Last 64 Preview from Cardiff

At the time that I start writing this it is 1am after a very long first day of the Welsh Open here in Cardiff. It's been a good one with plenty of snooker viewed and plenty of players that impressed.

If you want the rough idea of what I saw the link to my live blog of day one is here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/welsh-open-day-1-live-blog.html

The main story is the exit of the world champion to Anthony Hamilton, but if you read my preview you, like myself, will not be too surprised by that one. Stephen Maguire (my tournament tip) lost out too to Martin O'Donnell 4-3, very disappointed with that one.

There was also a huge comeback from Kurt Maflin to beat Hammad Miah from 3-0 down and an equally big one from Leo Fernandez to do the same to Kyren Wilson damaging his Crucible hopes, but not as much as Maguire's have been damaged.

Ronnie O'Sullivan turned down a 147 chance to make a 146 instead, I did not see this live as I was watching the back 7 tables but quickly gathered what had happened and have since watched it back. The thing I find ironic about this is that over the last few days on Twitter Ronnie has been going on and on about a con man that supposedly did him out of £125,000. Well I bet a few people in Cardiff feel like they've been conned after that.

Here is a full round-up of today's results:

John Higgins 4-0 Andy Hicks
Sam Baird 4-2 Thor Chuan Leong
Peter Ebdon 4-0 Zhang Anda
Michael Georgiou 4-0 Jamie Jones
Liang Wenbo 4-0 Hatem Yassen
Gary Wilson 4-1 Jimmy White
Michael White 4-2 Joe O'Connor
Tom Ford 4-1 Jason Weston
Mike Dunn 4-3 Chris Wakelin
Ryan Day 4-0 Vinnie Calabrese
Robin Hull 4-2 Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Mark Allen 4-0 Sam Craigie
James Cahill 4-1 Xiao Guodong
Mark Davis 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Robbie Williams 4-3 Luke Simmonds
Barry Hawkins 4-2 Lee Walker
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Itaro Santos
Mitchell Mann 4-2 Zhou Yuelong
Mark King 4-0 Scott Donaldson
Ding Junhui 4-1 Steven Hallworth
Joe Swail 4-1 Zak Surety
Matt Selt 4-0 Nigel Bond
Sydney Wilson 4-3 Gerard Greene
Ross Muir W/O Jamie Burnett (Burnett was a no show)
Graeme Dott 4-1 Darryl Hill
Daniel Wells 4-2 Andrew Higginson
Marco Fu 4-0 Joel Walker
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Paul Davison
Anthony McGill 4-3 Liam Highfield
Stuart Carrington 4-0 Jordan Brown
Neil Robertson 4-3 Fraser Patrick
Mark Selby 4-0 Duane Jones
Peter Lines 4-2 David Grace
Fergal O'Brien 4-3 Noppon Saengkham
Ali Carter 4-1 Cao Yupeng
Leo Fernandez 4-3 Kyren Wilson
Kurt Maflin 4-3 Hammad Miah
Rod Lawler 4-3 Sanderson Lam
Mark Williams 4-3 Lu Chenwei
Dechawat Poomjaeng 4-1 Craig Steadman
Robert Milkins 4-3 Sean O'Sullivan
Yu De Lu 4-3 Ian Glover
Ricky Walden 4-3 James Wattana
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Michael Wild
Michael Holt 4-3 Hamza Akbar
Tian Pengfei 4-2 Ashley Hugill
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Barry Pinches
Judd Trump 4-0 Michael Leslie
Rory McLeod 4-3 Michael Wasley
Mark Joyce 4-0 Gareth Allen
Alan McManus 4-3 Rhys Clark
Joe Perry 4-0 Tony Drago
Li Hang 4-0 Chris Melling
David Gilbert 4-0 Zhang Yong
Ken Doherty 4-0 Lu Ning
Matthew Stevens 4-2 David Morris
Martin O'Donnell 4-3 Stephen Maguire
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Eden Sharav
Martin Gould 4-1 Adam Duffy
Alfie Burden 4-3 Dominic Dale
Ben Woollaston 4-0 Jamie Cope
Allan Taylor 4-1 Oliver Lines
Anthony Hamilton 4-1 Stuart Bingham

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

John Higgins Vs Sam Baird
Peter Ebdon Vs Michael Georgiou
Liang Wenbo Vs Gary Wilson
Michael White Vs Tom Ford
Ryan Day Vs Mike Dunn
Mark Allen Vs Robin Hull
Mark Davis Vs James Cahill
Barry Hawkins Vs Robbie Williams
Shaun Murphy Vs Mitchell Mann
Luca Brecel Vs Mark King
Ding Junhui Vs Joe Swail
Matt Selt Vs Sydney Wilson
Graeme Dott Vs Ross Muir
Marco Fu Vs Daniel Wells
Anthony McGill Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Neil Robertson Vs Stuart Carrington
Mark Selby Vs Peter Lines
Ali Carter Vs Fergal O'Brien
Mark Williams Vs Rod Lawler
Kurt Maflin Vs Leo Fernandez
Robert Milkins Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Ricky Walden Vs Yu De Lu
Michael Holt Vs Jimmy Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Tian Pengfei
Judd Trump Vs Rory McLeod
Alan McManus Vs Mark Joyce
Joe Perry Vs Li Hang
David Gilbert Vs Ken Doherty
Matthew Stevens Vs Martin O'Donnell
Martin Gould Vs Jack Lisowski
Ben Woollaston Vs Alfie Burden
Anthony Hamilton Vs Allan Taylor


That's all from me on what has been an extremely long day. Back tomorrow with the first session at 10.30am for some more.