Two days down in Chengdu and the tournament is down to the last 32 stage, with eight of the world’s top ten players amongst the winners.
Click below for a round up of some of the most eye-catching results from the second round stage…
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A runner-up at the inaugural edition of this tournament in 2012, Neil Robertson made it through to the last 32 stage in 2014 with a 6-3 victory over friend Matt Selt today.
It was a high-quality match which the players share ten breaks over 50 and at 3-3, looked like it might still go either way. The world number two would show his class however and finished the match with breaks of 70, 70 and 75 to seal his place in the third round and keep his hopes of returning to the world’s top ranking alive this week, with nothing short of a title run enough.
Next up for Neil will be a clash with Northern Ireland’s Joe Swail, who gave his hopes of remaining on tour at the end of this season a boost with a 6-2 victory against Andrew Higginson today. Joe started the match well with breaks of 60 and 63 to lead 2-0 and was never headed, as he won his first match at a venue (not including PTC Finals anyway) since the 2011 German Masters.
Over on the opposite half of the bottom draw was seeded to be Mark Selby, but instead could be found a match been Rod Lawler and Selby’s conqueror and recent AT2 finalist Oliver Lines. Perhaps inspired by his run in Haining last week, it was Lines who got off to the stronger start to lead 2-1 and 3-2, but Lawler was to bounce back and win the last four frames with top runs of 82 and 79.
Next up for Rod will be a clash with fellow veteran Fergal O’Brien, who finished strongly with breaks of 126 and 81 from 5-4 down to edge out Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
Elsewhere in the bottom half, Judd Trump won a topsy turvy match 6-5 against Jimmy Robertson, another man who did well at AT2 last week. Awaiting Judd next will be Scotland’s Jamie Burnett, who thrashed higher-ranked Matthew Stevens with a top break of 80 to progress.
There was also a win for one of China’s most impressive young players Zhou Yuelong, who produced a fine display to see off Chris Melling with breaks of 85, 67, 62, 53 and 50, setting up a last 32 clash with Ricky Walden.
Joe Perry came back from 3-0 down to prevail against Mike Dunn and will now face Peter Ebdon, who in recent weeks has done an impressive job of defending the prize money earned two years ago here in Chengdu when he made it to the last four.
Perhaps the biggest two names to exit so far this week have been Scots Stephen Maguire and John Higgins, Stephen losing out to the ever-improving Noppon Saengkham in a decider today, while Higgins looked a shadow of his former self in losing 6-1 to China’s Li Hang yesterday.
For a while, Ronnie O’Sullivan looked like he might too be on the wrong end of an upset against Leicester’s Ben Woollaston, but from 3-1 down he was able to win a couple of scrappy frames to draw level, the sixth on a re-spot, before raising his game and running out a 6-4 winner.
Next up for the five times world champion will be Anthony McGill, who edged out friend and mentor Alan McManus to move into the last 32. There was also a good win for rookie pro Mitchell Mann, who hit a top break of 142 on his way to victory against conqueror of Ding Junhui, amateur Wang Zepeng.
One amateur who would fare better however was the ever-reliable wildcard Zhao Xintong, wins against Jamie Jones and today Kurt Maflin setting up an all-Chinese contest with Li Hang.
The action continues…