The first round of the English Open has drawn to a close and for some of the top seeds it has been a nervy affair to kick start their campaigns. World champion Mark Selby, recent European Master Judd Trump and John Higgins all had to come from behind and win in deciding frames to progress into Wednesday's last 64.
Trump was in fine form early on in his match with Robbie Williams. Breaks of 114 and 143 put him 2-1 in front but a high for Williams of 95 followed by a 66 in the fifth put him in front at 3-2, though the in-form Trump finished strongly and was able to come back and complete victory.
As for Selby, he took on Scott Donaldson who came into the match without a win on the tour this season. After the world champion took the opener, Donaldson hit back nicely with a well played 121 break to level the match up. He was looking strong in the third frame, before a trademark Selby steal on the black put him back ahead. The Scot recovered well and got stronger with contributions of 72 and 57 in the next two frames to turn the game on its head and take a 3-2 lead. Selby's fantastic attitude with his back against the wall shone through in frame six as he forced the decider with a match high break of 124 before keeping up his superb record in final frames to clinch his second round place.
It's certainly fair to say that John Higgins was the better player in his match with Elliot Slessor, but the lower ranked player was the one to pot the crucial balls at key moments in the early frames and put the Indian Open champion under pressure. After losing three pretty close frames on the way to falling 3-2 adrift, Higgins had to dig in and dominated the final two, shutting Slessor out for the most part and insuring that he did not suffer an early exit.
Marco Fu was the only top 16 player to fall at the first hurdle in Barnsley, with a strong performance from Tian Pengfei sending him off for an early bath. Tian signalled his intent right from the start with an opening century of 126, and he would go on to double that lead at 2-0. Fu hit back with a 135 break in the third, but Tian soon regained his two frame cushion with a run of 78 helping him to a 3-1 advantage. It did not take long at all for Tian to finish things off and for Fu his poor start to the new season continues.
Meanwhile, wherever Ronnie O'Sullivan seems to appear he makes the headlines and this was true again in the first round on Tuesday evening. It was not so much for his snooker, where he completed a straightforward 4-1 win against Zhang Anda with top breaks of 87 and 89, but more for his footwear. After spraining his ankle in a running accident, the five times world champion came into the arena sporting a pair of blue trainers and while it caused much discussion on social media, it does not appear to have gone down well with the governing body. Following his win, O'Sullivan Tweeted "Being told by World Snooker that if I don't wear a black training shoe tomorrow I can't play #sprainedankle" and backed that up by saying "Looks like I will have to pull out of the English Open because someone's not happy with me wearing a trainer due to a sprained ankle". As usual this could all be a 'boy who cried wolf' routine from O'Sullivan and the majority of those who have seen this all before will expect him to play on Wednesday evening as planned.
Elsewhere over the first two days, there were comfortable wins for the likes of Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson while Liang Wenbo's title defence started with a simple 4-1 victory against Duane Jones that featured two centuries from the Chinese number two. Luca Brecel continued his fine start to the season by winning one of the big first round clashes against Ryan Day 4-1. Stephen Maguire was whitewashed by Robert Milkins, while the impressive young Yuan Sijun shone again with a 4-1 defeat of Joe Perry. Having seen off Shaun Murphy 5-4 to qualify for the Shanghai Masters just five days ago, the 17-year-old was straight back into the groove with two century breaks of 104 and 123 on the way to victory.
Stuart Bingham had a couple of failed maximum attempts of 104 and 112 on the way to a 4-0 thrashing of Lee Walker, picking up from where he had left off in Lommel at the European Masters. Mark Allen also continued his good run of form by seeing off Jimmy White 4-0 thanks in part to breaks of 73, 72 and 80 in the opening three frames.
There were first round exits though for Martin Gould (beaten 4-1 by Zhao Xintong), Mark King (who lost out 4-2 to fellow Chinese player Fang Xiongman) and Graeme Dott (as Thor Chuan Leong made a break of 139 in the final frame of a 4-1 win).
