Shaun Murphy fell to Liang Wenbo in a Last 64 match that was a product of the unseeded draw and a very unfortunate draw for Murphy. Despite a valiant fightback from 3-1 behind and being in a healthy position in the decider, Liang pulled it out of the back to march on in what was one of the highlights on my first of two days at the snooker in Manchester this week.
Ronnie O'Sullivan managed to get through in a decider against Zhao Xintong who made two centuries and an 80 clearance in that contest. O'Sullivan will now play Chris Wakelin in this afternoon's Last 32 after Wakelin saw off Anthony McGill for another of the days more surprising results, given the form of McGill.
Judd Trump survived a scare in a match that was moved to a non-TV table after the others had overrun. Taking on English Amateur champion Jamie Bodle, he went 2-0 and 3-2 down before coming back to win 4-3 and set up a Last 32 match Martin Gould who have a few cracking matches in their past head to heads.
Ali Carter also came through a decider against Akani Songsermsawad. Joining this match at 3-1 to Songsermsawad it seemed as though Carter was getting thoroughly frustrated, having a couple of hit and hopes out of snookers in frame five that were not fully punished by Songsermsawad who did have a couple of chances to win. After stealing that frame, Carter grew in strength and completed the comeback. Although, having seen Akani for the first time he looks like another of the young Asian players who has a bright future.
Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn could be another of these as he showed in a promising 4-1 victory over Michael White, while Yan Bingtao from China was an easy 4-0 winner against John Astley, going from strength to strength after potting a good long black to win the re-spot in frame one.
Tom Ford put in a good performance in another great match against Marco Fu, both were scoring heavily in a match that looked like it could go to a decider before Ford made a cracking clearance to win the match 4-2 and send Fu out for another early tournament exit.
Two more performances that were very impressive came on the streamed table two. First up was John Higgins against Mark King and Higgins scored very heavily and looked like he could be a real contender for the tournament as it goes on, if he carries on playing as he did for the most part there. Then came Ding Junhui in an all Chinese clash with Mei Xiwen. Ding also scored heavily and despite the odd unexpected miss he was not punished and created an easy path for himself into the Last 32.
The Last 32 is one of two rounds being played today at Event City, as the Last 16 follows in the evening to get ready for Friday when the tournament gets down to the quarter-finals and a two table set-up.
Last 32 Draw and Schedule:
12pm Starts:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Chris Wakelin - Streamed Table
Neil Robertson Vs Xiao Guodong - Streamed Table
Mark Allen Vs Yan Bingtao
Ricky Walden Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Ding Junhui Vs Jak Jones
Barry Hawkins Vs David Grace
Ryan Day Vs Liam Highfield
Stuart Carrington Vs Anthony Hamilton
Not before 1pm:
Judd Trump Vs Martin Gould - Streamed Table
Stuart Bingham Vs David Gilbert - Streamed Table
Ali Carter Vs Ben Woollaston
Liang Wenbo Vs Fergal O'Brien
Kyren Wilson Vs Rhys Clark
Tom Ford Vs Joe Swail
Not before 2.30pm:
John Higgins Vs Fraser Patrick - Streamed Table
Mark Williams Vs Ian Preece - Streamed table
As I will be at the venue I will be bringing out a Live Blog/Commentary which will most likely see Mark Allen Vs Yan Bingtao as my feature match in what is probably one of the highlights on the non-televised tables today with Yan being one of my players to watch from the start of the season. Depending on the table numbers of the other outside table matches I hope to keep updated on Ding Junhui's progress in the same session and Ricky Walden against Kritsanut who overcame Michael White yesterday.
Following that I hope to watch Carter against Woollaston but again this is all dependant on what table that goes on and when some of the 12pm matches finish. Kyren Wilson will also be on my radar while Bingham Vs Gilbert is one of the highlights of the round for me and is also on a streamed table for you to watch at home and this will most likely be the Table 2 on Eurosport Player.
All of these matches are played over the best-of-7 frames, along with the Last 16 matches that are to come in the evening session.
Four of these matches will begin at 7pm on tables 1-4, and another 4 are scheduled to start at 8pm according to the format released before the start of the tournament. Which matches will be when and on what tables will not be determined until after the afternoon session.
To give an idea, this is the last 16 draw so you can pick out potential match ups:
Liam Higfield/Ryan Day Vs Barry Hawkins/David Grace
Ricky Walden/Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn Vs Mark Allen/Yan Bingtao
John Higgins/Fraser Patrick Vs Tom Ford/Joe Swail
Mark Williams/Ian Preece Vs Judd Trump/Martin Gould
Liang Wenbo/Fergal O'Brien Vs Ali Carter/Ben Woollaston
Ding Junhui/Jak Jones Vs Anthony Hamilton/Stuart Carrington
Neil Robertson/Xiao Guodong Vs Ronnie O'Sullivan/Chris Wakelin
Kyren Wilson/Rhys Clark Vs Stuart Bingham/David Gilbert
There could be some real cracking contests in there but we will have to wait and see what the afternoon session serves up first.
Look out for my live blog, the link should be set-up and ready to go by 11.45am this morning and by then the matches with live updates will be confirmed at least for the 12pm session of eight games. Either keep looking on here or the link to the blog will be tweeted regularly on @CueActionBlog
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