Despite Allen leading at 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, Tian kept pegging him back level and eventually ran out on top in the decider with a century break. Allen had a run of 51 in the opener and 55 in frame three but could not manage to replicate the heavy scoring he has shown in many other events in the first half of this season. Pengfei meanwhile also had a 73 in the second and won frame six with runs of 50 and 51.
Defending champion Mark King has made it into the last 32 in Belfast however, beating Ashley Hugill comfortably on Wednesday morning. The win now sees him play Yan Bingtao on Thursday in round three, with the young Chinese player yet to drop a frame in this tournament.
Ronnie O'Sullivan kept alive his hopes of scooping the million pound home nations jackpot with a whitewash of Welshman Duane Jones. O'Sullivan may not have been at his best but was still able to get the job done against his much lower ranked opponent, and he will face 78th seed Elliot Slessor in the last 32.
Day three at the Waterfront also saw two failed maximum attempts. The first came from Thepchaiya Un-Nooh who missed the 14th black in his deciding frame with Chen Zifan, but the 105 he compiled was more than enough to book his place in the last 32, despite earlier runs of 99 and 101 from his opponent.
The next was by Joe Perry on the televised table against Matthew Selt. Perry snookered himself on the blue on 129 in the opening frame and was unable to hit the blue from his hit and hope shot. He soon got over that disappointment however, winning 4-0 and making a second century of the contest in the final frame.
Tom Ford only scored 31 points in his match with Mark Williams, as the two-time World champion cruised to a 4-0 victory with high breaks of 78, 92 and 113. There was also a whitewash victory for Neil Robertson against Billy Castle, though Castle was left to rue missed chances that came his way in that one.
Two further top 16 seeds did exit in the last 64, as Ali Carter and Liang Wenbo both fell to 4-1 defeats. Carter took on Xiao Guodong who played superbly with high breaks of 70, 81 and 110. Meanwhile, Liang lost out to Liam Highfield who also made it into the last 32 of the English Open and could now go a lot further.
Zhou Yuelong was beaten by Robin Hull for the second time in a month. The Finnish star saw off the young Chinese player 4-1 to go with a 6-2 win in the International Championships, and after a quiet few months it looks like the former shoot-out winner could be coming back to form. The good form of Jack Lisowski was quashed by Ricky Walden, who still does not look quite as his best, but he was able to dig in and seal an important 4-2 victory, dominating a few scrappy frames in the match.
Last 64 Results:
Mark King 4-1 Ashley Hugill
Yan Bingtao 4-0 Jamie Barrett
Ryan Day 4-2 Li Hang
Robin Hull 4-1 Zhou Yuelong
Ricky Walden 4-2 Jack Lisowski
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Zhao Xintong
Robert Milkins 4-1 Oliver Lines
Neil Robertson 4-0 Billy Castle
Tian Pengfei 4-3 Mark Allen
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Yu De Lu
Chris Wakelin 4-1 Fang Xiongman
Jimmy White 4-0 Jak Jones
Ken Doherty 4-1 Niu Zhuang
Liam Highfield 4-1 Liang Wenbo
Lu Haotian 4-1 Yuan Sijun
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3 Chen Zifan
John Higgins 4-1 Hossein Vafei
Gary Wilson 4-0 Stephen Maguire
Li Yuan 4-0 Zhang Yong
Anthony McGill 4-1 Adam Duffy
Sam Craigie 4-2 Ben Woollaston
Mei Xiwen 4-1 Alex Borg
Elliot Slessor 4-2 Kurt Maflin
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 Duane Jones
Mike Dunn 4-0 Matthew Stevens
Michael Holt 4-2 Michael Georgiou
Joe Perry 4-0 Matthew Selt
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Ali Carter
Mark Williams 4-0 Tom Ford
Akani Songsermsawad 4-3 Wang Yuchen
David Gilbert 4-2 Paul Davison
Ross Muir 4-2 Stuart Carrington
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in bold)
Mark King Vs Yan Bingtao
Ryan Day Vs Robin Hull
Ricky Walden Vs Jimmy Robertson
Neil Robertson Vs Robert Milkins
Tian Pengfei Vs Noppon Saengkham
Chris Wakelin Vs Jimmy White
Liam Highfield Vs Ken Doherty
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Lu Haotian
John Higgins Vs Gary Wilson
Anthony McGill Vs Li Yuan
Sam Craigie Vs Mei Xiwen
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Elliot Slessor
Michael Holt Vs Mike Dunn
Joe Perry Vs Xiao Guodong
Mark Williams Vs Akani Songsermsawad
David Gilbert Vs Ross Muir
Attention in the draw has turned to the second quarter where, with the exits today for Allen and Liang, the highest seeded player is Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at 45. He faces Lu Haotian who has had two nice victories himself this week and that one may well be a high scoring clash.
