Wuxi Classic Day 1

Jimmy White caused a big upset on the opening day of the
Wuxi classic after defeating defending champion Ricky
Walden (Image World Snooker)

The perennial Jimmy White dispatched the Wuxi Classic defending champion, Ricky Walden, on the opening day of the event. The 51-year-old looked sharp in the opening stages and won four of the first five frames thanks to breaks of 60, 59, 60 and 57. World Championship semi-finalist Walden won the next but White came from behind to seal an impressive win.

Elsewhere around the arena Stuart Bingham hit a top break of 105 to defeat Yu Delu 5-2 whilst an inform Alan McManus, who reached the quarter-finals of last week’s Yixing Open, beat Ken Doherty 5-3.

Andrew Pagett may have knocked out Mark Selby in the qualifying round, but his tournament was ended by Dave Gilbert, the Tamworth man marching through 5-2 winner. Teenager Lyu Haotian defeated Craig Stedman 5-3 whilst Anthony Hamilton defeated Ryan Day 5-2.

Reanne Evans became the first woman to qualify for the main stages of a major ranking event when she beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in qualifying back in May but she was forced to play a wildcard round match on Monday morning. Despite making the highest break of the match with a 79 in frame four, a last 64 meeting was ended as Zhu Yinghui won the match 5-2.

Sheffield’s Adam Duffy also suffered at the hands of a wildcard as he was defeated 5-3 Lu Ning. Elsewhere in the controversial wildcard round, Jimmy Robertson defeated Zhou Yuelong 5-4 and Australian Vinnie Calabrese defeated Zhao Xingtong by the same scoreline.

Back in the first round, Dechawat Poomjaeng won the battle of the eccentrics as he defeated Dominic Dale 5-1 with top breaks of 68 and 67. Mark King also progressed, beating Rory McLeod with top runs 80 and 64.

The fans’ home hero Ding Junhui progressed through to the last 32 as he beat Jamie Burnett 5-3 in the evening session. After the first four frames were shared, Scot Burnett went 3-2 up with a break of 78 but Ding won the next three on the bounce to take the match.

Recent Asian Tour event winner Joe Perry kept up his run of form by beating Stoke’s Jamie Cope 5-2, with top runs of 70, 62 and 79. Meanwhile, Marco Fu struggled across the line as he defeated Nigel Bond 5-2. Both players seemed to be seemed to be low on confidence and Fu hit the highest break of the match which was only 56.

World number 65 Cao Yupeng caused an upset as he defeated Crucible quarter-finalist Michael White with a top break of 122. Kurt Maflin was beaten 5-3 by Martin Gould whilst Sheffield teenager Joel Walker also progressed, knocking out Alex Davies who had beaten Shaun Murphy in qualifying.