Neil Robertson beat Ashley Hugill in the first round

Snooker results: Neil Robertson beats Ashley Hugill 10-5 in Crucible opener

By Sporting Life

Snooker

Wed April 20, 2022 · 3y ago

Tournament favourite Neil Robertson completed a 10-5 victory over a dogged Ashley Hugill to get his Crucible campaign up and running.

Robertson rallied on Monday to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 6-3 overnight lead, and went on to take the opening three frames on Tuesday to make it eight in a row and move within one of round two.

Hugill fought gamely to stop the rot in a tight 13th frame and added a break of 82 in the next, before Robertson signed off with his fourth century of the match to complete an ultimately impressive win.

Robbo's radical proposal for second arena

Robertson was not happy playing conditions during the first session of the match and afterwards issued a radical proposal for dual World Championship venues, having been a vocal critic of the cramped conditions during the two-table set-up at the Sheffield venue.

He believes a potential answer could lie in identifying a second, similarly sized auditorium in the city which could act as a second, simultaneous stage through the early-round matches.

Robertson said: "My idea is to make it kind of like Wimbledon, where you have Centre Court and Court One, so you give everyone who qualifies the one-table experience.

"I think if you had two Crucible venues that are equal, it would be an amazing experience for everyone to end their season – Sheffield is well equipped to deal with that.

"It’s just an idea. Everyone gets to experience that from round one at the Masters, whereas here there’s only four (semi-finalists). Being the World Championship, it should be the biggest event from the start, not the semi-finals."

No more excuses

Robertson has not tasted the one-table set-up at the Crucible since his solitary title win in 2010 and admitted the time for excuses is over as he bids to live up to expectations this season.

"I thought my performance was pretty good," said the Australian. "He was deserving of his 3-1 lead but I played a lot more aggressively and maybe his inexperience caused a few mistakes.

"I made three centuries then a couple of other big breaks to finish off really well at 6-3, and this morning was just a professional job really, and it was good to finish off with my fourth century of the match."

"I’m always one of the favourites and that’s not the reason I haven’t progressed so far," Robertson added. "I’ve been making rubbish excuses. It’s only when I’ve got myself bogged down in matches that I start looking for problems."

Bingham up and running, Yan through

Last year's semi-finalist Stuart Bingham kicked off his latest title challenge with a comfortable 10-5 defeat of Lyu Haotian.

The 2015 champion began the concluding session with a 6-3 advantage and in winning the first two frames after the resumption, was always in command as he set up a second-round meeting with the winner of the match between Kyren Wilson and Ding Junhui.

To his credit, Lyu kept his hopes alive with breaks of 86, 62 and 55, but Bingham edged a close frame 14 to put himself within a frame of victory, before finishing the job soon after.

"It was a tough game with Lyu Haotian. I knew I had to be on my guard. I played some good snooker and I’m pleased to be through to round two," Bingham told World Snooker Tour afterwards.

"My strength is my break building. It was good to get my timing right. I’ve been up here for a few days and I’ve been to both Victoria and Ding’s academies.

"Something has clicked on the practice table, so it was nice to show not just my break building but my safety game."

Eight-time finalist John Higgins trails Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 after the first session of their opening round match that is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.

Higgins produced a break of 128 in the fourth frame to pull level at 2-2, but his Thai opponent finished with a 114 to give himself a good chance of reaching round two for the first time in four attempts.

Yan Bingtao set up a second-round clash with defending champion Mark Selby after pulling away to sink qualifier Chris Wakelin in a high-quality match 10-6, while Jack Lisowski leads former finalist Matthew Stevens 6-3 after the first session of their match.

Lisowski looked in fine touch as he knocked in two centuries to lead 6-2, only for Stevens to close out the session with a century break of his own to keep his hopes alive.