Jimmy White is still going and in that second quarter where he faces Chris Wakelin. For me, Wakelin could be the dangerman in this section and while White will have a lot of support from the Northern Irish crowd, he's going to need to play well to see of Wakelin who has had two comfortable wins so far.
Ken Doherty is also continuing on his good start to the season and he faces Liang's slayer Liam Highfield. Highfield came very close to making the last 16 of the English Open where he lost in a deciding frame to Shaun Murphy. If Highfield can score as heavily as he has the potential too then he has a fantastic chance here, but a good performance will be needed to beat Doherty.
Finally, Tian Pengfei secured a second victory against top 16 opposition in this year's home nations series after beating Fu in Barnsley. He faces Noppon Saengkham who is fortunate to be here after two deciding frame wins, and he will have to up his game to beat Tian who has been scoring heavily of late and getting some strong results.
Away from that quarter, Sam Craigie has been playing very well and scoring incredibly heavily. He backed up a sensational round one performance against Kyren Wilson with a 4-2 victory over Ben Woollaston and now faces Mei Xiwen. Mei has had two pretty easy opponents so far, and faces a much tougher test this time. He did make the last 16 in Shanghai though so is in decent form, and will still be a good test again for Craigie.
This could be a week for someone like Michael Holt to make his major moment happen, or at least turn his season around. He faces Mike Dunn in the last 32, and while Dunn has had two decent wins, Holt will be a worthy favourite after beating Michael Georgiou in the last 64 and making a century in the process.
Mark Williams is yet to drop a frame yet this week and I expect him to beat Akani Songsermsawad and then meet David Gilbert in the evenings last 16 in what would be a cracking game with both scoring well so far this week.
Yan Bingtao took down defending champion Liang Wenbo in the English Open and he has the chance to do the same here as he faces Mark King. King has come through well so far but not faced anything close to the test Yan Bingtao will offer. Yan is yet to drop a frame and is on a good run after making the International Championship semi-finals. Despite only being on tour a year and a half he is already an established name and somebody is looking at as a future tournament winner.
Ryan Day is still going and in the process keeping Neil Robertson behind him in the Race to the Masters. He takes on Robin Hull in the last 32 in a match that will not be easy for Day. Hull has had two nice results recently against Zhou Yuelong and looks to be coming back into some form after a quiet period. In February's German Masters, Hull faced Day in the last 16 and could easily have beaten him on another day, and it would not be at all surprising given the pressure Day is under over the Masters, if he took him out on this occasion.
Jimmy Robertson had a very lucky escape today in his tight tussle with Zhao Xintong. He missed a very easy black for victory but was able to take the second opportunity he got on the black in the decider. He has been playing well recently and scoring pretty nicely, having now made the last 32 for the fourth event in a row. However, he is yet to get past this stage and this will be a big challenge again as he faces Ricky Walden. Walden is well overdue a good run, but despite beating Jack Lisowski in the last 64, his scoring is not close to the levels that he can produce and this will need to improve before he can fight back into the top 16. His poor run of form has only seen him pass the last 32 of a ranking event on three occasions inside of the last 12 months which is far away from what Walden is capable of.
Finally, it is worth mentioning Gary Wilson's match with John Higgins. Wilson has already whitewashed Stephen Maguire this week and looks to be scoring well, starting that match with a century and also playing well against Alexander Ursenbacher. Higgins has not exactly been at his best, but is getting the job done so far but in what is a busy period for the Scot, he may not have much energy left in the tank. If Wilson starts well there could well be an upset here, but Higgins may just be too strong.
Once the last 32 is done with on Thursday morning and afternoon, the evening session will see the eight last 16 ties, again over the best-of-7 frames, meaning that by the end of day four the 32 who started will have been whittled down to just the eight who will face off in Friday's quarter-finals.
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