Cao Yupeng recorded the first maximum break of his career en route to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Andrew Higginson in the first round of the Dafabet Scottish Open. The Chinese player capped an impressive performance at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena by recording the 147 in the third frame of the match, while he also claimed three other half-century breaks during the contest.
The 27-year-old is now on course to secure a potential payout of £20,000 from the rolling 147 prize, as well as an extra £2,000 for achieving the highest break of this week’s tournament. Cao’s maximum was only the 134th recorded in professional competition and he becomes just the third player from mainland China to achieve the feat. However, despite the magnitude of the achievement, the world number 67 believes his maximum break had been on the cards for some time. “I have had three or four maximum breaks whilst practising over the last six months, so I just treated like a practice session,” Cao was quoted as saying on the World Snooker website. “Every player can make a 147 these days. Li Hang had a great effort at the UK.
I think the break building part of it is fine, the difficult bit is actually the easy shots. There is a lot of pressure on the colours.” Cao will now be hoping to build on his impressive start in Glasgow when he takes on Allan Taylor in round two. The Chinese ace is priced at 1.33 to secure his progress through to the third round, while Taylor, who beat Soheil Vahedi 4-3 to reach this stage of the competition, is available at 11/5.
Dafabet Scottish Open odds available at Dafabet.