First of all, Neil Robertson was beaten in a lengthy encounter with Peter Ebdon 4-3 after a 69 in the last from Ebdon. Ronnie O'Sullivan bowed out to Michael Holt 4-3, after Holt took a 3-0 lead with breaks of 88 and a century before the Rocket pegged him back to 3-3, but Holt hung in there with a superb 76 break in the decider to win the match.
Then in Wednesday's play Tom Ford took care of Mark Selby 4-3. Ford had a wonderful 112 break in frame three on the way to a 3-1 lead and despite losing frame five, when his chance came a break of 84 saw him hold it together to beat his fellow Leicester man and reach the last 16.
Marco Fu also perished in the opening round to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh who blitzed into an early 3-0 lead before Fu pegged him all the way back to a deciding frame. It was the Thai who eventually got over the line a 4-3 winner despite not having a 50+ break in the match.
Defending champion Judd Trump came through strongly against Mark Williams with a century on the way to a 4-1 win, while World Champion Stuart showed signs of improvement towards the end of his match with David Gilbert where he too ran out a comfortable victor.
Shaun Murphy and Michael White was the last first round match to begin on Wednesday evening but it was well worth waiting for as Murphy cued beautifully in a 4-0 crushing with three breaks of above 70. In an unexpected twist he then mentioned my banter about his poor record in Wales and on ITV4 in his studio interview.
The race to get into the top 16 for the World Championships took some twists and turns as well. Stephen Maguire is the man that they are trying to catch and he lost out to his fellow Scot John Higgins in round one without ever getting into the match as the number one seed played beautifully. That opens the door up for the three guys directly below him, the first of which is Liang Wenbo who was in fine form beating Graeme Dott 4-1. In the four frames that Wenbo won Dott was only able to score a singular point. Things were not as simple for Kyren Wilson who had to come back from snookers required in frame five to avoid falling 3-2 behind, eventually coming through his match with Welshman Jamie Jones a 4-2 winner.
Ding Junhui was the next as he came through a big battle with Ben Woollaston, coming from 2-1 and 3-2 behind to win 4-3 and book his place in the last 16 against Peter Ebdon.
Last 32 Results:
John Higgins 4-0 Stephen Maguire
Ryan Day 4-1 Matt Selt
Stuart Bingham 4-1 David Gilbert
Judd Trump 4-1 Mark Williams
Tom Ford 4-2 Mark Selby
Ali Carter 4-1 Luca Brecel
Joe Perry 4-0 Barry Hawkins
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Jamie Jones
Martin Gould 4-0 Tian Pengfei
Shaun Murphy 4-0 Michael White
Michael Holt 4-3 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Liang Wenbo 4-1 Graeme Dott
Mark Allen 4-2 David Grace
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3 Marco Fu
Ding Junhui 4-3 Ben Woollaston
Peter Ebdon 4-3 Neil Robertson
Some brilliant games there in round one and some even more intriguing ones to come in Thursday's Last 16. Still best-of-7 frames matches for the second round of course.
Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)
John Higgins Vs Ryan Day - Going purely on their form in round one then John Higgins has to be my pick against Ryan Day. Higgins was superb against Maguire and scored brilliantly throughout, while Day had to grind it out and win a lot of close frames against Matt Selt to come through. Day of course always gives the top players a decent game as he showed against Bingham in the German Masters and Ding in the International this season but both were very much struggling for form at the time which Higgins is not.Judd Trump Vs Stuart Bingham - This is a tough little match to call between the defending champion and the world champion. Trump looked decent today against Mark Williams but based on some of his form of this season that does not really count for a great deal. Trump has been inconsistent at the best of times and the one thing you know you will get against him is chances. Stuart Bingham was not put under too much pressure by David Gilbert but you could see him grow in confidence towards the back end of the match as his scoring looked to get better. The one thing that might stand him in better stead tomorrow is that he will be an underdog against Trump and seems to go better in matches when this is the case.
Ali Carter Vs Tom Ford - Starting here with Ali Carter, he was very solid in beating one of the form men of the last month in Luca Brecel by a comfortable margin, finishing with a century. Tom Ford played very well against Mark Selby on the TV and that will offer him plenty of confidence and if he continues this form I think we are in for another close contest here. Of the two though, you have to say that Carter is a much more solid and consistent player who is prone to less unforced errors than Ford which could make the difference.
Kyren Wilson Vs Joe Perry - Joe Perry has had a long time off since his easy 4-0 victory in round one against Barry Hawkins where he was magnificent. It appeared that the gentleman was carrying on his good form from his last trip to Wales when he made the Welsh Open semi-finals before losing to O'Sullivan. Kyren Wilson meanwhile was in real trouble at times in his match with Jamie Jones who on the night could easily have beaten him. Someone like Joe with a more solid game would have put the Shanghai Masters champion away in my opinion and if he scores as well as he did in round one then he I fancy him to win.
Martin Gould Vs Shaun Murphy - This is arguably the match of the day in my opinion. Starting with Martin Gould, he has been in superb form over the last month or two getting to the final in Gdynia and winning the German Masters and he looked to just be carrying on again from there in round one with his whitewash of Tian Pengfei. Shaun Murphy meanwhile has beaten Martin in the past on a few occasions whilst also losing to him in recent times as well and the only common theme with those matches was that they were usually close. Murphy cued brilliantly against Michael White and looked sharp as White did not have too many chances in a 4-0 loss. The thing with runs like Gould's is that they have to end at some stage, while Murphy is too good of a player to continue missing out on the final stages of these big ranking tournaments, and I have a feeling that that will change this week.
Liang Wenbo Vs Michael Holt - This is another intriguing match, especially after Holt defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan in round one with terrific snooker and superb bottle as well as taking his natural game to the Rocket on TV, and playing on the box in the past has not always been his friend. With Terry in his corner and at the venue this week then that will lend well for Holt as well as the confidence he should take from beating O'Sullivan. Liang Wenbo was superb in round one against Graeme Dott, with plenty of high scoring in that match from the Chinese who is under pressure to make it into the top 16 for the World Championships. I feel like this match will need at least six of the seven frames to be settled and could go right down to the wire. It will all be about whether both players or either of them will continue the form shown in the last 32.
Mark Allen Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - Mark Allen has been in fantastic form over the last few months, and he had to come through a tough match in round one against David Grace where he was clearly agitated by the late time that match had begun. He dug in well in the end to come back and beat Grace and he should have no such complaints about his starting time for this one, first on in the afternoon. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has already seen off Marco Fu this week, despite nearly losing from 3-0 up, and he will need to tighten up a little bit against Allen to continue his progression. After beating him in Daqing earlier in the season he certainly will not fear Allen but I think the Northern Irishman will get his revenge this week and kick on to the latter stages of the event.
Ding Junhui Vs Peter Ebdon - Finally, this will be another keenly contested match after both players came through tough matches in deciding frames on Tuesday afternoon. Peter Ebdon was able to work Neil Robertson down as Robertson missed some easy balls at times and was not able to string together his usual high breaks. Ebdon still lacks a little consistency now with his age but he is a force to be reckoned with and Ding Junhui (someone who knows a lot about Peter) will not take him lightly. Ding is obviously under big pressure to save his automatic Crucible seeding, but his form over the last few weeks has looked to show the early signs of improvement and it will be interesting to see how far that can continue on in this event.
That's all from me for today, i'll be back after these eight games have been completed with another write up as we reach the quarter-finals and things really start to get serious.
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