York will witness a new Betway UK Championship winner next weekend, as 2015 hero Neil Robertson was stunned by Peter Lines in the opening round.
Robertson joins King on an early trip home
Lines was not in riveting form but potted the key balls as he defeated the Australian 6-3. With a highest break of 58, Lines showed his tactical nous on the way to a resounding victory against the off colour reigning Champion. Robertson did manage half century breaks in all three of his frame wins but was never able to carry any momentum forward as he crashed out of the competition.
Many fans would have been expecting great things of Mark King who won his first major ranking tournament event on Sunday, only to see the 42-year old produce a disastrous display against number 94 seed Sam Craigie. Despite a break of 126, King fell 3-1 behind at the interval, before returning without his cue and ultimately losing a frame due to being ready too late for the fifth frame. He responded with a tournament high 141, only to lose the next two frames and leave the tournament early.
Young hotshot Wilson also departs
The surprises continued as the original 128 were shortened to 64, with Kyren Wilson losing 6-3 to number 114 seed Mitchell Mann, all off 99 places below him in the rankings. Tom Ford lost a final frame decider to Hammad Miah despite being situated 61 places higher on the ladder, whilst Matthew Selt was dumped out by Michael Georgiou with a 79 position difference.
Asian players Thepchaiya un-Nooh, Dechawat Poomjaeng, Li Hang and Tian Pengfei bowed out unexpectedly, whilst England's Alfie Burden, Joe Swail, Jack Lisowski, David Grace, Stuart Carrington, Gary Wilson and Ian Burns exhausted the list of players stunned by lower ranked opponenets. Even former World Champions Peter Ebdon and Ken Doherty failed to progress into the second round.
The Rocket progresses in a flash
Ronnie O'Sullivan looked in top form as he disposed of Boonyarit Kaettikun in less than an hour. The Rocket made breaks between 63 and 129 in all six frames, whilst his opponent scored just 25 points in the entire match.
Alan McManus produced the comeback of the round after recovering from 5-0 down against Michael Wild, whilst Ricky Walden, Jimmy Robertson, Stuart Bingham, Luca Brecel, Barry Hawkins, Kurt Maflin and Noppon Saengkham all completed whitewashes of their opponents.