UK Championships

David Gilbert stayed strong to hold off the in form Xiao Guodong to make round two. The Angry Farmer made six 50+ breaks overall and was solid when he most needed to be in a highly creditable 6-4 victory.

Poor old Robert Milkins had chances against three time champion Ding Junhui and led 5-3 but Ding roared back to win 6-5.

Poor Xiao, his big week didn't last long.

Pleased for Big Bob, but he's his own worst enemy, and he knows it.

Couple of 6-4 wins this afternoon for Mark Allen over Jackson Page and for Ali Carter over Ryan Day. Standard nothing to write home about.
Both will need to improve to progress much further.

Hwwkins, Murphy, Carter... not going well...

Jack Lisowski produced a stirring fightback from 0-3 down to beat Mark Selby 6-4 in fine style. Competed in all facets of the game and got his just rewards. Superb performance.

Wu Yize eventually struggled past Si Jiahui in an error strewn encounter to prevail 6-4. Si fought admirably hard from 0-3 down but ultimately the mountain to climb proved too steep.

The UK Championship is the cutoff for the Masters. Players like O'Sullivan and Selby are guaranteed to be in the Masters. Players like Hawkins, Lisowski, Gilbert and Jak Jones are just bubbling under the top 16 and are highly incentivised to get into that top 16 to get a place in the Masters. Even players like Bingham, Wu Yize and Maguire can still make the Masters if they become this year's champion. For Maguire it's the 20th anniversary of his first UK Championship title in 2004.

Top 16 players who lose their first match don't get any ranking points. That means Xiao Guodong, having fallen to 18th, won't be playing in the Masters. Robertson, who's guaranteed at least 10,000 ranking points, is now in the top 16 but he'll want to protect his place from the other players vying to get into the Masters. If results go as they have been, Robertson will beat Judd, who is guaranteed to be in the Masters and is way ahead of everyone else at the top of the rankings. Although I'm still supporting Judd so we'll have to see how it goes.

It's a shame that Zhao Xintong has gone out so soon, and in such a tight match that could have gone either way. I hope he can top the Q Tour and get back onto the WST Tour soon without having to go play in those horrible Q Tour playoffs. Hopefully he'll get an invitation for the World Championship as well.

It must be strange listening to commentary and not hearing Clive Everton

I suspect Zhao will build on this success in coming months and might well qualify for and then win a tournament before the World Championship. Tubs in fact gave him a thumbs up afterwards, although probably winning their match would have helped that.

Kyren Wilson has done his duty like the champion he is. A 6-0 drubbing of Misery Maguire is absolutely the correct result. Done with a migraine too. Extra brownie points for that.

On the other table Chris Wakelin continues his strong season.
He eventually overhauled Matthew Selt in recovering from an early deficit in the match to prevail 6-4.

I bet Maguire went into a decline as soon as he knew he'd got a tough draw.