UK Championship Day 1

Ryan Day recorded an impressive 6-4 victory over Ding Junhui
on the opening day of the UK Championship

World number 22 Ryan Day produced an excellent performance to upstage two-time UK Championship winner Ding Junhui on the first day of the tournament at the Barbican in York. It did not seem as though the Welshman would have a chance of winning the game at 3-0 behind and 50-0 behind in frame four but he dug deep and managed to secure the last frame before the interval and then won another two frames on the bounce to go 3-3. The next two frames were shared but Day, who has climbed back up towards the top 16 in recent months after a dip in form, secured frames nine and ten to knock Ding out.
The other match in the afternoon session saw Stephen Maguire record a comfortable 6-2 win over Fergal O’Brien. Although it was a convincing win in the end, the early stages had been far from that case with the players going into the interval at 2-2. However world number 7 Maguire showed his class to win four on the bounce to book a place in the last 16.

Earlier in the day, John Higgins made progress to the next round following a 6-3 win over Michael Holt. The Wizard of Wishaw had lead 3-1 at the interval but Holt won two in a row to level the scores at 3-3 but the Scot rolled off three next three frames to secure the win.

Barry Hawkins also went through after staving off a spirited comeback from Liang Wenbo to win 6-4. The Australian Goldfields open was 3-1 up at the interval but Wenbo won three of the next four frames to level the scores at 4-4. However The Hawk kept his composure and the pendulum swung back in his direction as he took frames nine and ten for the win.

Graeme Dott needed a final frame decider to rescue a win over Martin Gould in a fairly low-quality game of snooker. Gould led 5-4 at one stage but Dott battled back and won the decider after Gould missed a risky red. The other evening session match saw Mark Selby progress following a 6-3 win over 21-year-old Welshman Michael White.