John Higgins and Ding Junhui had victories in different ways in the first round of 2017 Snooker World Open held on Tuesday in Yushan County, Jiangxi Province, China.
Coming to Yushan with the glory of winning the champion of last week's Indian Open to surpass Steve Davis and Ronnie O' Sullivan in all-time winners of ranking event, John Higgins enjoyed a quick 5-0 victory over Alexander Ursenbacher in the afternoon.
"I played pretty well, but I don't think Alexander settled. He has been playing some good stuff in the qualifiers, but I think the final stages of events are a new experience for him." said the 29-ranking-title winner. "There are times when you can be struggling and the game seems very hard so you have to capitalise on your good form. I could probably have had three or four centuries today."
Zhang Anda stayed longer in last year's World Open as he was the only Chinese player of the last 16 after Ding Junhui was eliminated. Today he again proved his capability by winning three frames in a row after the mid-session interval when Ding led by 4-0 in their China derby.
In the breath-taking eighth frame, Zhang seemed very promising when he lead by 58-7, but he missed a key red to let Ding finish the match with a 55-point break.
Ding also made breaks of 128, 89, 65 earlier in the match. Another China derby is waiting for him as he will play against Xiao Guodong on Wednesday night.
"Normally I will feel nervous in China derby because your opponent may be very familiar with you and may even train and live with you before just like Zhang Anda." said Ding, "However, I didn't have pressure today and I am looking forward to tomorrow's match."
Mark Selby suffered in a late night clash with Lee walker to lose 2-5. But world No.1 said he could take the result as Lee performed better in safe plays and he had been away from home for a long time.
In another China derby, Li Hang came from behind to surprisingly down English Open champion Liang Wenbo in a 5-4 victory.