Finally, a special mention should go to Mike Dunn who was able to beat Alex Borg 4-2 in the face of some ill-health that he has been suffering with in recent times. I would like to wish Dunn all the best for the rest of the tournament and for his recovery.
Full Last 128 Results:
Liang Wenbo 4-1 Duane Jones
Tom Ford 4-1 Xu Si
Yan Bingtao 4-0 Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones 4-0 Basem Eltahhan
Anthony McGill 4-3 Michael Holt
Lu Haotian 4-1 Allan Taylor
Akani Songsermsawad 4-2 Matthew Bolton
Joe Swail 4-3 Chris Totten
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Adam Duffy
Gary Wilson 4-1 Sean O'Sullivan
Li Hang 4-2 Chris Wakelin
Neil Robertson 4-0 Billy Castle
Ian Preece 4-0 Mei Xiwen
Aditya Mehta 4-0 Sam Craigie
Chen Zifan 4-3 Sanderson Lam
Barry Hawkins 4-2 Peter Lines
Judd Trump 4-3 Robbie Williams
Mark Joyce 4-3 Yu De Lu
Matthew Stevens 4-0 Eden Sharav
David Gilbert 4-0 Josh Boileau
Luca Brecel 4-1 Ryan Day
Mark Williams 4-1 David Grace
Li Yuan 4-2 Jamie Curtis-Barrett
Jack Lisowski 4-0 Rory McLeod
Rhys Clark 4-3 Alan McManus
Zhang Yong 4-3 Kurt Dunham
Mark Davis 4-3 Chen Zhe
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Zhang Anda
Robert Milkins 4-0 Stephen Maguire
Ashley Hugill 4-2 Nigel Bond
Matthew Selt 4-2 Alfie Burden
John Higgins 4-3 Elliot Slessor
Ding Junhui 4-1 Chris Keogan
Michael White 4-1 Lukas Kleckers
Craig Steadman 4-3 Robin Hull
Ben Woollaston 4-2 Peter Ebdon
Ali Carter 4-1 Oliver Lines
James Wattana 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
John Astley 4-2 Paul Davison
Yuan Sijun 4-1 Joe Perry
Gerard Greene 4-1 Ken Doherty
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-2 Anthony Hamilton
Stuart Carrington 4-1 Boonyarit Kaettikun
Mark Allen 4-0 Jimmy White
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Kurt Maflin
Liam Highfield 4-3 Fergal O'Brien
Daniel Wells 4-1 Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Soheil Vahedi
Tian Pengfei 4-1 Marco Fu
Hammad Miah 4-1 Michael Georgiou
Mitchell Mann 4-3 Leo Fernandez
Andrew Higginson W/O Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Lee Walker
Fang Xiongman 4-2 Mark King
Zhao Xintong 4-1 Martin Gould
Hossein Vafei 4-2 Niu Zhuang
Thor Chuan Leong 4-1 Graeme Dott
Cao Yupeng 4-1 Hamza Akbar
Mike Dunn 4-2 Alex Borg
Kyren Wilson 4-3 Rod Lawler
Xiao Guodong 4-2 Wang Yuchen
Ricky Walden 4-2 Jak Jones
Ross Muir 4-3 Sam Baird
Mark Selby 4-3 Scott Donaldson
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Liang Wenbo Vs Tom Ford
Jamie Jones Vs Yan Bingtao
Anthony McGill Vs Lu Haotian
Akani Songsermsawad Vs Joe Swail
Jimmy Robertson Vs Gary Wilson
Neil Robertson Vs Li Hang
Aditya Mehta Vs Ian Preece
Barry Hawkins Vs Chen Zifan
Judd Trump Vs Mark Joyce
David Gilbert Vs Matthew Stevens
Luca Brecel Vs Mark Williams
Jack Lisowski Vs Li Yuan
Zhang Yong Vs Rhys Clark
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Mark Davis
Robert Milkins Vs Ashley Hugill
John Higgins Vs Matthew Selt
Ding Junhui Vs Michael White
Ben Woollaston Vs Craig Steadman
Ali Carter Vs James Wattana
John Astley Vs Yuan Sijun
Alexander Ursenbacher Vs Gerard Greene
Mark Allen Vs Stuart Carrington
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Liam Highfield
Shaun Murphy Vs Daniel Wells
Tian Pengfei Vs Hammad Miah
Andrew Higginson Vs Mitchell Mann
Stuart Bingham Vs Fang Xiongman
Hossein Vafei Vs Zhao Xintong
Cao Yupeng Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Kyren Wilson Vs Mike Dunn
Ricky Walden Vs Xiao Guodong
Mark Selby Vs Ross Muir
There are plenty of noteworthy second round ties to take place on Wednesday in Barnsley, with all games featuring in a packed schedule of best-of-7 frame ties.
