Ricky Walden rolled back the years with an excellent break building performance to down the recent masters champion Neil Robertson. From 3-2 down Walden stroked in breaks of 71,79 and 124 to wrap up a stunning victory and stay in the hunt for a place in the players championship.
Former masters champion Yan Bingtao cane through a tough last 32 clash with the classy David Gilbert. Bingtao badly needed this victory as he like several others are battling for a place in the players championship.
World champion Mark Selby cruised to a 5-0 victory over Barry Pinches. Selby made breaks of 50,61,75 and 77 on route to victory and will now face Yan Bingtao for a place in the quarter finals.
Here’s a review of the first round results in full below.
Judd Trump | w/o | Gao Yang | ,,, |
Anthony McGill | 2 | Zhou Yuelong | 5 |
Tom Ford | 5 | Stephen Maguire | 2 |
Zhao Xintong | 5 | Mark Williams | 3 |
Kyren Wilson | 5 | Jimmy Robertson | 1 |
Michael Georgiou | 2 | Craig Steadman | 5 |
Zhang Anda | 3 | Luca Brecel | 5 |
Ricky Walden | 5 | Neil Robertson | 3 |
Andrew Higginson | w/o | Liang Wenbo | ,,, |
Liam Highfield | 2 | Fan Zhengyi | 5 |
Lyu Haotian | 1 | Mark Allen | 5 |
Kurt Maflin | 4 | Shaun Murphy | 5 |
Noppon Saengkham | 2 | Ryan Day | 5 |
Sam Craigie | 5 | Ken Doherty | 3 |
David Gilbert | 3 | Yan Bingtao | 5 |
Barry Pinches | 0 | Mark Selby | 5 |