfortably, but on the other hand with Anthony scoring well also then the same could be true for him. The worry for Luca fans may be that the Scot could end up giving him a little bit of a tactical lesson, especially if the match goes scrappy. This could be a very tight match but my head is telling me that Anthony probably has a slight edge on paper, but Luca could easily prove me wrong.
Matt Selt Vs Sean O'Sullivan - Matt Selt had a big struggle in getting over the line against a relative unknown in Zhang Yong. Having led 5-2 he was pulled back to 5-5 before eventually winning a tight decider after laying a snooker on the final red that enough foul points were accumulated from to win the match. Selt has struggled for form in the last month or so, and I believe that Sean O'Sullivan could take advantage of that here. Sean is improving all the time and his victory against Kurt Maflin this week where he scored very well, and held himself together after watching his 3-0 defeat disappear and still winning 6-3. He also held himself together nicely in International qualifying to beat Robin Hull and that will leave him very confident of beating another higher seed here, as I've been very impressed with young Sean over the last year to earn his tour card back and now make it count.
Joe Perry Vs Robbie Williams - Joe Perry had a nice easy starter to this event with a 6-1 win over James Wattana, but things obviously will not be quite that easy against Robbie Williams. Robbie did not seem entirely comfortable in his win against Mitchell Mann and will certainly have to play a lot better if he is to have any chance against the Gentleman. Joe has been in decent form in the main ranking events this season, proving tough to beat and a man that if you do beat, you are safe in the knowledge that you are playing good snooker yourself. Robbie Williams does not exactly come close to the calibre of players it has taken to see off Perry in events this season and that makes Joe a serious contender to this event and he will be focussed in on his goal of winning one of the three triple crown events now he has won a major ranking event at last.
Mark Joyce Vs Sydney Wilson - The place to start in this match is with Sydney Wilson, who was the man to see off Michael White 6-5 in round one. White was very poor and gave Wilson plenty of chances which is one reason why such a victory will be tough to follow up. Mark Joyce on the other hand will be battle hardened after a hard fought victory against Barry Pinches as they often are against him. Joyce seems to have found a little bit of his form back after a tough start to the season and if he can keep that up he will certainly sense an opportunity here to progress through the draw. For me you certainly have to make the more experienced tour pro Joyce the favourite to make the Last 32 here.
Ryan Day Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng - That defeat of Michael White's that I mentioned has a big impact on Day's hopes of making it into the top 16 for the Masters now, if he can go on to the Last 16 or quarter-finals. Day has been in superb form of late and is going to be very difficult to conquer the way that he has been scoring in particular. His opponent in Dechawat Poomjaeng could cause a few problems potentially, after making a couple of centuries but i'm told that his performance was also littered with careless mistakes and Melling was unlucky not to win all told. If the Thai is to have any chance against someone in form like Day then he will have to cut out the silly errors that crop up in his game all too often.
Jamie Jones Vs Xiao Guodong - Once again we have a match where both players had big tests in round one. Jones firstly played on Tuesday afternoon in the first session against Ian Glover, who he could not shake off until very late in the match to secure a 6-4 win. Jones has been improving a lot again this year as his run to the Australian Open semi-finals demonstrated, and in my view his game seems to have matured to maintain more of the performance levels that got him to the 2012 World Championship quarter-finals. Xiao Guodong on the other hand had to play well in a deciding frame to overcome Noppon Saengkham 6-5 despite two centuries earlier in the match. After going behind early it was soon blow for blow in that match and Xiao seemed to be playing pretty well, in contrast to some of the poorer form he's shown over the course of 2015. This has all the makings of being a match that goes all the way but my thought is that on this occasion the Welshman will come out on top.
Mark Selby Vs Oliver Lines - This one is an interesting repeat of a 2014 International Championship qualifier over the same distance where Mark Selby was played at his own game so to speak after Lines won 6-4 from 4-0 behind. After that Mark will always be that extra bit focussed for matches with Oli and be a little bit more cautious perhaps as a result of that. His match in the opening round against Joe O'Connor was really too easy, so I do not think we have learned a whole lot about Selby's form and how he really shapes up for this tournament yet and how he will play against Oliver here. Meanwhile, with his Dad being taken off at 5-3 down on another table, he had to try and switch his mind on to his game against Cao Yupeng which was always going to be tricky. That probably explains the early 2-1 deficit but once he came back from the interval level at 2-2, I do not think it would be too far from the truth to say that his father might have had some inspiring words (though I could be wrong). After that Oliver played very well and scored heavily on the way to an easy 6-2 win before his Dad came back out and lost 6-4. Selby's experience and particularly his TV experience could prove a factor in this match, and he has been playing pretty well over the last couple of months so I still expect the World Number 1 to come out on the right side of this one.
As I mentioned at the top of the blog my original tournament tip Ding Junhui was knocked out in the opening round this week, but some people may still be waiting until the start of TV stages to have an outright bet and I think it's worth having another go. As you'll remember my other three quarter winners were Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and Ricky Walden and in that top quarter now I think Mark Allen has a massive chance. However, I was particularly impressed with the way Shaun Murphy started off his campaign against Ashley Hugill, he was striking the ball very well and I think he looks like he is really up for the challenge this week.
The start of the TV coverage should be very exciting especially with Eurosport having Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan doing punditry in competition with the usual BBC coverage which I am looking forward to, seeing the likes of Willie Thorne and Steve Davis amongst others with their commentary and punditry and of course the lovely Hazel Irvine which is an appropriate note on which to end any blog.
Just to remind you all, sessions are now at 1pm and 7pm every day, with the Last 64 being played over two days with eight tables in operation in each of the sessions, before that goes down to four prior to Monday and Tuesday's Last 32 which I will of course be back to preview before it gets going on Monday afternoon.
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