With no less than 9 centuries, the first round of the players championship may not have boasted the line up that casual snooker fans would expect but it did not disappoint quality-wise.
This tournament includes the top 16 players in the one year rankings so it's no surprise that all players on show are in form and more than capable of beating there opponent.
This was evident when number one seed Mark Allen was convincingly beaten 6-3 by Scottish Open runner up Joe O'Connor, on the same evening Ryan Day advanced with minimum fuss against shoot-out champion Chris Wakelin on a scoreline of 6-2.
Day two started off with a heavyweight clash of two players that know each other inside out in Mark Selby & Shaun Murphy, it was Murphy who continued his excellent form that brought him to the final of the Welsh open to prevail 6-3, at the same time Kyren Wilson looked in great form when making two centuries on his way to beating Zhou Yuelong 6-2.
At this stage, the lack of close matches may have caused fans to be disappointed but that was about to change, both Trump/Carter & Milkins/Ford went the distance and where very enjoyable from start to finish with big breaks & tactical battles on show, it was Carter & Milkins that eventually prevailed from their respective battles to set up a quarter final showdown.
On Day 3 and the final day of first round matches, it was time for Lisowski/Brecel & Ding/G.Wilson to hit the baize, with the first four frames of Lisowski/Brecel being shared and going by in a flash it was no surprise to see both players being tied at 4-4, with a decider looking ominous, it was Brecel that took the game by the scruff of the neck to impressively claim the final 2 frames and win 6-4.
On the other table it was Gary Wilson that dominated proceedings and ran into a 5-1 lead, Ding however made a mini comeback to 5-3 but eventually Wilson crossed the line for 6-3 win.
Round 1 results:
Joe O'Connor 6-3 Mark Allen
Ryan Day 6-2 Chris Wakelin
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Mark Selby
Kyren Wilson 6-2 Zhou Yuelong
Ali Carter 6-5 Judd Trump
Robert Milkins 6-5 Tom Ford
Luca Brecel 6-4 Jack Lisowski
Gary Wilson 6-3 Ding Junhui
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