Ronnie O'Sullivan slams English Open venue despite victory

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has described the K2 in Crawley as a "Hellhole" despite winning his first round match at the venue in the English Open 4-1 against Kurt Maflin. O'Sullivan's post-match comments appear to be fuelled by the general surroundings, including being interviewed near a toilet where he could smell urine and an odd anecdote involving Peter Ebdon and a man who was playing bowls on site. 

None of that stopped O'Sullivan though, despite him losing the opening frame to the Norweigian and he looked fairly sharp considering this is only his second tournament since the World Championships, which started nearly 6 months ago. 

The only big name casualty in fact over the first round action on Monday and Tuesday was that of Paul Hunter Classic champion Kyren Wilson who lost out 4-3 to Akani Songsermsawad. Despite an early century for the Thai, it looked like being a simple enough outing for Wilson when he led 3-1 but Akani had other ideas, fighting back strongly to win the last three frames of the tie. 

There was no such trouble for World Champion Mark Williams who made two centuries on the way to a 4-1 victory over Dominic Dale, while the number one ranked player Mark Selby cruised to a whitewash win over Sanderson Lam. 

Judd Trump looked far from his best in a 4-1 opening round win over Finland's Robin Hull. Hull had taken the opening frame and will be left to rue a cluster of chances that came and went later on in the match, as he failed to capitalise on Trump's short comings. Shaun Murphy meanwhile did not suffer another first round exit. The 2005 World Champion has already lost in the last 128 round of four events this season, and lost in the first round of the last three Home Nations events last season, but on this occasion he took down Mike Dunn 4-1. 

John Higgins was also a 4-1 winner in his opening round match against Li Yuan, but fans of the Scotsman will have been concerned by post-match comments he made to Eurosport. He described his run to the China Championship final as "one of the worst weeks of snooker I've played" and talked about his lack of motivation to put the practice in, sighting his back-to-back World Championship final losses as the reason his enthusiasm is not as strong at the moment. The alarming thing of the interview was how tired and sad Higgins looked and I have to sympathise with him because he is showing the signs that there is a deeper problem than just being a bit fed up with the game. 

Somebody at the other end of that spectrum is Jimmy Robertson. The recent European Masters champion will be on cloud nine and continued his excellent recent form with a 4-1 defeat of Michael Holt in round one in Crawley. Liang Wenbo looked to be in much better form as he whitewashed Gary Wilson and Barry Hawkins got off to a good start with his whitewash of Peter Lines. 

Mark Allen came through a tough opening round tie against recent European Masters semi-finalist Anthony Hamilton 4-2 to book his last 64 spot, while Neil Robertson was a 4-2 winner against Ross Muir despite seemingly forgetting to pack most of his clothes, ending up borrowing a waistcoat from Adam Duffy. 

The other big headline from round came from the cue of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. His 4-1 win against Soheil Vahedi itself may not seem like huge news and it would not have been, apart from the fact that he compiled his second career 147 break in the opening frame of the match. If the feat is not repeated by another player in Crawley this week. Un-Nooh will take home an extra £17,000. 

Last 128 results: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Kurt Maflin
Allan Taylor 4-3 Scott Donaldson
Jimmy White 4-2 Lu Haotian
Matthew Stevens 4-1 Chen Zifan
Liang Wenbo 4-0 Gary Wilson
Eden Sharav 4-3 Michael Georgiou
Craig Steadman 4-1 Joe Swail
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Ken Doherty
David Lilley 4-2 Tom Ford
Alan McManus 4-0 Fan Zhengyi
Oliver Lines 4-3 Joe O'Connor
Neil Robertson 4-2 Ross Muir
Stuart Carrington 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
Luo Honghao 4-3 Adam Duffy
Anthony McGill 4-0 Simon Lichtenberg
Akani Songsermsawad 4-3 Kyren Wilson
Judd Trump 4-1 Robin Hull
Zhao Xintong 4-3 Michael Judge
Ian Burns 4-0 Li Hang
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Fergal O'Brien
Ryan Day 4-0 Ashley Hugill
Zhang Yong 4-3 Chen Feilong
Mark King 4-3 Ashley Carty
Peter Ebdon 4-0 Alfie Burden
Mark Davis 4-1 Robbie Williams
Adam Stefanow 4-1 Jamie Clarke
Mei Xiwen 4-3 James Wattana
Marco Fu 4-1 Mark Joyce
Zhang Jiankang 4-0 Luke Simmonds
Martin Gould 4-2 Billy Castle
Nigel Bond 4-3 Tian Pengfei
John Higgins 4-1 Li Yuan

