Ding Junhui showed no mercy as he crushed the hopes of home-town favourite Jack Lisowski with a 4-1 win at the World Grand Prix in Cheltenham.

The Chinese star admitted that Lisowski’s poor safety play had been a contributing factor in his straightforward victory.

On a good day for China, Ding joined compatriots Xiao Guodong and Yuan Sijun in round two after they eliminated Neil Robertson and world champion Mark Williams respectively.

Ding made breaks of 52, 88 and 126 against an out-of-sorts Lisowski, with the 13-time ranking tournament winner content to feed off the struggles from his younger opponent.

“I’m very happy to have played well out there,” said world number nine Ding.

“Jack played some bad safeties and gave me some easy balls to start breaks. My cue ball control was good.”

After losing the opening frame, the Chinese scored 349 unanswered points on his way to setting up a second round tussle with David Gilbert or Yan Bingtao on Thursday.

Gilbert, who lost Sunday’s German Masters final 9-7 to Kyren Wilson in Berlin, is favourite at 1.75 to continue his good form by accounting for Bingtao, who is 5.50 to win their match 4-2.

Meanwhile, Dafabet Masters champion Judd Trump survived a fightback from Stuart Carrington to win 4-3 in his opening game in Cheltenham.

Trump is seeking a third title of the season having added the Masters to his Northern Ireland Open success, defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan in both finals.

He made the perfect starts as breaks of 92 and 122 put him 3-0 up on Carrington.

A rallying Carrington battled back from the brink to level the match and he also passed up two glaring chances to complete his win, allowing world number five Trump to snatch victory with a 30 clearance and set up a last-16 clash on Wednesday evening with Tom Ford.