Kilkenny's David Morris claimed a place in the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in China today as he beat Northern Ireland's Gerard Greene at the Wuxi Classic .
The 24-year-old, who earned a tour place through Q School last month, defeated Greene 5-2, with breaks of 77, 51 and 103.
He now faces a possible clash with Ali Carter, who plays Lyu Hoatian in the second round.
Neil Robertson and John Higgins safely negotiated their passages into the last 16.
World number one Robertson reeled off the last three frames to ease out Martin Gould 5-2, while Higgins was a 5-1 winner over Dechawat Poomjaeng, who proved a crowd favourite at the World Championship in Sheffield in April.
Runs of 86, 88 and 77 gave China Open champion Robertson the spoils this afternoon before the Australian sent a warning to his rivals.
“After the interval I had a positive frame of mind and I didn’t miss a ball in the last three frames,” he said. “I feel as if I’m steadily improving as the tournament goes on.”
Higgins lost the first frame against Poomjaeng today, but the Scot quickly recovered and breaks of 138, 70, 55 and 75 saw him saunter through to the next round.
Former two-time world champion Mark Williams edged out plucky Jack Lisowski in a final-frame thriller.
Williams lost three of the first four frames against Lisowski, who made his Crucible debut earlier this year, but the 21-year-old was powerless to stop the loss of the next two frames and although he took the match to a decider, the Welshman ultimately prevailed.
Home favourite Cao Yupeng also battled back from 3-1 down to win 5-4 against World Championship finalist Barry Hawkins
“Maybe I woke up too early so I was sleepwalking during the first half of the match, but I played better after the interval,” said Cao.
Matthew Stevens advanced courtesy of a 5-3 triumph over Liang Wenbo, Anthony Hamilton cruised past Stuart Bingham 5-2 and Jimmy White failed to build on his win over Ricky Walden after suffering a 5-3 loss against Robert Milkins.
Peter Lines and Ben Woollaston eased past Andrew Higginson and Joel Walker 5-2 respectively, while Mark King squeaked past Marco Fu, who battled back from 4-1 down before losing the decider.
