Welsh open Day 1

Matthew Stevens struggled over the line to beat Adam
Wicheard 4-3. Image: Monique Limbos

A struggling Matthew Stevens crawled over the line against amateur Adam Wicheard, to make it through to the second round of his home event as the Welsh Open began on Wednesday morning.

The Carmarthen potter is clearly not at the top of his game at the moment, which was underlined with his 5-0 whitewashing to world number 68 James Wattana in the China Open qualifiers a few days ago. Stevens had trailed 2-0 and eventually secured the match thanks to a 50 break in the final frame.

Fellow Welshman Andrew Pagett pulled an impressive 4-0 whitewashing of Marcus Campbell out of the bag on the opening day’s play, with a 67 break the highlight for the world 105.

Defending champ Stephen Maguire also made it through his first round tie without any issues, defeating Gateshead’s Elliot Slessor 4-1, with a top run of 98.

World Champion and Masters winner last month Ronnie O’Sullivan is also through to the last 64 with a 4-1 win over amateur Mitchell Travis, the Sheffield man who made his name in December’s UK Championship when he defeated Marco Fu in the opening round. O’Sullivan knocked in a top run of 81 and will face Barry Pinches in the next round as he beat fellow veteran Nigel Bond, also 4-1.

Robert Milkins faced an early exit from Newport as he was beaten by the impressive youngster Scott Donaldson, who reached the last 32 at the UK Championship.

There were also commendable wins for Sam Baird, who defeated Robbie Williams 4-2, Mike Dunn, a 4-3 winner over Aditya Mehta and Ian Burns who defeated Yu De Lu 4-3. The latter two need a good run this week to keep their hopes of staying on the tour beyond the end of this season alive.

Ding Junhui made the highest break of the day with a 121 break in the opening frame of his 4-2 win over Gary Wilson, whilst Ali Carter hit a 115 on course to beat Andrew Norman 4-1.

There were also wins for Gerard Greene, Jamie Cope, Dave Gilbert, Jimmy Robertson and Andrew Higginson on the opening day of the tournament and all five will feature from Monday onwards when the BBC cameras arrive.

Qualifying continues tomorrow, with highlights including Mark Allen v Sydney Wilson and John Higgins v Tony Drago in the afternoon session from 1:30pm, whilst Mark Selby faces Joe Swail at 7pm.

For local interest, recent Shoot-Out winner and Welshman Dominic Dale, who will double-up as a commentator/pundit for BBC Wales’ coverage next week, takes on amateur Ant Parsons in the afternoon session.

These matches can all be seen via liveworldsnooker.tv and via streaming on some betting sites.