World Open: Days 1 and 2

The World Open kicked-off in Haikou, China on Monday with the Wildcard round pitting the lower-ranked qualifiers with a number of Chinese and players from other Asia countries who are not on the main tour. There were a couple of upsets with Jin Long defeating Sam Baird whilst Liu Ning beat Nigel Bond in a decider. Robert Milkins, Mark King, Jimmy Roberston, Joe Perry all negotiated the wildcard round whilst Tom Ford and Michael Holt scraped through after deciding frame victories.

China's Jin Long (not my picture)

The first round began on Tuesday with Shaun Murphy v Ricky Walden the pick of the afternoon games. It was a tight match littered with errors from both players but Murphy remained determined and won 5-3. John Higgins faced Marco Fu who has struggled so far this season and despite a fight back from Fu after trailing 4-1, the Scot took a 5-3 win. The remaining afternoon match saw Graeme Dott beat an in-form Barry Hawkins by five frames to two.

The shock of the day though occurred in the evening session as local hero Ding Junhui was defeated by fellow compatriot and wildcard round qualifier Jin Long. Despite being one of the favourites to win the competition after triumphing in the Welsh Open last weekend, Ding made too many mistakes and was duly punished by Jin who won 5-0 and will play either Stephen Maguire or Robert Milkins in the last 16. The other three evening matches were even less competitive with all finishing 5-0. Judd Trump impressed again whitewashing Andrew Higginson in less than two hours whilst Welsh Open semi-finalist Stephen Lee beat Dominic Dale and Michael Holt knocked out Stuart Bingham.

The competition on Hainan Island continues tomorrow at 06:30GMT with Liu Ning looking to upset world number 1 Mark Selby the pick of the matches. Meanwhile in the evening session, which begins at 1130GMT, Neil Robertson will begin the defence of his 2010 World Open win with a game against Stephen Hendy.