Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams each suffered shock defeats as they exited the English Open within the spherical of 64 on Tuesday.
O’Sullivan, whose English Open victory in 2017 represents his solely Dwelling Nations success because the collection was launched, was downed 4-2 by He Guoqiang.
The latter orchestrated a 3-0 lead with breaks of 78 and 77, and though O’Sullivan responded with two half-century contributions, a break of fifty from the Chinese language competitor within the sixth body helped him to seal the deal.
Williams, in the meantime, was overwhelmed 4-1 by Ben Woollaston simply over every week after he got here inside a few balls of successful the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
Fellow prime 16 members Gary Wilson and Tom Ford have been early casualties of the match in Brentwood as properly.
Wilson, who had received the final two Dwelling Nations titles of the 2023/24 time period, was edged 4-3 by Ross Muir whereas Ford’s depressing begin to this marketing campaign continued with a 4-2 reverse in opposition to Jiang Jun.
Jack Lisowski’s hopes of returning to the elite bracket of the rankings took a dent too as he was pipped 4-3 by Xu Si.
A number of marquee names did make it by to the final 32, nevertheless.
John Higgins didn’t compile any century breaks that might take him nearer to the 1,000 milestone – remaining on 998 profession tons.
However the Scot comfortably beat Andrew Higginson 4-1, a scoreline that was matched by Neil Robertson in his triumph in opposition to Jackson Web page.
Elsewhere, world quantity three Mark Allen was made to work onerous for his 4-3 victory in opposition to Lengthy Zehuang.
Luca Brecel was additionally taken the gap by Anthony Hamilton, however the Belgian Bullet managed to carry on for a much-needed first win of the season.
Among the many others to increase their runs within the occasion have been Barry Hawkins, Hossein Vafaei, Matthew Selt, Lyu Haotian, Jamie Jones, and Anthony McGill.
The spherical of 32 on the 2024 English Open takes place on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s English Open outcomes
Spherical of 64
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Matthew Stevens
Ross Muir 4-3 Gary Wilson
Jiang Jun 4-2 Tom Ford
Lyu Haotian 4-2 Dominic Dale
Mark Allen 4-3 Lengthy Zehuang
Matthew Selt 4-3 Ricky Walden
Barry Hawkins 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
Stephen Maguire 4-0 Bulcsú Révész
Ben Woollaston 4-1 Mark Williams
Neil Robertson 4-1 Jackson Web page
Jamie Jones 4-0 Zhou Yuelong
He Guoqiang 4-2 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Anthony McGill 4-2 Xiao Guodong
John Higgins 4-1 Andrew Higginson
Xu Si 4-3 Jack Lisowski
Luca Brecel 4-3 Anthony Hamilton
Wednesday’s English Open schedule
Spherical of 32
10am UTC+1
Wu Yize vs Ali Carter
Mark Selby vs Joe O’Connor
1pm+1
Judd Trump vs Matthew Selt
Fan Zhengyi vs Oliver Traces
Zak Surety vs Ben Woollaston
Jiang Jun vs Si Jiahui
Following 1pm video games
John Higgins vs David Gilbert
Pang Junxu vs Luca Brecel
Ross Muir vs Jamie Jones
Anthony McGill vs Kyren Wilson
7pm UTC+1
Hossein Vafaei vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Stephen Maguire vs He Guoqiang
Mark Allen vs Lyu Haotian
Chris Wakelin vs Zhang Anda
Following 7pm video games
Shaun Murphy vs Neil Robertson
Xu Si vs Barry Hawkins
Click on right here to view the total draw.
Featured photograph credit score: WST
