Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan both made it through their heldover Last 64 matches at European Masters with no issues to put them into the Last 32 on Tuesday. Selby took on Fergal O'Brien and dominated from start to finish completing a 4-0 victory with a century, and also recording breaks of 88, 71 and 50. Ronnie O'Sullivan followed that match straight after and put down his marker with a 4-0 whitewash of Daniel Wells. Wells had his chances but O'Sullivan was just one better on the day despite his highest break 'only' being 51.
In the eight Last 32 matches on Monday in Romania, there were victories for John Higgins who impressively beat in form Michael Holt 4-0, recording two century breaks along the way. Fellow Scotsman Anthony McGill came through a tight contest 4-3 against Ali Carter. The match was even throughout and Carter was looking good when he took a 3-2 lead. McGill then made an impressive century to force a final frame shoot out, and despite an early chance for World Open champion Carter it was the Indian Open champion that forced his way across the line.
Neil Robertson came through a very high quality affair with Graeme Dott on the other main table match during the afternoon. Despite the scoreline being 4-2 in Robertson's favour, both he and Dott recorded four breaks of 50+. The Australian saved his highest for the sixth and final frame putting together a century. Dott's high was an 87 in winning the fifth frame, while both players made 50's in both frames one and two which were shared.
Out on table two, which oddly seems to be in a different location in the arena, Tom Ford started the day by beating Robin Hull 4-1 in a decent performance that included three breaks in the 50's from Ford though Hull had his chances to make that one a closer game.It was much tighter affair between Barry Hawkins and Michael Wild, where Hawkins managed to avoid an upset coming through a 4-3 winner. The highest break there was a 93 from Hawkins in the sixth to force the decider from 2-3 adrift after some tight early frames.
Andrew Higginson then kept his very impressive record against Marco Fu which I pointed out in my Stat Attack, having not lost to Fu in matches with any major or minor ranking importance. On the day it was a whitewash 4-0 victory for Higginson completed with breaks of 61 and 70 in the last two frames.
In the evening session Rhys Clark overcame David Grace with a 4-1 win to make it into the Last 16 of a ranking event for the first time. Breaks of 101, 61, 52 and 50 were too much for Grace on the day. Following that was a game many would have looked forward to all day with Ricky Walden taking on a star of the future in Yan Bingtao. Walden was absolutely racing around the table in this match and that is usually when he is at his heavy scoring and simply superb best. In the opening couple of frames it was Walden who went into a 2-0 lead with breaks of 71 and 91. Yan hit back taking a scrappy third before weighing in with a 79 break in the fourth to square the match. That did not knock the higher ranked favourite off of his stride though moving in front thanks to an 86, and after Yan missed a chance in frame six with the balls open to force a seventh and deciding frame, Walden cleared with a century in double quick time to clinch a 4-2 victory and get into the Last 16.
Tomorrow will see the second half of the Last 32 matches over the best-of 7 frames including Mark Selby taking on Dominic Dale and Ronnie O'Sullivan playing David Gilbert after their two wins in heldover Last 64.
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