The world's best have been out in force in the first round of the English Open, and the large majority had simple route's through into the Last 64. Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Ding Junhui all went through with 4-0 wins, while there were also easy wins for Judd Trump against Ken Doherty, Ricky Walden, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson.
John Higgins was a 4-2 winner against Michael Wild, while Anthony McGill dropped the same number of frames in beating Jamie Cope. Stephen Maguire made a century in the decider to see off Gareth Allen, while Stuart Bingham came from 3-1 down to beat Robert Milkins in a high quality opening encounter. Marco Fu also had to turnaround his match from 2-0 behind to beat Martin O'Donnell 4-3, while Ali Carter won his match against Luca Brecel having been in the same situation in that tricky first round tie. Mark Williams had tip problems early on in his match with David John, but he was still more than good enough in the end winning 4-2. Barry Hawkins held on after losing a 3-1 lead against Jack Lisowski, eventually winning his match 4-3. In one of the toughest of the first round matches, Joe Perry lost out 4-2 in a high quality match with Matt Selt.
In some of the other matches Michael White only conceded one point against Jason Weston winning 4-0 there. Alfie Burden made a maximum 147 break against Daniel Wells, which was also his 100th career century. However, Burden ended up losing the match to Wells 4-3. There were two walkovers in round one as Jamie Jones pulled out of his match against Rhys Clark, posting on social media that he has been suffering from food poisoning. Meanwhile, Sam Craigie was a no show for his match against Liam Highfield. Aditya Mehta lost his first round match to Lee Walker from 3-0 up in a lengthy affair on Monday evening. Two non-tour players made it into the Last 64, Peter Lines beating Paul Davison and more surprisingly, Jamie Bodle beating Matthew Stevens.
The unseeded draw has set up plenty of high quality matches in the Last 64, and here is the draw:
Last 64 Draw:
Mark Selby Vs Liam Highfield
Stephen Maguire Vs Ryan Day
Barry Hawkins Vs Mark Davis
David Grace Vs Andrew Higginson
Michael White Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Ricky Walden Vs Li Hang
John Astley Vs Yan Bingtao
Mark Allen Vs Scott Donaldson
John Higgins Vs Mark King
James Wattana Vs Fraser Patrick
Marco Fu Vs Tom Ford
Joe Swail Vs James Cahill
Ian Preece Vs Craig Steadman
Mark Williams Vs Ian Burns
Martin Gould Vs Zhou Yuelong
Judd Trump Vs Jamie Bodle
Shaun Murphy Vs Liang Wenbo
Fergal O'Brien Vs Ross Muir
Ali Carter Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Ben Woollaston Vs Zhang Anda
Rod Lawler Vs Stuart Carrington
Matt Selt Vs Anthony Hamilton
Elliot Slessor Vs Jak Jones
Ding Junhui Vs Mei Xiwen
Neil Robertson Vs Duane Jones
Xiao Guodong Vs Noppon Saengkham
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Zhao Xintong
Anthony McGill Vs Chris Wakelin
Rhys Clark Vs Lee Walker
Kyren Wilson Vs Daniel Wells
David Gilbert Vs Peter Lines
Stuart Bingham Vs Alan McManus
The top players were fairly impressive in round one, but things certainly move up a level in the Last 64, especially with unseeded draw which sees games like Murphy Vs Liang and Bingham Vs McManus. Marco Fu's game has been vulnerable and Tom Ford will certainly be no pushover for him. Ronnie O'Sullivan takes on exciting young Chinese talent Zhao Xintong in what is a match many will look forward to. Stephen Maguire faces Ryan Day in another brilliant example of the unseeded draw throwing up some quality contests, and Jamie Bodle's reward for beating Matthew Stevens is a match with last week's European Masters champion Judd Trump.
All Last 64 matches are in Wednesday's play over the best-pf-7 frames ahead of Thursday's play which sees both the Last 32 and Last 16 matches.
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