After Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy both crashed out at the qualifying stages of the 2013 Wuxi Classic last month, today saw another shock as the ever-popular Jimmy White defeated defending champion Ricky Walden 5-2 to move into the last 32.
Click below for a round-up of a busy opening day in Wuxi…
On balance, the 2012/13 season was one to forget for former UK and Masters champion Jimmy White, but he ended it with an encouraging run to the final round of the World Championship qualifiers, before losing out to the in-form Robert Milkins in Sheffield.
Just a couple of months on from that run however, Jimmy showed today that his game is continuing to improve at present, by defeating defending champion and recent Crucible semi-finalist Ricky Walden to reach the last 32 in Wuxi.
Having taken the opening frame with a break of 60, the Whirlwind then survived the loss of a close second on the colours, to add four of the next five frames and secure one of his best victories in recent years, particularly at the venue stage of an event.
In fact, to put the result into context, I make this Jimmy’s first victory against a top 16 player at a ranking event since he won the 2004 Players Championship nine years ago, while he later defeated two-time world champion Mark Williams at the 2005 Masters.
Also, excluding wildcard rounds, I make this Jimmy’s first match win at the venue stages of a full ranking event since the 2005 Grand Prix, where strangely enough he defeated none other than Ricky Walden 5-2 at the last 32 stage.
While it was not to be a good day for the defending champion, last season’s runner-up Stuart Bingham was a winner today, while Alan McManus and Dechawat Poomjaeng were also among those through to the last 32, maintaining their recent strong form.
There were to be mixed fortunes for the main tour players in the wildcard round meanwhile, Jimmy Robertson and Vinnie Calabrese coming back from behind in their matches to progress, while Reanne Evans and Adam Duffy fell to Zhu Yinghui and Lu Ning respectively.
Another Chinese player to progress was 15-year-old prodigy Lu Haotian, who added another professional scalp in the form of Craig Steadman to his CV with another excellent win, while Cao Yupeng and most notably Ding Junhui were also able to join him in the last 32 with victories.
The highest break of the day came from Anthony Hamilton, who defeated Ryan Day with a top run of 127, while Joel Walker reached the last 32 of a full-ranking event for the first time with victory against Alex Davies.
The action continues tomorrow, with Judd Trump, John Higgins and Mark Williams among those selected for the televised tables…