World Open snooker day two review: Judd Trump beats Sam Craigie

Trump survives Craigie scare

Judd Trump avoided a potential banana skin when narrowly holding off a strong challenge from Sam Craigie, the reigning world champion winning a final-frame decider to secure his place in the second round.

There was no sign of the drama to come when Trump opened up with breaks of 56, 113 and a fabulous total clearance of 144 to leave Craigie chained to his seat and trailing 3-0.

However, Craigie responded in fine style, a break of 104 opening his account before he reduced the deficit further when edging a closely-contested frame five.

When Trump won frame six to reestablish his two-frame advantage, Craigie's race appeared to be run but he again responded manfully, claiming the next two frames to take it the distance.

Nevertheless, it was Trump who prevailed, building up a healthy lead before finally closing out a match that was high on both quality and drama.

Allen resists Doherty comeback

Mark Allen kicked off his World Open bid with a hard-fought 5-3 defeat of veteran Ken Doherty despite the latter mountain a strong comeback.

Allen had breezed into a 4-0 lead thanks to breaks 130 and 67 but Doherty rallied, winning three frames on the bounce in fine style as he reeled off runs of 59 and 108.

However, Allen had the last laugh as he closed out the match with a typically well-taken break of 77, confirming he remains in good from following his bruising English Open semi-final defeat to Mark Selby recently.

O'Brien brings the Spaceman crashing down to earth

Fergal O'Brien brought Dominic Dale down to earth by winning their first-round match 5-3.

Dale claimed one of the biggest wins of his career when beating Ronnie O'Sullivan for the first time in 10 attempts in their qualifier on Monday but he wasn't able to replicate those heroics 24 hours later.

O'Brien was his typical self, dictating the early exchanges with some strong safety play before Dale rallied to win three frames in row and lead 3-2.

However, O'Brien produced a fine late rattle, breaks of 104 and 107 allowing him to win three consecutive frames himself and book his safe passage into the second round.

Thepchaiya eases through

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh knocked in two centuries as he cruised past Zhang Yang 5-1, further of breaks of 85 and 65 showing his game to be in good working order.

It with a similar scenario for Hossein Vafaei who brushed aside Lyu Haotian 5-1 with the help of a couple of half-century contributions while Xiao Guodong whitewashed Harvey Chandler 5-0.

John Higgins endured a much more rigorous workout, coming through a gruelling encounter with Lu Ning to prevail 5-4.

Having seemingly taken control of the match with breaks of 58 and 81 easing him into a 3-1 lead, Higgins would have been hopeful of an early finish.

However, Ning proved a persistent challenger and won three of the next four frames to force a decider, one in which Higgins needed to draw on all of his previous experience to come out on top.

Five-star Wilson marches on

Kyren Wilson won five frames on the bounce to beat Robbie Williams 5-2 and set up a second-round clash with Hossein Vafaei.

Williams started brightly, leading 2-0 thanks to a run of 90 in frame two, but Wilson soon found his grove, responding with a break of 69 in frame three before adding further contributions of 56 and 81 in a period of sustained one-way traffic.

Riga Masters hero Yan Bingtao was humbled 5-1 by Stuart Carrington who won a number of close frames in a match that was low on quality.

Michael Holt produced a fine display to beat Luca Brecel 5-2, a brilliant clearance of 124 in frame seven sealing a thoroughly impressive victory.

Related links

• World Open outright betting preview
• World Open schedule and results
• English Open: Three lessons