China Open - Day 3

18-year-old Lu Ning continues to impress as he defeated world
number 6, Shaun Murphy

John Higgins booked his place in the second round of the China Open with a 5-1 win over Rory McLeod. The Scot was clearly not at his best but his B game was still good enough to see off the man from Wellingborough. Mark Williams also progressed after beating Jin Long, who had a good result over Fergal O’Brien in the wildcard round yesterday, by the same scoreline.

There was an excellent result for the latest addition to the top 16 as Ricky Walden recorded a surprise 5-2 victory over the recent World Open champion, Mark Allen. Meanwhile, the man who had recently fallen out of the top 16, Stuart Bingham, produced an impressive fight back to beat Joe Perry 5-4. Perry was 4-2 up at one stage but Bingham fought on to secure a spot in the second round.

The evening saw another good comeback, this time from Ronnie O’Sullivan who beat Marcus Campbell. O’Sullivan made a poor start to the match and would have been relived to secure the fourth frame to go in 3-1 down at the interval. The Rocket won the next three frames but Campbell took the eight to force a decider. The Scot had a chance early on in the ninth but was only able to make 41 and O’Sullivan mad his opportunity count by knocking in a break of 77.

There was a surprise on table 2 as the wildcard entry Lu Ning added Shaun Murphy to his growing list of upsets as he knocked in a 5-2 victory. The 18-year-old had already beaten Nigel Bond and gave Mark Selby a run for his money at the recent World Open, and after beating Jamie Jones in the wildcard round, produced another excellent performance to knock out Murphy.

Ali Carter made his first appearance since the Welsh Open after missing the China Open due to an inflammation of his chron’s disease. He faced Dominic Dale and after trailing early on, cut back his arrears and the match was taken to a decider, which the Essex man won. The final match of the evening session saw Peter Ebdon defeat Matthew Stevens by five frames to three.