The world champion was far from his best as he fell over the line 4-3 against Mark Joyce in his held over last 128 fixture on Monday, but that all changed as he took on the talented Chinese Zhao. Breaks of 116, 120, 127 and a closing 131 saw him win in some style and confirm that he is certainly the man to beat this week.
There were also multiple centuries for the third seed John Higgins in a 4-0 victory over Alexander Ursenbacher. The Swiss player also fell to a brutal Higgins display in the World Open and was to get no revenge here as the Scotsman opened up with runs of 131 and 109 and then added to that with a 54 in frame three and a 76 in the final frame to help him sprint to the finish.
Also on top form was the fifth seed Neil Robertson, who was a 4-0 winner over Fang Xiongman. The Australian also had multiple centuries with a 134 in the second frame and 100 in the final frame which were added to by runs of 76 in the opener and an 80 in frame three.
There were also a couple of slight upsets though in the last 64 in Lommel and one of those saw the World Open runner-up Kyren Wilson sent packing by Gerard Greene. The Northern Irishman managed to win two close frames and come from 3-2 adrift to score a 4-3 win. Meanwhile, Martin Gould also lost out in a deciding frame despite a break of 143 against Billy Castle. Castle's high break in the match of 69 came in the decisive frame, as he backed up his win over Jimmy White from the qualifying round in August.
Mark Allen was able to avoid a similar fate though as he came from 3-1 down to beat Hossein Vafei 4-3. Allen opened up with a break of 83 but then lost three frames in succession and looked in real trouble. Frame five delivered a big spark though as he manufactured the high break of the tournament so far, with a rapid 145 keeping him in the match. A 69 in the sixth quickly followed, prior to an 84 clearance in the decider saw him come from 40 points adrift to book his place in the last 32.
Home favourite Luca Brecel is quickly becoming the king of deciders after another two final frame wins to put him in round three. His heldover match against Sam Craigie saw the Belgian pegged back from 3-1 in front to 3-3 before he came through, while the last 64 saw him scramble from 3-2 behind to edge out Thor Chuan Leong.
There were also last 64 successes for the likes of Mark Williams, Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty, Anthony McGill, Stuart Bingham and Graeme Dott, while Joe Perry is yet to play this week after Soheil Vahedi was a no show for their match on Monday afternoon.
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Judd Trump Vs Martin O'Donnell
David Gilbert Vs Chen Zifan
Ben Woollaston Vs Gerard Greene
Mark Allen Vs Alan McManus
Neil Robertson Vs Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams Vs Ross Muir
Aditya Mehta Vs Billy Castle
Cao Yupeng Vs Ken Doherty
John Higgins Vs Mark Davis
Anthony McGill Vs Alfie Burden
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Peter Lines
Zhou Yuelong Vs Michael Georgiou
Stuart Bingham Vs Graeme Dott
Luca Brecel Vs Chris Wakelin
Joe Perry Vs Jack Lisowski
Mark Selby Vs Lu Haotian
The way that the likes of Selby, Higgins, Robertson, Trump and Allen have opened up this week shows that they will be very tough to beat this week and they may all end up in the latter stages attempting to beat each other to the title. I would also expect Mark Williams to make his way into the last 16 once again this week, while another in-form man in David Gilbert should be able to do likewise, though victory against Chen Zifan should not be taken for granted.
Zhou Yuelong and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh both opened up with good scoring performances in the last 64 and now play lower ranked opposition again in the last 32. Un-Nooh's opponent Peter Lines will be confident after a nice victory against Ryan Day which should make that an interesting game.
Alfie Burden looked in good touch based on the scores from his last 64 win over Eden Sharav, while his opponent McGill was taken all the way by Joe Swail in his opening match and failed to register a break of above 50 in the match.
Luca Brecel has had to grind his way through his first two matches this week, which may be due to some of the pressure of being the man on home turf carrying all of the expectations. His next opponent Chris Wakelin is certainly no easy task either with Wakelin recently scoring a good win at the World Open against Barry Hawkins which will give him confidence coming into this one.
Cao Yupeng and Ken Doherty have both continued fine starts to the season here in Belgium. Cao in particular had to play well in the last 64 to come back and beat Noppon Saengkham 4-3 in a heavy scoring clash, and he comes into this fresh from a run to the last 16 of the World Open and 6-2 victory in International Championship qualifying that keeps up his 100% record in qualifying matches this season.
Finally, I think Jack Lisowski has a good chance against Joe Perry. Perry's form has been hit and miss over the last few months and we don't have any markers to go on this week as he received a walkover into the last 32. Lisowski though has won his last two games against Perry, most recently at the 2016 Northern Irish open, and he has started the season reasonably well without kicking on yet. As always his scoring has been good and he has performed well in the early season qualifiers, but has failed to kick on in any event besides the Riga Masters where he was able to make the last 16. The best-of-7 frame matches seem to suit Lisowski better also which is another reason I think he could do some damage here.
All last 32 matches feature in Wednesday's play with matches taking place across four tables and the best-of-7 frames format. With the amount of top players still in the event and starting the week well the remainder of this tournament promises to be a highly entertaining one.
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