Recent UK Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy suffered a surprise exit in the first round of the Scottish Open as Daniel Wells overcame him for the second time this season.
Having previously beaten Murphy in September's World Open before losing out to Murphy earlier in the home nations series in Barnsley, he survived match ball today to come back and win 4-3. At 3-2 ahead Murphy missed a pink to win 4-2, and Wells potted a nice pink and black to force the decider. He then missed in the final frame to leave Murphy an opening and the balls were in nice positions, but the Magician missed a simple enough red early in the break and let Wells back in to clinch the victory.
There was to be no early exit for UK Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan though, who came from behind to win the first couple of frames in his 4-1 win over Michael Georgiou. Home favourite John Higgins was also a 4-1 winner, despite losing the first frame in an impressive victory over Jack Lisowski in which the Scottish number one looked in fine form.
The tie of the round on paper featured Scotland's number two player and 15th seed Anthony McGill against 17th seed Ryan Day, but what followed was a one sided match in which McGill won 4-0, despite a few chances in the match for Day.
Stephen Maguire made sure the top three Scottish players all made it through round one in Glasgow, but there was no love on home turf for Graeme Dott, who was moved onto an outside table for his 4-2 defeat to Rory McLeod, something he later took to Facebook to express his anger on.
As well as sixth seed Murphy falling at the first hurdle, seventh seed Barry Hawkins and eighth seed Mark Allen were also sent packing. Hawkins continued his poor run of form with a 4-2 loss to Jamie Jones, while Ben Woollaston came from 3-1 behind and made a superb 110 break in a deciding frame win over Allen in the final match of round one.
Defending champion Marco Fu, second seed Judd Trump and ninth seed Neil Robertson all recorded nice 4-0 wins to start their Scottish Open campaigns, with Robertson making a high break of 143 in his win over Rod Lawler.
There was also a 4-0 win for Cao Yupeng over Andrew Higginson, which was most notable for the third frame in which Cao made a superb 147 break scooping the rolling maximum prize fund.
Last 128 results:
Marco Fu 4-0 Duane Jones
Fang Xiongman 4-3 David Gilbert
Yu De Lu 4-2 Lee Walker
Zhou Yuelong 4-1 Ian Preece
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Martin Gould
Zhang Yong 4-1 Fergal O'Brien
Gary Wilson 4-2 Lu Haotian
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Li Yuan
Neil Robertson 4-0 Rod Lawler
Liam Highfield 4-2 John Astley
Chris Totten 4-1 Sam Baird
Mitchell Mann 4-3 Hossein Vafei
Alan McManus 4-2 Matthew Selt
David Grace 4-1 Alexander Ursenbacher
Zhang Anda 4-1 Mark King
Ben Woollaston 4-3 Mark Allen
John Higgins 4-1 Jack Lisowski
Christopher Keogan 4-0 Nigel Bond
Mike Dunn 4-0 Adam Duffy
Gerard Greene 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Ali Carter 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
Ashley Hugill 4-3 Ross Vallance
Kurt Dunham 4-2 Tian Pengfei
Peter Lines 4-0 Yuan Sijun
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Chen Zhe
Dominic Dale 4-1 Basem Eltahhan
Scott Donaldson 4-2 Josh Boileau
Michael White 4-0 James Wattana
Li Hang 4-1 Sean O'Sullivan
Jamie Barrett 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Robert Milkins 4-2 Oliver Lines
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Michael Georgiou
Ding Junhui 4-2 Jak Jones
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Thor Chuan Leong
Rory McLeod 4-2 Graeme Dott
Niu Zhuang 4-3 Wang Yuchen
Liang Wenbo 4-2 Sanderson Lam
Mark Joyce 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
Joe Swail 4-0 Lukas Kleckers
Ricky Walden 4-2 Billy Castle
Joe Perry 4-2 Chen Zifan
Stuart Carrington 4-1 Jackson Page
Hammad Miah 4-1 Matthew Stevens
Tom Ford 4-1 Ian Burns
Allan Taylor 4-3 Soheil Vahedi
Cao Yupeng 4-0 Andrew Higginson
Jimmy White 4-1 Akani Songsermsawad
Daniel Wells 4-3 Shaun Murphy
Jamie Jones 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Yan Bingtao 4-0 Matthew Bolton
Hamza Akbar 4-1 Leo Fernandez
Stephen Maguire 4-0 Alex Borg
Xu Si W/O Mark Williams
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Paul Davison
Craig Steadman 4-1 Ken Doherty
Alfie Burden 4-2 Ross Muir
Anthony McGill 4-0 Ryan Day
Peter Ebdon 4-2 Aditya Mehta
Mei Xiwen 4-0 Kurt Maflin
Elliot Slessor 4-2 Rhys Clark
Eden Sharav 4-3 Mark Davis
Michael Holt 4-0 Robbie Williams
