MARK Allen had little difficulty getting over his first hurdle at this year’s BetVictor Northern Ireland Open on Monday night as he took less than 90 minutes to beat China’s Liu Hongyu 4-0.
Antrim’s world number three, winner in 2021 and 2022, fired breaks of 71, 76 and 70, reducing his opponent to just 97 points over the four frames. He now faces the winner of today’s match between Wu Yize and Oliver Lines.
Notable fallers on day two included Chinese pair Si Jiahui and Zhang Anda, the world number 13 and 10 respectively. Si lost 4-2 to compatriot Tian Pengfei, while Zhang came from 3-0 down to level at 3-3 against Martin O’Donnell before losing a decider.
Neil Robertson won a decider against Graeme Dott in what was a re-run of the 2010 World Championship final, which the Aussie also won.
Jimmy White, meanwhile, grafted hard to take the scalp of Iran’s Hossein Vafaei 4-2, while Anthony McGill won the all-Scottish battle against Stephen Maguire 4-1 and Barry Hawkins beat Matthew Stevens 4-2.
