Ronnie O'Sullivan was in excellent form as he cruised past Mark Davis in the English Open second round following a whirlwind 24 hours off the table.
O'Sullivan unphased by drama
O'Sullivan had threatened to pull out of the tournament after World Snooker told him he was unable to wear trainers as he did in his first round victory against Zhang Anda.
However, following a review of O'Sullivan's injury, World Snooker stated, "we have a dress code for all tournaments but where players are injured they are given the opportunity to demonstrate medical reasons to show why they cannot adhere to certain parts of the dress code."
Yet the Rocket soon put the turmoil behind him as he thrashed Davis 4-1, formulating breaks of 136 and 134 along the way.
Murphy, Bingham and Liang also in great form
Shaun Murphy also looked in great touch as he recovered from going two frames behind against Daniel Wells. The number six seed did not drop a single point in the final four frames where he made contributions of 135, 134, 87 and 83.
Stuart Bingham also made two century breaks, including a 141, as a number of top ten players begin to peak. Earlier in the second round, defending champion Liang Wenbo made the first 147 break of the season.
Several top 16 players depart
Mark Selby and John Higgins also eased through, whilst Mark Williams saw off the threat of Luca Brecel in the most eye-catching tie of the round. Neil Robertson had to rely on a final frame decider against Li Hang.
David Gilbert was shocked by Matthew Stevens, ranked 33 places below him, after Thepchaiya Un-Nooh could not convert his 34-place advantage against Liam Highfield. John Astley, Ricky Walden, Tian Pengfei, Cao Yupeng and Jamie Jones joined the growing list of players to be defeated by lower seeds, following Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins who succumbed to surprise defeats earlier in the day.
Yet there was more drama to end the evening session. Ali Carter was shocked in a final frame decider by veteran James Wattana before Michael White held off a spirited comeback by World Open champion, Ding Junhui.