APTC1 - Days 1 & 2

Stephen Maguire crashed out of the tournament, being defeated
4-0 by Cao Kaisheng

The first of three Asian PTC events got underway in Zhangjiagang, China, on Monday with many of the local non-tour players taking part in the wildcard round. The series, designed to increase amateur participation in China, has had mixed opinions upon snooker enthusiasts with some feeling that the need for such tournaments is unnecessary considering the five ranking events scheduled for China this year, and the expense for lower-ranked British-based players to make the trip over, especially if they are not competing in next week’s Wuxi Classic. In fact, just over 20 tour players have entered the event and a relatively low field of entry for Chinese amateurs has meant that the first round contains only 64 players, rather than the usual 128 at PTC events.

Local icon Ding Junhui got the first round matches underway on Monday evening with a 4-2 victory over Zhang Dongtao. The majority of other first round games have taken place on Tuesday, with a number of upsets occurring. The most prominent of these was world number 4 Stephen Maguire on the end of a 4-0 whitewashing of Cao Kaisheng. Other surprise results have seen Peter Ebdon defeated 4-3 by Xu Xinjian, Lin Shuai beating Mark King, by the same scoreline and Marcus Campbell lose out 4-2 against Zhang Yang. Teenager Lu Ning, who defeated Shaun Murphy at the China Open in March, also saw off another tour player, Matt Selt, 4-2 this afternoon whilst Ben Judge lost 4-1 to Li Yuan and Liu Chuang losing 4-3 against Pan Weixing. Meanwhile, world number 41 Xiao Guodong was hammered 4-0 against Zhao Xingtong.

Other famous names were more successful in the first round with Mark Williams defeating Zhou Yuelong 4-1 and last season’s Australian Goldfield Open winner Stuart Bingham scrape past Yang Quintian, 4-3. Tom Ford also pinched a closely fought tie with 15-year-old Lu Haotian whilst Yu Delu beat Pa Ruke 4-2. There were also wins for familiar wildcard entries to Chinese ranking events such as Ruzi Maimaiti and Jin Long who progress to the second round.

The first round concludes tomorrow afternoon with players Dominic Dale, Robert Milkins, Stephen Lee and Marco Fu aiming to avoid a banana skin and slipping out in the first round.

The full list of results can be seen at the World Snooker website: http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~2204254,00.html