The defending English Open champion Liang Wenbo produced a moment of magic by making the first maximum break of the 2017/2018 season in the sixth frame of his comeback win against Tom Ford.
Ford had taken a 3-1 advantage with breaks of 58, 62 and 83 along the way but he could not keep Liang out of the game. The Chinese number 2 needed a few chances to take the fifth frame but then the magical moment came with the 147 in frame six. As you would expect, Liang let out plenty of emotion after potting a tricky pink and then the final black to clinch a break that is worth £42,000 as long as another one is not made in the remainder of the tournament. He still had to settle back down and finish the job off though and after a scrappy start to the decider, Liang made a nice 60 to book his place in the last 32.
His World Cup winning partner Ding Junhui will not be joining him though after he was taken out by Michael White. After three frames Ding's highest break was only 16 as the Paul Hunter Classic champion stormed into a 3-0 lead and looked strong despite not making a break of 50 in any of those frames. The first 50+ contribution came in the fourth but after he missed on 53, Ding cleared with 81 to keep the match alive, and really piled the pressure on in the fifth with a run of 86 to close the gap to 2-3. White held strong though, getting in after Ding missed a brown to the middle pocket and from there the Welshman did not look back, finishing with a match high break of 95 to get over the line.
After the threats of Tuesday evening, Ronnie O'Sullivan found himself a pair of black trainers and got on with the job on the table by seeing off Mark Davis 4-1. He lost the opener but was soon back level thanks to breaks of 68 and 50. O'Sullivan needed a bit of fortune on the colours at the back end of frame three but once ahead 2-1, he kicked on and finished with breaks of 136 and 134 to stamp himself as one of the top title contenders in Barnsley.
Judd Trump was in fine form once again as he extended his winning run by beating Mark Joyce 4-0 in less than an hour. High breaks of 128, 99 and 74 saw him through, while Joyce would only score 30 points in the entire match. World champion Mark Selby was also a comfortable winner 4-1 against Ross Muir who could not complain about not having chances in the match.
John Higgins scored a simple 4-1 win against Matthew Selt with top contributions of 68, 89 and 94. Elsewhere, there were two more centuries for an in-form Stuart Bingham with runs of 127 and 141 helping him to a 4-2 defeat of Fang Xiongman. Neil Robertson had to come back strongly after losing three frames in a row from 2-0 up to 3-2 down against Li Hang, before winning 4-3. Robertson opened up with runs of 69 and 62 before Li hit back with 77, 78 and 54 to put the Australian in danger of another early exit. He dug in though with a 92 break to force the decider, before taking his first chance in the decider with both hands, making a 134 to gain a much needed triumph.
Shaun Murphy had to produce a mini-comeback of his own and did so in tremendous style. After starting poorly and losing the opening two frames to Daniel Wells he barely missed a ball from then on. Two superb breaks of 135 and 134 drew him level in no time, and he kicked on from there by finishing with an 87 in the fifth and 83 in the final frame that could have also both been century breaks, completing victory with a total of 440 unanswered points in the last four frames.
Finally, James Wattana rolled back the years by beating Ali Carter 4-3 to clinch a place in the last 32. Wattana took a 2-0 lead in the match before the Captain took three on the spin to turn the match right around and lead 3-2 making a 127 in frame four along the way. Wattana came back strong with a break of 108 to force the deciding frame and eventually came through on the colours in a lengthy final frame.
