World Championship Day 2

Cao Yupeng recorded one of the biggest upsets in Crucible
history after he defeated Mark Allen.

Cao Yupeng caused one of the biggest upsets ever witnessed at the crucible as he defeated this year’s World Open champion, Mark Allen by ten frames to six. Considering the Chinese player is ranked world number 81 and had to win four qualifying matches to reach the main draw, the result was all the more surprising. Cao led 5-4 after the first session and extended his advantage to 7-4 and continued to build an advantage of 9-6 before a horrendous in-off from Allen gifted the 21-year-old the win. Allen thought he’d made it 9-7 off the final black but the cue ball came off two cushions and entered the left baulk pocket to resign him to defeat. However after the match at the press conference, Allen accused his opponent of cheating after not admitting to a perceived push-shot that referee Paul Collier did not call. His inflammatory comments are being investigated by World Snooker.

Martin Gould was also on the wrong end of his lower-ranked opponent as he fell to defeat at the hands of David Gilbert. The world number 68 led 6-3 after the first session and managed to go 9-5 up and despite a fight back from Gould which saw him close to 9-8, Gilbert held on to record an unlikely victory.

Stephen Hendry eased through to the next round with an 8-4 victory over Stuart Bingham. Hendry was 8-1 up after yesterday’s session and was able to see off the Essex man for a comfortable victory. Neil Robertson also progressed with a 10-4 defeat of Ken Doherty. The Irishman trailed 7-2 after the first session and Robertson was able to secure the three frames he needed to reach the last 16 where he will face Gilbert.

The youngest player to play at the crucible, Luca Brecel, made his debut at a ranking event in the morning as he faced Stephen Maguire. It was not a great start for the 17 year-old Belgian after losing the first four frames but he won the last two frames of the session as well as one previous, including a break of 106, to leave himself 6-3 behind, with a slight chance of making up the deficit on Monday morning. Finally, Shaun Murphy finished the first session of his match against Jamie Jones 5-4 up with the pair finishing tomorrow afternoon.