Day two of the International Championship today saw wins for both Neil Robertson and Mark Selby, but notable early exits for Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire and defending champion Judd Trump, the latter losing out to a strong performance from Alan McManus.
Click below for a round-up of the action today…
- Click here to view the results from Chengdu (snookerorg)
- Click here to view the latest projected seedings
Judd Trump might have tweeted last week that he was going to successfully defend his title and make a 147 on the way, but Alan McManus had other ideas today, as he continued his impressive form of late with a 6-5 win against the former world number one.
A tight match in which the two were never separated by more than a single frame, it was Judd who often looked to have the upper hand with top breaks of 110 and 102, but McManus played well to stay close and ultimately take the decider in two scoring visits.
Having found himself ranked on the fringes of the top 48 for a few seasons now, Alan has shown impressive form over the past few months, notably reaching the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open earlier this year, as well as qualifying for the Crucible for the first time since his fall from the top 16 back in 2006. Next up for the Scot will be a clash with Welshman Ryan Day, who saw off Mike Dunn to reach the last 32.
As for Judd, following a difficult start to the season for the man who last year won the event to climb to the summit of the world rankings for the first time, no doubt further questions will be asked as he looks to rediscover that form. Of course he has not become a bad player overnight and will no doubt return to winning ways sooner or later, but this is not an isolated bad result and increases the pressure upon him further ahead of next month’s UK Championship.
Judd’s defeat has also opened the door for Ding Junhui to move up to what would be a career high ranking of number three in the world and he made a winning start today against countryman Cao Yupeng, hitting six breaks of 50+ on his way to a narrow 6-5 victory. To overtake Trump in the rankings, Ding needs to reach the quarter-finals this week in Chengdu, while a run to the title would make him the first to win three consecutive ranking event titles since Stephen Hendry’s five in a row back in 1990.
Another early exit was to be had for Shaun Murphy, though having made breaks of 125, 90, 83 and 74, he can be forgiven for feeling unlucky to be flying home so soon. Opponent David Gilbert though played even better, with six runs of 50+, including breaks of 71 and 62 helping him into the last 32.
Stephen Maguire was to join Murphy in losing out to a man in form also as Kyren Wilson finished with breaks of 72 and 93 to take yet another big scalp this season and book a clash with another Scot in the form of Graeme Dott in the next round.
Still, it was not all bad news for the top seeds today, as top ranked Neil Robertson and Mark Selby both progressed, with wins against Alex Davies and Jamie Burnett respectively. As ever, Robertson was in fine scoring form, another two centuries helping him into the next round, but credit to opponent Davies, who fought back from 5-0 down to close to 5-4 at one stage, before Robertson was able to get over the line.
Elsewhere, there was a good win for Thailand’s James Wattana, who overcame the in-form Gary Wilson as he looks to inject new life into his hopes of staying on tour for next season, while there were also good wins for Peter Ebdon and Rod Lawler, against Jack Lisowski and Indian Open finalist Aditya Mehta.
Next up tomorrow, the last 32 from Chengdu…