World champion Mark Williams suffers early exit at the International Championship

Mark Williams has suffered an early exit at the International Championship after losing 6-3 in the last 64 to Akani Songsermsawad. 

Akani came into this tournament having defeated Kyren Wilson in the first round of the English Open and he was in brilliant giant-killing form again here. The Thai was 3-2 down here to Williams before levelling at 3-3 and then producing breaks of 108, 101 and 62 in the final three frames to clinch a famous victory in Daqing. 

Williams was not the only big name casualty of the last 64 stage as eighth seed Kyren Wilson was taken out on Sunday morning by Yuan Sijun. Yuan continued his form that has seen him overcome Ding Junhui and Mark Allen in recent tournaments to defeat Wilson 6-2 with a high break of 70. 

Meanwhile, English Open champion Stuart Bingham also fell at the first hurdle in Daqing as Eden Sharav took him out 6-3, despite Bingham making a high break of 130. Bingham was joined by the runner-up in Crawley, as Mark Davis lost to European Masters runner-up Joe Perry, while the winner that week in Lommel Jimmy Robertson lost 6-3 to Tom Ford in a match that featured two centuries for both players. 

16th and 17th seeds Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill also lost in the last 64. Liang went down 6-4 to Ian Burns, while McGill lost to Stuart Carrington by the same scoreline. Two-time International Championship winner Mark Allen was forced to fightback from 4-0 and 5-2 down to defeat Liam Highfield 6-5. The comeback for Allen featured breaks of 120, 127, 125 and a deciding frame contribution of 85. 

Defending champion Mark Selby was troubled in his heldover last 128 tie against Li Yuan, fighting back to win 6-5 despite Li having a golden chance in the decider with just blue, pink and black remaining. Things were much easier for the world number one in the last 64 though as he whitewashed Ken Doherty with three centuries in the process. 

Selby has spoken on social media about how difficult he has found things since news of the helicopter crash on Saturday evening which sadly took the life of the owner of Leicester City football club and the four others that were on the helicopter. Selby is a massive Leicester City fan, having previously paraded his World Championship trophy around the pitch at the King Power stadium, as well as winning his second world title on the same night that Leicester were confirmed as champions of the Premier League in 2016, defying odds of 5,000/1. 

Home favourite Ding Junhui has had to battle hard to make the last 32 in Daqing, winning the last two frames of his two 6-4 victories against Robin Hull in his heldover last 128 tie, and then against Zhang Anda in the last 64. Both matches featured key black ball frames that went in Ding's favour, including a massive won at 4-4 in his match with Zhang. 

Marco Fu held on to beat Andrew Higginson in a deciding frame, having made two centuries earlier on in the game, while Higginson made a total of six 50+ breaks in the tie. Neil Robertson also had six 50+ breaks including a century in his 6-1 win over Matthew Selt, while Barry Hawkins did the same in his 6-2 win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. 

The scoring has been especially heavy over the first two days, with a total of 49 centuries being made over the course of the 32 last 64 ties and the eight heldover matches. 

Last 64 results:

Mark Selby 6-0 Ken Doherty
Robert Milkins 6-2 Noppon Saengkham
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Anthony McGill
Ian Burns 6-4 Liang Wenbo
Joe Perry 6-3 Mark Davis
Neil Robertson 6-1 Matthew Selt
Xiao Guodong 6-2 Fan Zhengyi
Yuan Sijun 6-2 Kyren Wilson
Barry Hawkins 6-2 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Martin Gould 6-1 Li Hang
Jack Lisowski 6-1 Chris Wakelin
Marco Fu 6-5 Andrew Higginson
Yan Bingtao 6-0 Jimmy White
Ryan Day 6-3 Tian Pengfei
Michael Holt 6-4 Luo Honghao
Judd Trump 6-0 Alan McManus
Martin O'Donnell 6-4 Peter Lines
Tom Ford 6-3 Jimmy Robertson
Eden Sharav 6-3 Stuart Bingham
David Gilbert 6-2 John Astley
Mark King 6-3 Craig Steadman
Matthew Stevens 6-4 Jordan Brown
Zhao Xintong 6-5 James Wattana
Ding Junhui 6-4 Zhang Anda
Alfie Burden 6-2 Sam Baird
David Lilley 6-5 Ben Woollaston
Mark Allen 6-5 Liam Highfield
Hossein Vafei 6-3 Graeme Dott
Ali Carter 6-0 Kurt Maflin
Stephen Maguire 6-1 Michael Georgiou
Zhou Yuelong 6-1 He Guoqiang
Akani Songsermsawad 6-3 Mark Williams

Last 32 draw: (Picks in bold)

Mark Selby Vs Robert Milkins
Stuart Carrington Vs Ian Burns
Neil Robertson Vs Joe Perry
Xiao Guodong Vs Yuan Sijun
Barry Hawkins Vs Martin Gould
Marco Fu Vs Jack Lisowski
Ryan Day Vs Yan Bingtao
Judd Trump Vs Michael Holt
Tom Ford Vs Martin O'Donnell
David Gilbert Vs Eden Sharav
Mark King Vs Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui Vs Zhao Xintong
Alfie Burden Vs David Lilley
Mark Allen Vs Hossein Vafei
Stephen Maguire Vs Ali Carter
Zhou Yuelong Vs Akani Songsermsawad

There are a host of fascinating last 32 ties and one of the first ones that jumps out sees good friends Neil Robertson and Joe Perry face off. The last two times these two have met outside of the Championship League have produced two 6-2 wins in China for Perry, one in this tournament in 2016 and the other in the 2016 World Open semi-finals. Perry is in good form of late defeating English Open runner-up Mark Davis in the first round here, as well as making the final of the European Masters earlier this month. Robertson meanwhile has not hit the same heights of his Riga Masters win in the tournaments since then and has lost at this stage of the first two Chinese ranking events this season. Both players are scoring well, but I think that Perry has a great chance here. 

