Rampant Neil Robertson batters Alfie Burden at the European Masters
Robertson has four titles to his name this season (Kieran Cleeves/PA Wire/PA Images)
Neil Robertson produced a sensational scoring display as he comprehensively whitewashed Alfie Burden 5-0 at the European Masters.
The Thunder has enjoyed a trophy-laden 2021-22 season; already capturing the English Open, Masters and Players Championship titles so far.
And he resumed his rampant form at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes; hitting four successive centuries while his opponent failed to pot a single ball.
Robertson demonstrated the mood he was in from the start; going close to achieving a maximum break, only to miss the 14th black.
Nevertheless, he built on that 105 with further runs of 101, 107 and 116 as he raced into a commanding 4-0 lead at the interval.
It was the eighth time in snooker history that the same player had compiled four century breaks on the spin, with Robertson achieving the feat for the second time in his career.
And he came within whiskers of becoming the first player to reel off five on the bounce, but marginally ran out of position on 76 and caught a red when trying to squeeze past for the black – handing his opponent his solitary seven points of the one-sided contest.
Elsewhere, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump required deciding frames to see off Zhang Anda and Jak Jones respectively.
The Rocket, who hit top breaks of 128 and 86, was pegged back from 4-2 up as Zhang dug deep with runs of 114 and 91, but dominated the decider to prevail.
Meanwhile, Trump overturned a 4-2 deficit with contributions of 73, 83 and 98 scraping him past his Welsh opponent, who had centuries of 128 and 115 earlier on.
However, there was no joy for Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy; last year’s two World finalists went down 5-3 against Jordan Brown and Noppon Saengkham respectively.
John Higgins and Ali Carter endured no such problems. Four-time World champion Higgins hit three half-centuries in a 5-1 win over Jamie Clarke, with two-time Crucible runner-up Carter repeating the feat as he overcame Sean Maddocks by the same scoreline.
Anthony McGill was also in impressive scoring form; notching up centuries of 134 and 124 as he whitewashed Shootout champion Hossein Vafaei.
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European Masters 2022 Day Two Results
Tuesday February 22
Round One
Xu Si 4-5 Pang Junxu
Wu Yize 5-3 Fergal O’Brien
Zhang Jiankang 3-5 Fraser Patrick
Jamie Clarke 1-5 John Higgins
Liang Wenbo 5-4 Duane Jones
Yuan SiJun 5-4 Stuart Carrington
Mark Selby 3-5 Jordan Brown
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-4 Zhang Anda
Ali Carter 5-1 Sean Maddocks
Louis Heathcote 3-5 Martin Gould
Ian Burns 3-5 Tom Ford
Ricky Walden 5-1 Matthew Stevens
Alfie Burden 0-5 Neil Robertson
Shaun Murphy 3-5 Noppon Saengkham
Mitchell Mann 5-0 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Hossein Vafaei 0-5 Anthony McGill
Andrew Higginson 4-5 Kurt Maflin
Jak Jones 4-5 Judd Trump