Interestingly, Liam Highfield has won all of his three previous meetings with Thepchaiya Un-Nooh including their first round tie at the 2016 UK Championships. Highfield also came from 3-1 down to beat Fergal O'Brien in round one with a break of 140 in the deciding frame.
Lu Haotian is quietly building up some quite nice form and he could certainly give Anthony McGill some trouble, though McGill did come through a tough first round test with Michael Holt. Ken Doherty meanwhile tweeted that Gerard Greene is "playing as well as i've ever seen him" after losing out to him 4-1 in round here. Greene now faces Alexander Ursenbacher who overcame Anthony Hamilton who has been suffering with back troubles in the last couple of months.
Andrew Higginson benefited from a first round walkover so is the only player yet to play in Barnsley. He faces Mitchell Mann who made a deciding frame century to beat Leo Fernandez in round one. Jack Lisowski also still looks in strong form after two big centuries in his first round whitewash of Rory McLeod and he now plays Li Yuan who he saw off comfortably in the last 64 of the European Masters just a couple of weeks ago.
Akani Songsermsawad has been playing well lately and he is a worthy favourite with the bookies to overcome Joe Swail. It's a battle of two of the more unorthodox players, what with Swail's less than textbook cue action and some of the out of the ordinary techniques that Akani has adopted, most notably his style when using the rest.
Zhang Yong and Rhys Clark is quite a big clash between two lower ranked players. Zhang beat Kurt Dunham on the final black of their deciding frame in round one, while Clark saw off fellow Scot Alan McManus in another decider. Yuan Sijun meanwhile will be looking to fire strongly again when he plays John Astley, while other young Chinese stars Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong will be in action against Jamie Jones and Hossein Vafei respectively.
Defending champion Liang Wenbo is not in for an easy ride against Tom Ford, who also hit two centuries in a 4-1 first round triumph. Mark Selby faces another young Scot in Ross Muir and will need to up his game if he is to avoid another nervy finish.
Judd Trump takes on Mark Joyce who he has beaten on each of four occasions since his 2012 UK Championship collapse that saw Joyce claim each of the last four frames from 5-2 behind. There is a slight question mark with Ronnie O'Sullivan as I mentioned earlier in the piece and he will not want to let this creep into his performance against Mark Davis. In the Welsh Open earlier this year, O'Sullivan was the one losing his final four frames as Davis came from 3-0 behind to take the Rocket's scalp.
John Higgins meets Matthew Selt for the second time in three events after the pair went all nine frames in the last 32 of the World Open where Higgins came out on top 5-4. Two ranking event winners of this season face off in Ding Junhui and Michael White who both look in good form once again. Form does not come much better than that of Luca Brecel and Mark Williams who are unlucky to meet so early on. Williams has made the quarter-finals of each ranking event he's played in so far this season, while Brecel has kicked on from his China Championship triumph by making the semi-finals of the World Open and opened up with an impressive 4-1 win over Ryan Day.
So, there are 32 matches in all to get through on Wednesday before another bumper day on Thursday when both the last 32 and last 16 will be completed over the course of the day, and it will all be covered as usual on Eurosport TV and Eurosport Player.
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