Full Last 64 Results:
Liang Wenbo 4-3 Tom Ford
Yan Bingtao 4-1 Jamie Jones
Anthony McGill 4-2 Lu Haotian
Akani Songsermsawad 4-2 Joe Swail
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Gary Wilson
Neil Robertson 4-3 Li Hang
Aditya Mehta 4-2 Ian Preece
Chen Zifan 4-3 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 4-0 Mark Joyce
Matthew Stevens 4-2 David Gilbert
Mark Williams 4-1 Luca Brecel
Jack Lisowski 4-3 Li Yuan
Zhang Yong 4-2 Rhys Clark
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Mark Davis
Robert Milkins 4-2 Ashley Hugill
John Higgins 4-1 Matthew Selt
Michael White 4-2 Ding Junhui
Ben Woollaston 4-3 Craig Steadman
Yuan Sijun 4-3 John Astley
James Wattana 4-3 Ali Carter
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-3 Gerard Greene
Stuart Carrington 4-2 Mark Allen
Liam Highfield 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Shaun Murphy 4-2 Daniel Wells
Hammad Miah 4-1 Tian Pengfei
Andrew Higginson 4-0 Mitchell Mann
Stuart Bingham 4-2 Fang Xiongman
Hossein Vafei 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Thor Chuan Leong 4-2 Cao Yupeng
Kyren Wilson 4-0 Mike Dunn
Xiao Guodong 4-2 Ricky Walden
Mark Selby 4-1 Ross Muir
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Liang Wenbo Vs Yan Bingtao
Anthony McGill Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Neil Robertson Vs Jimmy Robertson
Aditya Mehta Vs Chen Zifan
Judd Trump Vs Matthew Stevens
Mark Williams Vs Jack Lisowski
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Zhang Yong
John Higgins Vs Robert Milkins
Michael White Vs Ben Woollaston
Yuan Sijun Vs James Wattana
Stuart Carrington Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Shaun Murphy Vs Liam Highfield
Andrew Higginson Vs Hammad Miah
Stuart Bingham Vs Hossein Vafei
Kyren Wilson Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Mark Selby Vs Xiao Guodong
Andrew Higginson has won each of his three previous meetings with Hammad Miah, including a victory in the Paul Hunter Classic this season and has had to play one match less than everyone in the field after getting a walkover in the last 128. Miah has played well so far though with two 4-1 wins against Michael Georgiou and Tian Pengfei.
Liang Wenbo may find it tough to bring himself back up after a massive match with Tom Ford with the maximum break as well as the comeback and we all know the dangers of Yan Bingtao. Yan has had two very strong wins this week and has already beaten Liang Wenbo in last season's UK Championship.
Chen Zifan scored brilliantly to beat Barry Hawkins and from what I've seen of him, including when he earned his Q School card, he is certainly one to watch. Mehta will test him more tactically as that seems to be where his first two games have potentially been won and lost.
Judd Trump will not have things all his own way against Matthew Stevens who seems to be in good form and has his scoring boots on. One thing Stevens has not done as much in recent years is beat the top players and Trump is flying as he showed once more against Joyce and I think it will take a brilliant performance from someone to send the European Masters champion home.
Neil Robertson should take a much needed lift in the way he came back from losing three straight frames against Li Hang, but cannot rest against his namesake Jimmy who is more than capable of sending the Australian home. However, Neil has a very good record against Jimmy and with everyone gaining added importance with his race for the Masters, I do not expect him to slip up here.
Ronnie O'Sullivan will obviously be heavily fancied for an easy win against lower ranked Zhang Yong, while John Higgins will not want to suffer the same fate as fellow Scotsman Stephen Maguire by losing to Robert Milkins.
Mark Williams and Jack Lisowski is an intriguing match on Thursday morning with Lisowski in flying form knocking in big breaks for fun at the moment, while Mark Williams overcame Luca Brecel in the last 64 to keep up his hopes of making the quarter-finals of each ranking event he has entered so far this season. If Lisowski is at his best that will be a tough one to call.
Experience may tell in a big last 32 match between Yuan Sijun and James Wattana with two players lower down in the rankings vying for crucial ranking money. Yuan is in fantastic form but Wattana has had two nice wins himself this week, fighting hard and scoring nicely also.
I also want to mention Mark Selby's match with Xiao Guodong. Selby has not hit top form yet in this event and after the opening round against Scott Donaldson he is lucky to be here. Xiao though is scoring nicely as always and finished off a nice win over Ricky Walden with a century break and he will fancy his chances a lot more over 7 frames, than he would have done in their last meeting over 25 frames in the World Championships.
It will be a busy day in Barnsley with the last 32 in the morning and early afternoon being followed by the last 16 in the evening with all matches on the day to be over the best-of-7 frames, and by the end of Thursday's play we will be down to the quarter-finals and really at the business end of proceedings this week. Tomorrow may also be a day when the players will actually be happy enough to play in the morning session at 10am and have longer off in the afternoon before the last 16.
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