The all-Chinese battle between Xiao Guodong and Yuan Sijun is another excellent match-up with Yuan recently reaching the quarter-finals of the China Championship beating Ding in the process, before beating Mark Allen in the English Open and Kyren Wilson to start his week off here in Daqing. Xiao scored heavily in his first round tie this week and has been knocking on the door of a big run quite a few times inside of the last year or so and this is another week where things could potentially come together for him. 

Marco Fu and Jack Lisowski had differing levels of stress in getting to this stage of the tournament. Lisowski was in a free-scoring mood as he took out Chris Wakelin 6-1 in the last 64, while Fu took on Andrew Higginson and only came through via a deciding frame. Whatever the rankings may say about how close this match should be, the form of these two players in the last year is heading in dramatically different directions. Lisowski is on the rise, starting the season by reaching his first ranking final and since then he has reached another three quarter-finals. Fu meanwhile has had his eye troubles, but has not been in much form since his return from eye surgery and it is about time he showed what he can still do, before his ranking heads further in the wrong direction. 

Ryan Day and Yan Bingtao is another tie that shapes up to be a very close one. Yan was a 6-0 winner in round one against Jimmy White but has not quite hit top gear yet this season, though he was a semi-finalist at this event 12 months ago. Ryan Day meanwhile has been a quarter-finalist in the last two events but has not kicked on and seemed to struggle a little in his 6-3 opening round win against Tian Pengfei. Tian led 3-1 at the interval and would score at least 40 points in four of the next five frames, despite the fact that Day won them all. The pair also met in the Northern Ireland Open last year where Yan was the winner on the way to making the final and the winner on Tuesday could well be battling for the title at the weekend. 

Judd Trump meanwhile will do battle with Michael Holt. Trump was a whitewash winner in round one against Alan McManus, though the Scotsman looked all at sea and made life quite easy for the 2012 International Champion in the end. Holt meanwhile has not been in the best of form this season but may have turned a corner by beating recent English Open quarter-finalist Luo Honghao 6-4 with three century breaks in that match. Trump has the better of the head-to-head between these two but if Holt can threaten Trump with the same level of scoring that he produced against Luo, then he has every chance of picking up another impressive win. 

Ding Junhui will be right up against it once more in the last 32 as he takes on young Zhao Xintong. Ding has fought hard to win his first two games in Daqing this week and that could be a sign of rust as this is only his fourth event of the season. In the first two Chinese ranking events Ding lost out at this stage to Robert Milkins and Yuan Sijun respectively and can count himself fortunate that he is still here this week. Zhao can also count himself lucky despite making three centuries, one of which came in the deciding frame of his victory against James Wattana. Zhao was of course a semi-finalist last time out in China at the China Championship and forced the best out of Judd Trump recently in the English Open and he has become a massive threat to the top players since winning back his tour card in May. 

David Lilley has continued his fine form as a top-up player via the Q School order of merit by reaching the last 32 here in Daqing and now faces Alfie Burden. Lilley defeated Ricky Walden in qualifying before a nice win against Tom Ford in the English Open and a 6-5 victory in the last 64 here against Ben Woollaston, despite having led 4-0 and 5-2 at different stages of that tie. Burden meanwhile is the current high break holder with a 142 in his 6-2 win against Sam Baird. His season could have been a lot better but for two comebacks from Liang Wenbo in the China Championship and then the European Masters, but he does look to be in decent touch. 

As mentioned in my tournament preview blog, Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter have set up their third meeting at this stage of the International Championship in the last three years. On the two previous occasions they have met in Daqing Carter has been the winner and their overall head-to-head favours Carter to the tune of 8-3 (if you exclude Championship League matches in which case it would have been 11-6). Both players showed form at the English Open before being shot down by eventual winner Stuart Bingham. Carter losing at the quarter-final stages, while Maguire went a round further. This week Carter has started out with a very impressive whitewash of Kurt Maflin while Maguire was a comfortable 6-1 winner against Michael Georgiou. On paper, there is very little between the two players but based on the record in this event and the head-to-head, Carter may have the slight edge. 

Finally, Akani Songsermsawad will be hoping to continue his good run and has plenty in common with his next opponent Zhou Yuelong. Akani overcame Mark Williams 6-3 in the last 64 after beating Kyren Wilson 4-3 in the English Open, while Zhou inflicted Williams' most recent exit prior to that, with a 4-3 win against the World Champion at the English Open. Akani is scoring excellently at the moment and made the last 16 of this tournament last year, so is looking to repeat that feat here by beating Zhou. The Chinese youngster meanwhile is showing bits of form, but will be disappointed that his win over Williams in Crawley was followed by a whitewash loss to Maguire and will need to up his scoring if Akani maintains the level he produced against Williams. 

All last 32 matches will be played on Tuesday, with the matches being played over the best-of-11 frames once more, with four of the 16 matches (Fu Vs Lisowski, Day Vs Yan, Ding Vs Zhao and Selby Vs Milkins) featuring in the live coverage provided by Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player.