Welsh quartet Ryan Day, Jamie Jones, Matthew Stevens and Michael White had to play with borrowed cues on a mixed day at the start of the Yushan World Open. The foursome had to rely on the kindness of others after their luggage was lost on their flight from the UK to the event in China. Day borrowed a cue from compatriot Mark Williams and he may ask to use it again throughout the tournament after it helped him to seal a comfortable 5-1 win against Gary Wilson.
The world number 16, who had never previously faced Wilson, made breaks of 80, 75 and 63 en route to claiming victory as he looks to build on his success at the Riga Masters. Meanwhile, Williams was handed an all-Welsh draw in the opening round against Stevens in a repeat of the 2000 world final. Williams proved far too strong against the world number 49 and went on to secure a 5-0 whitewash. The final Welshman affected by the loss of luggage was White, who fell to a humbling 5-1 loss at the hands of Chinese wildcard Ma Bing.
The opening day also saw China’s Ling Wenbo survive a scare in a decider as he had to come from 4-2 down to claim a 5-4 win. World number 64 Chris Wakelin pulled off arguably the shock of the day by dispatching fellow Englishman and world number seven Barry Hawkins 5-4, despite having trailed 3-1 and 4-2. Hawkins is priced at 22/1 to win the 2017 UK Championship.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.