UK Championships

Bai had done very well to make it past some tricksy opponents, but Lisowski always seemed too tall an order. Watch him get tonked in the next round, though.

Zhao Xintong's done it!! He's got into the top 32 of the UK Championship where he can try to regain it with coverage on the BBC. Walden started off like he meant business with with a 94 break, then took a 2-0 lead, but again, Zhao took the next 6 frames to win 6-2, including a break of 124. The last 2 frames were a bit scrappy, but Walden, with his lousy safety and lousy potting, made too many errors and Zhao was pouncing on them.

Gilbert comfortably through 6-1 against Leclercq, Matthew Selt not so comfortably through 6-3 against Zhou Yuelong. There was some kind of delay to the Lei Peifan/Ben Woollaston match. Peifan is currently leading 3-1.

Boooo to misery Maguire.
Sorry for Bai Yulu but she looks the potential real deal once she irons out her safety and tactical game.
I'm happy enough to see Barry Hawkins qualify as I appreciate his all round game but he has drawn Ronnie in round one so probably won't last long in all honesty.
Robertson v Trump in round one . Hopefully Kyren Wilson can hopefully give the misery a good trouncing.
Selby v Lisowski .

The First Round Draw:


Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) v Barry Hawkins
Xiao Guodong (16) v David Gilbert
Shaun Murphy (9) v Zhao Xintong
Ding Junhui (8) v Robert Milkins
Mark Selby (5) v Jack Lisowski
Ali Carter (12) v Ryan Day
Si Jiahui (13) v Wu Yize
Mark Allen (4) v Jackson Page
Judd Trump (3) v Neil Robertson
John Higgins (14) v He Guoqiang
Zhang Anda (11) v Lei Peifan
Mark Williams (6) v Stuart Bingham
Luca Brecel (7) v Jak Jones
Gary Wilson (10) v Michael Holt
Chris Wakelin (15) v Matthew Selt
Kyren Wilson (2) v Stephen Maguire

I'm sure Tubs will offer the hand of friendship to a forgiven sinner (actually I suspect the opposite). Selt did well because Zhou's been impressive at times too. Page deserves respect for reaching the last 32 as well, even if Allen might well splat him sideways.

83rd seed Lei Peifan got the upset over 46th seed Ben Woollaston, making 2 consecutive centuries from 3-2 up and adding the 8th frame as well to win 6-2. He's going to be no gimme for Zhang Anda.

Robert Milkins beating Xu Si 6-2 is a sort of upset as despite Milkins higher ranking, this is the first tournament this season he's been able to string 2 wins together, while Xu Si was a semi finalist recently in the International Championship.

He Guoqiang finally despatched Stan Moody after Moody forced a decider. Guoqiang made a decisive 57 break to win 6-5.

Michael Holt, the 95 seed, is the lowest ranked player still in the tournamnent. But in the big events he seems to be able to use his obsession to knock Ronnie out to up his game. Ronnie v Hawkins, Selby v Lisowski, Judd v Robertson; it's getting so top 16 players can't rely on getting a rookie or an under achiever in the last 32 anymore. There are so many strong players around that no last 32 tie is easy.

I would love to see Zhao knock Tubbs out! It's not the toughest match Zhao could have got, but Tubbs has had a strong start to the season so far unfortunately.

Glad for Milkins, after his purple patch the other year, he seemed to retreat back into his shell. But I don't fancy his luck with Ding.

Saturday:

1pm start
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) v Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy (9) v Zhao Xintong

7pm start
Ding Junhui (8) v Robert Milkins
Xiao Guodong (16) v David Gilbert

Barry breaks off.
Ronnie clears up with a 128. 1-0.
Snooker is a difficult game folks.

Promise .

The original Drag Racer theme music is back for the BBC coverage too.
Yay .

Despite making two centuries Ronnie O'Sullivan is out after a 6-4 defeat to Barry Hawkins. From 2-4 down The Hawk reeled off four frames in a row to send the reigning champion tumbling out at the first hurdle.

Meanwhile Shaun Murphy scrambled his way past Zhou Xintong in a deciding frame. The Magician surged into a 3-0 lead before being pegged back to 3-3.
From then on it was nip and tuck as the two kept trading frames to 5-5 before Murphy got over the line.

Well, that's 2 bad results for me,

Milkins managed to make 2-2 at the interval. With Tubs awaiting, is it even worth it?