Home favourite Mark Allen progresses at the Northern Ireland Open as Selby and Higgins advance
Allen produced an inspired display in Leicester.
Home favourite Mark Allen soared through to the Northern Ireland Open second round after whitewashing Anthony Hamilton 4-0 in Milton Keynes on Tuesday.
Fresh from lifting the Champion of Champions trophy nine days earlier, The Pistol fired in breaks of 94, 111 and 125 on his way to a comfortable win over the former German Masters champion at the Marshall Arena.
The world number eight was joined in the Last 64 by the likes of Mark Selby, John Higgins, Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham.
Allen had won each of his last three meetings with Hamilton and drew first blood with a neat clearance of 94.
He then took a scrappy second frame against the Sheriff of Pottingham, who was a 5-2 winner when the two players met in the quarter-finals of this event in 2016.
However, there were to be no slip-ups this time around for the former Masters champion, who rattled in breaks of 111 and 125 to book a second-round date with Robert Milkins.
Four-time World champion Higgins was also a 4-0 winner; making a top break of 144 as he saw off Daniel Wells, while contributions of 100, 72 and 62 helped Ding reel off four frames without reply against Eden Sharav.
Elsewhere, former Crucible kings Selby and Bingham enjoyed 4-1 victories over Andrew Higginson and Oliver Lines respectively, while world number 15 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh beat Peter Devlin 4-2.
Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins were also among the winners on day two. Carter hit a top break of 108 in his 4-1 win over Ben Hancorn and a run of 104 was the highlight of Hawkins’ 4-2 success against Alan McManus.
Meanwhile, Liang Wenbo and Ben Woollaston needed deciding frames to prevail against Steven Hallworth and Ricky Walden respectively.
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Northern Ireland Open 2020 Results
Tuesday November 17
Round One
25 Barry Pinches 4-2 Liam Highfield
27 Jamie Wilson 1-4 Nigel Bond
29 Mark King 2-4 Zak Surety
30 Zhao Xintong 4-2 Si Jiahui
31 Lukas Kleckers 4-1 Chang Bingyu
52 Stuart Carrington 4-1 Billy Joe Castle
55 Tom Ford 4-2 Lee Walker
60 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Peter Devlin
35 Liang Wenbo 4-3 Steven Hallworth
42 Graeme Dott 2-4 Igor Figueiredo
33 Neil Robertson w/o-w/d Declan Lavery
36 Pang Junxu 4-0 Jak Jones
38 Mark Joyce 2-4 Dominic Dale
53 Ding Junhui 4-0 Eden Sharav
23 Barry Hawkins 4-2 Alan McManus
32 Mark Selby 4-1 Andrew Higginson
39 Ali Carter 4-1 Ben Hancorn
41 Sunny Akani 4-3 Jordan Brown
56 Yuan SiJun 4-3 Luo Honghao
43 Zhao Jianbo 4-1 Brian Ochoiski
47 James Cahill 4-1 Lyu Haotian
59 Fergal O’Brien 4-2 Ashley Hugill
62 Matthew Stevens 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
24 Iulian Boiko 0-4 Michael White
34 Ben Woollaston 4-3 Ricky Walden
44 Stuart Bingham 4-1 Oliver Lines
49 John Higgins 4-0 Daniel Wells
50 Patrick Wallace 4-1 Farakh Ajaib
16 Mark Allen 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
57 Allan Taylor 4-2 Hossein Vafaei
58 Joe Perry 4-0 Robbie Williams
63 Elliot Slessor 4-1 Li Hang