Sam Craigie 4-2 Boonyarit Kaettikun
Judd Trump 4-0 Robin Hull
Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold)
Marco Fu Vs Fang Xiongman
Zhou Yuelong Vs Yu De Lu
Noppon Saengkham Vs Zhang Yong
Xiao Guodong Vs Gary Wilson
Neil Robertson Vs Liam Highfield
Mitchell Mann Vs Chris Totten
Alan McManus Vs David Grace
Ben Woollaston Vs Zhang Anda
John Higgins Vs Christopher Keogan
Mike Dunn Vs Gerard Greene
Ali Carter Vs Ashley Hugill
Peter Lines Vs Kurt Dunham
Kyren Wilson Vs Dominic Dale
Michael White Vs Scott Donaldson
Li Hang Vs Jamie Barrett
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Robert Milkins
Ding Junhui Vs Chris Wakelin
Rory McLeod Vs Niu Zhuang
Liang Wenbo Vs Mark Joyce
Ricky Walden Vs Joe Swail
Joe Perry Vs Stuart Carrington
Tom Ford Vs Hammad Miah
Cao Yupeng Vs Allan Taylor
Daniel Wells Vs Jimmy White
Yan Bingtao Vs Jamie Jones
Stephen Maguire Vs Hamza Akbar
Jimmy Robertson Vs Xu Si
Alfie Burden Vs Craig Steadman
Mei Xiwen Vs Elliot Slessor
Anthony McGill Vs Peter Ebdon
Michael Holt Vs Eden Sharav
Judd Trump Vs Sam Craigie
There are plenty of good looking ties in round two in Glasgow, including that of Trump against Sam Craigie. We all know what Craigie is capable of, especially after his high scoring victory over Kyren Wilson in Belfast, while Trump is looking to re-find his form after a couple of early exits since a heavy defeat in the Shanghai Masters final.
The Rocket Ronnie O'Sullivan faces what could be a tough match with Robert Milkins, if Milkins produces some of the form that saw him overcome Neil Robertson on the way to the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open. However, O'Sullivan looked in great form in round one and looks to have carried on from where he left off at the back end of the UK Championship final.
Jimmy White scored a nice 4-1 win against in-form Akani Songsermsawad and will now face Murphy's conqueror Daniel Wells in the last 64. White has had a few nice results in recent weeks, including a last 128 victory over Ali Carter in York. Wells looked good in parts of his match with Murphy, but Shaun was unable to find anything close to the form displayed last week and White certainly has a good chance here if he keeps playing nicely himself.
Jimmy Robertson is looking to make it to the last 32 stages for the seventh event in a row as he faces Xu Si. Xu had a first round walkover after the withdrawal of Mark Williams, while Robertson survived a final frame decider against Paul Davison to book his place in round two.
Neil Robertson meanwhile will have a battle on his hands with Liam Highfield. Highfield has run Shaun Murphy very close a couple of times this season as well as beating Liang Wenbo in the last home nations event, and he seems to raise his game for the big matches against the top players. Given the Australian's inconsistent results this season, it would not surprise me at all to see Highfield come out on top.
Alan McManus will have been pleased to get through against Matthew Selt in what was a tough opening round game and things will not get any easier as he faces David Grace. Grace has not had the best of starts this season, but will take confidence from his 4-1 win over Alexander Ursenbacher that featured two centuries and some more high scoring and he certainly has a chance against McManus if he can keep that form up.
Young Scotsman Scott Donaldson will give Michael White a good game in the last 64. White has had a good season after getting a trophy under his belt in August, but Donaldson will be full of confidence after backing up his first win of the season in York with a win over Mark Selby in round two there. Perhaps now Donaldson will get back to the sort of level that saw him reach the Welsh Open semi-final in February this year.
Liang Wenbo has had a very quiet season so far, and as he takes on an in-form Mark Joyce in round two here that could well continue. Joyce comes into this off the back of another quarter-final at the UK Championships where he saw off Neil Robertson in the last 32, having already made a quarter-final at the Paul Hunter Classic and beating Luca Brecel and Anthony McGill to reach the last 16 of the International Championships.
There are plenty of other games to look forward to besides the ones mentioned above. All 32 second round matches will take place on Wednesday over the best-of-7 frames and with a few top seeds gone already, this tournament could well open up like all of these home nations events seem to.
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