English Open: Liang Wenbo hits a 147 break after holding his nerve on a tricky final pink
Liang Wenbo held his nerve on a tricky last pink as he made a memorable 147 break at the English Open.
It was the second maximum of his career, having last managed it way back in 2008, and he'll bank the rolling 147 prize of £40,000 all to himself - as well as the £2,000 for the highest break - if nobody else manages the feat in Barnsley this week.
Wenbo punched the air with delighted as he sealed snooker's 132rd 147 break in official tournament play, which tied up his second-round match with Tom Ford at 3-3.
The Chinese number two made the most of his efforts too as he also won the deciding frame of the match to complete his comeback from 3-1 down and keep alive his hopes of defending his title.
The rolling prize fund for a 147 at the final stages of a ranking event goes up by £5,000 every tournament and has been building since Judd Trump’s max at last season’s China Open.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was allowed to wear trainers as he raced into the third round with a 4-1 win against Mark Davis.
The five-time world champion courted controversy in his opening round win over Zhang Anda by wearing blue trainers due to a sprained ankle and he was instructed by World Snooker to correct his footwear for his match with Davis on Tuesday.
In response, O'Sulivan threatened to pull out of the tournament and posted a picture of his injured ankle on Twitter and the game's governing body allowed O'Sullivan to wear trainers again, saying he would be exempt from "standard dress code protocol" in order to "help manage the effects of an ankle injury".
O'Sullivan wore black trainers for his second-round match and lost the first frame but reeled off four in a row, including breaks of 68, 50, 136 and 134 to progress.
Neil Robertson won a tense final-frame shootout to edge a high-quality match against Li Hang. Breaks of 69 and 62 put Robertson in control but Hang responded with 77, 78 and 54 to move close to victory before Robertson reeled off the remaining two frames with runs of 92 and 134.
Michael White knocked out Ding Junhui after racing into a three-frame lead. Ding replied with breaks of 81 and 86 but a 95 from White clinched the victory.
Elsewhere, reigning world champion Mark Selby was a 4-1 winner against Ross Muir and John Higgins beat Matthew Selt by the same score, while Mark Williams saw off the highly-rated Luca Brecel 4-1 as well.
Judd Trump was a 4-0 winner over Mark Joyce and there were 4-2 victories for Matthew Stevens and Shaun Murphy against David Gilbert and Daniel Wells respectively.