Mark Selby 4-0 Sanderson Lam
Ben Woollaston 4-2 Graeme Dott
Lukas Kleckers 4-1 John Astley
Ricky Walden 4-2 Hammad Miah
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Duane Jones
Hossein Vafei 4-3 Michael White
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-1 Soheil Vahedi
Thor Chuan Leong 4-1 Hamza Akbar
Matthew Selt 4-3 Zhang Anda
Sam Baird 4-2 Liam Highfield
Ali Carter 4-2 Rory McLeod
Luca Brecel 4-0 Niu Zhuang
Lee Walker 4-3 Jak Jones
Daniel Wells 4-2 Joe Perry
Sam Craigie 4-0 Rod Lawler
Barry Hawkins 4-0 Peter Lines
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Mike Dunn
David Gilbert 4-3 Gerard Greene
Robert Milkins 4-2 Lu Ning
Elliott Slessor 4-2 Sean O'Sullivan
Mark Allen 4-2 Anthony Hamilton
Yuan Sijun 4-1 Farakh Ajaib
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Harvey Chandler
Steven Hallworth 4-2 Xiao Guodong
Jordan Brown 4-2 Andrew Higginson
Jimmy Robertson 4-1 Michael Holt
Yan Bingtao 4-2 Andy Lee
Stephen Maguire 4-3 James Cahill
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Paul Davison
Xu Si 4-2 Chris Totten
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-1 Kishan Hirani
Mark Williams 4-1 Dominic Dale

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Allan Taylor
Matthew Stevens Vs Jimmy White
Liang Wenbo Vs Eden Sharav
Chris Wakelin Vs Craig Steadman
Alan McManus Vs David Lilley
Neil Robertson Vs Oliver Lines
Stuart Carrington Vs Luo Honghao
Anthony McGill Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Judd Trump Vs Zhao Xintong
Jack Lisowski Vs Ian Burns
Ryan Day Vs Zhang Yong
Mark King Vs Peter Ebdon
Mark Davis Vs Adam Stefanow
Marco Fu Vs Mei Xiwen
Martin Gould Vs Zhang Jiankang
John Higgins Vs Nigel Bond

Mark Selby Vs Ben Woollaston
Ricky Walden Vs Lukas Kleckers
Stuart Bingham Vs Hossein Vafei
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Matthew Selt Vs Sam Baird
Luca Brecel Vs Ali Carter
Daniel Wells Vs Lee Walker
Barry Hawkins Vs Sam Craigie
Shaun Murphy Vs David Gilbert
Robert Milkins Vs Elliott Slessor
Mark Allen Vs Yuan Sijun
Noppon Saengkham Vs Steven Hallworth
Jimmy Robertson Vs Jordan Brown
Stephen Maguire Vs Yan Bingtao
Zhou Yuelong Vs Xu Si
Mark Williams Vs Alexander Ursenbacher

There are a lot of stand-out ties in the last 64 in Crawley and still a host of top players in the running for the English Open title. Ronnie O'Sullivan takes on Allan Taylor and Mark Williams faces Alexander Ursenbacher in two games where it is difficult to see either of the top two seeds being too heavily troubled. 

World number one Mark Selby may have a few more problems against fellow Leicester cueist Ben Woollaston, who defeated Graeme Dott 4-2, but Selby has a good record against Woollaston and impressed enough in round one against Lam to make him difficult to back against. 

Jimmy White is still going strong into his 50's and after an International Championship qualifying win against Fergal O'Brien, victory over Lu Haotian in the last 128 backs up that he still has plenty of results in his locker and he will certainly have a good chance against Matthew Stevens in the last 64.

