Ronnie O'Sullivan continued his fantastic recent form with another convincing victory in the the second round of the Scottish Open.
The Rocket made two centuries on the way to his second 4-1 victory of the week, this time over Robert Milkins. O'Sullivan played excellently in round one against Michael Georgiou and carried that on here taking a 2-0 lead in no time thanks to breaks of 112 and 72. Milkins got his only frame on the board in the third with his own nice effort of 79, but O'Sullivan was back into his stride closing the match out comfortably with further high contributions of 80 and 101.
It was also a superb day at the office for last year's runner-up John Higgins. Scotland's number one opened up the match with back to back total clearances of 144 and 138 before a third century of 108 in frame four and a closing 85 in his 4-1 defeat of Christopher Keogan.
Defending champion Marco Fu came from 2-0 down by winning four straight frames to see off Fang Xiongman 4-2, while there were also 4-2 wins for Neil Robertson over Liam Highfield, Ding Junhui against Chris Wakelin, Judd Trump against Sam Craigie and Stephen Maguire seeing off Hamza Akbar.
However, there were still some top 16 casualties on day three in Glasgow and these started with twelfth seed Ali Carter falling to York's Ashley Hugill. Carter was 2-0 up in the match and opened up with a match high break of 117, but saw Hugill pull back to 2-2 with runs of 67 and 62. Carter edged ahead once more but Hugill took the sixth on the black to force a deciding frame. With the help of an early contribution of 55 the tour rookie was able to score an impressive victory and book his last 32 spot.
Mark Joyce continued his fine form by defeating Liang Wenbo in a deciding frame. Both players performed well in this one, as they each compiled centuries in the contest but it was Joyce that came from 3-2 behind to take the final two frames and send the fourteenth seed home.
A 4-3 defeat for Alan McManus against David Grace added to by an impressive 4-1 win for Peter Ebdon against fifteenth seed Anthony McGill now means that only Higgins, Maguire and Chris Totten are left representing the home nation going into round three.
Last 64 results:
Marco Fu 4-2 Fang Xiongman
Zhou Yuelong 4-2 Yu De Lu
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Gary Wilson
Noppon Saengkham 4-0 Zhang Yong
Chris Totten 4-3 Mitchell Mann
Neil Robertson 4-2 Liam Highfield
David Grace 4-3 Alan McManus
Zhang Anda 4-2 Ben Woollaston
John Higgins 4-1 Christopher Keogan
Gerard Greene 4-3 Mike Dunn
Ashley Hugill 4-3 Ali Carter
Peter Lines 4-2 Kurt Dunham
Kyren Wilson 4-1 Dominic Dale
Michael White 4-2 Scott Donaldson
Li Hang 4-1 Jamie Barrett
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Robert Milkins
Ding Junhui 4-2 Chris Wakelin
Rory McLeod 4-0 Niu Zhuang
Ricky Walden 4-2 Joe Swail
Mark Joyce 4-3 Liang Wenbo
Tom Ford 4-0 Hammad Miah
Stuart Carrington 4-2 Joe Perry
Cao Yupeng 4-3 Allan Taylor
Daniel Wells 4-1 Jimmy White
Yan Bingtao 4-0 Jamie Jones
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Hamza Akbar
Craig Steadman 4-2 Alfie Burden
Peter Ebdon 4-1 Anthony McGill
Elliot Slessor 4-1 Mei Xiwen
Michael Holt 4-3 Eden Sharav
Judd Trump 4-2 Sam Craigie
Last 32 draw: (Picks in bold)
Marco Fu Vs Zhou Yuelong
Xiao Guodong Vs Noppon Saengkham
Neil Robertson Vs Chris Totten
David Grace Vs Zhang Anda
John Higgins Vs Gerard Greene
Peter Lines Vs Ashley Hugill
Kyren Wilson Vs Michael White
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Li Hang
Ding Junhui Vs Rory McLeod
Ricky Walden Vs Mark Joyce
Tom Ford Vs Stuart Carrington
Cao Yupeng Vs Daniel Wells
Stephen Maguire Vs Yan Bingtao
Xu Si Vs Craig Steadman
Peter Ebdon Vs Elliot Slessor
Judd Trump Vs Michael Holt
Once again there is a brilliant mix of ties in the last 32, starting with defending champion Marco Fu against Zhou Yuelong. Fu had to come back from 2-0 down against Fang Xiongman in round two and has been struggling this season, while Zhou came through a tough match today against Yu De Lu and looks to be scoring well as always. If Zhou can take the game to Fu and get ahead like Fang did, then he would certainly have the defending champion on the ropes.
Xiao Guodong produced a great escape, getting the four snookers he required to win the deciding frame against Gary Wilson and he now faces Noppon Saengkham who has been firing in the big breaks in his two wins so far. The pair also met in the last 32 of the UK Championship where Xiao won 6-3 and he has won on all of the other occasions in which they have met, but with the Thai playing well this should make for a good contest.
Kyren Wilson and Michael White looks like one of the ties of the round. White has been a winner this season in Germany, while Wilson has had two finals of his own. White came through today 4-2 against Scott Donaldson with back to back centuries in frames two and three of that contest while the Warrior scored well in his win against Dale. If Wilson can get the upper hand in the safety though, that may be the decisive factor if both players score as well as they have been.
Ding Junhui certainly did not look at his best in a late finish with Chris Wakelin who was arguably the better player in the second half of that contest. He now faces Rory McLeod who has already defeated Graeme Dott this week on the outside tables and whitewashed Niu Zhuang in round two. If McLeod is able to grind Ding down then we may see a bit more weakness from Ding who has certainly not looked his best so far, and may not enjoy this match if it is selected to go on an outside table.
Mark Joyce is in great form at the moment having made the quarters in York, and only narrowly missing out on the semi's there. He backed up his win against Neil Robertson in the UK and will now be looking to back up his impressive performance against Liang with another here against Ricky Walden. It is still hard to judge where Walden is at with his form at the moment. He looked better in beating Kyren Wilson in the UK Championships but did not produce in the round after against Shaun Murphy, and does not look to have started this tournament too convincingly either. If Joyce can take his chances as well here as he did against Liang in round two and when he faced Robertson in York then he has every chance of another great result.
Tom Ford and Stuart Carrington will be a good clash between two heavy scorers that could well go close. Ford has only dropped one frame in coming through the first two rounds, while Carrington scored a nice victory in the last 64 against Joe Perry who had been looking good himself of late. That follows up a nice win for Carrington against Trump in the Northern Ireland Open last month despite a few early exits in tournaments prior to that. Ford has been decent without going on a big run yet this season, but this presents a nice opportunity for both players.
Stephen Maguire and Yan Bingtao is another fantastic looking match-up here in the last 32. Yan was sublime beating Jamie Jones 4-0 with two century breaks and two further breaks above 80 as he continues the sort of form that got him to the final in Belfast in November. Maguire meanwhile was in great touch in York to reach the semi-finals and will be desperate to go well here on home turf against someone who he has beaten this season in the China Championship. Yan has really upped his game to a new level in the last couple of months though and it is no surprise to anyone when he beats any of the top players, and it would not be a shock if he won this tournament or picked up a trophy before this season was over.
As always on Thursday of the home nations events, it will be a busy one in Glasgow with the last 32 matches of the morning and afternoon being followed by the last 16 matches in the evening, with all games on the day again being played over the best-of-7 frames.
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