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Mixed fortunes for Irish trio at Scottish Open

Joe Swail is safely through to the second round in Scotland
Joe Swail is safely through to the second round in Scotland

There were mixed fortunes for Irish trio Ken Doherty, Joe Swail and Mark Allen in the opening round of the Dafabet Scottish Open.

Swail defeated Lukas Kleckers of Germany 4-0, however, Doherty lost 4-1 to Craig Steadman and Allen was edged out of the competition by Ben Woollaston, the Antrim man on the wrong end of a 4-3 scoreline.

Welshman Daniel Wells pulled off a shock 4-3 win over UK Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy to progress to the second round.

The world number 63 found himself 2-1 ahead before Murphy responded with a couple of half-century breaks.
Wells, though, edged a tense sixth frame 54-53 and went on to close out a memorable win over the world number six.

"I have had a few good results against top players, but never on the main stage, so this is a monkey off my back, or whatever the saying is, and hopefully now I can produce better form on the TV in matches to come," Wells said in an interview with WorldSnooker.com.

UK Championship winner Ronnie O'Sullivan, meanwhile, coasted past Michael Georgiou 4-1, which included a break of 136.

O'Sullivan, who is up to world number two following his victory in York on Sunday, is chasing what would be a fourth ranking title in eight weeks and will face Robert Milkins in round two.

Earlier, Cao Yupeng hit a stunning 147 during his 4-0 victory over Andrew Higginson.

The 27-year-old was in devastating form as he reeled off further breaks of 72, 56 and 64 to seal a one-sided victory, with Higginson only managing to score a total of 53 points in the match.

Fellow Chinese player Ding Junhui looked to put the disappointment of a first-round defeat at the UK Championships to world number 130 Leo Fernandez behind him with a 4-2 win over Jak Jones.

Australian Neil Robertson, meanwhile, racked up century breaks of 113 and 143 as he coasted past Rod Lawler 4-0.

Elsewhere in Tuesday's first round, China's Liang Wenbo beat Sanderson Lam 4-2, while Scotland's Alan McManus progressed by the same score against Matthew Selt.

Jimmy White saw off Thailand's Akani Songsermsawad 4-1, but Welshman Matthew Stevens went down 4-1 to Hammad Miah.

Mark King, the world number 21, is out after a 4-1 defeat to Chinese player Zhang Anda , while Peter Ebdon beat Indian Aditya Mehta 4-2 and Ben Woollaston ousted Mark Allen 4-3.

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