Judd Trump will need to improve on his first round showing against Robin Hull as he takes on the in-form Chinese youngster Zhao Xintong. Trump was nowhere near his best in round one, while Zhao held on for a 4-3 win against Michael Judge, who was a late replacement for the suspended Jamie Jones. Zhao has just been to the semi-finals of the China Championship with victories over the likes of Anthony McGill, Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins and with a good start here he is more than capable of taking Trump down. 

John Higgins of course will still be fancied strongly against Nigel Bond despite his comments about how he and his game stand at the moment, given Bond's ranking and Higgins 4-1 win in round one. Bond though has a habit of continuing to pop up with the odd great result every now and again. In round one this week he defeated Tian Pengfei 4-3 which may not seem impressive on paper, but for the fact that Tian made three century breaks in the match. 

Ricky Walden faces young German Lukas Kleckers who is almost in uncharted territory in many ways. Kleckers overcame John Astley 4-1 in round one for what was his first victory against a main tour pro, outside of his two runs in the Riga Masters both this year and last and will now look to kick on against Walden who saw off Hammad Miah in the opening round. 

Stuart Bingham and Hossein Vafei will meet again in what is a repeat of a match that must hold unhappy memories for Bingham. Not only did he lose the match against the Iranian in this tournament last year, as well as making some comments about his opponent later on social media, it would be his final match before being hit with his three-month suspension. Hossein went on to make the quarters that week and had a good result in round one here where he turned around a 2-0 deficit to beat Michael White 4-3. 

Luca Brecel takes on Ali Carter in what is one of the ties of the round. Brecel stormed to a 4-0 victory on one of the outside tables against Niu Zhuang in round one, despite his continued poor form that saw him lose his International Championship qualifier last week. Carter meanwhile was made to work hard by Rory McLeod for a 4-2 win and will have been glad of the day off before facing up to Brecel. With both players having obvious quality but little form, it provides a good opportunity for the victor to kickstart his season and put a potentially good run together. 

Barry Hawkins will face a tough test in round two as he takes on Sam Craigie. Hawkins is in good form of late and was a 4-0 winner in round one against Peter Lines, but he will still need to be on it from ball one against the impressive young Craigie. Craigie came away with his own 4-0 round one win against Rod Lawler that featured a high break of 129. 

Shaun Murphy will be hoping to get his season off and running this week, having beaten Mike Dunn 4-1 in round one. Murphy has had a horrible start to the season with four last 128 exits already and now faces a tough second round tie against World Open runner-up David Gilbert. Gilbert held on eventually against Gerard Greene, having led 3-0 with some good scoring early on in the match before coming through in a decider. He also needed a decider against Craigie in International qualifying, coming from 5-3 down that day and that could be a sign that another tight match is to be expected here. 

Mark Allen faces another tough ask in round two as he takes on Yuan Sijun. Allen had to see of recent European Masters semi-finalist Anthony Hamilton in round one and now takes on the China Championship quarter-finalist, at a time when he has admitted on Twitter that he is still not quite at his best. That may make him vulnerable to the young stars high scoring that took down Ding Junhui in his recent Guangzhou run. 

Allen's fellow Northern Irishman Jordan Brown is the next challenger hoping to stop Jimmy Robertson's winning run. Brown backed up an International qualifying win over Luca Brecel by defeating Andrew Higginson 4-2 in the first round here, while European Masters champion Robertson was a comfortable winner against Michael Holt and will be a big favourite to keep his run going. 

Finally, there is a mouth-watering tie between Stephen Maguire and Yan Bingtao. Maguire came from 3-2 down to overcome James Cahill in the first round in a match where both players played quite impressively and Cahill just happened to be the unfortunate player that had to lose on the day. Yan meanwhile was a 4-2 winner against Andy Lee but will need to up his game from that showing if he is to come out on top against the Scotsman, who has also won both of his previous meetings against the Chinese teenager. 

All of the last 64 matches will take place on Wednesday over the best-of-7 frames with a feast of snooker to look forward to on both Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player, as 15 of the top 16 seeds in the tournament have made it into the second round.