Aaron Hill added another feather to his cap at the Wuhan Open this afternoon by defeating 2024 world champion Kyren Wilson 5-2 at the Optics Valley Gymnasium.
Hill has already beaten the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Mark Selby in tournament play, and this was another impressive victory in the career of the young Cork pro against the in-form world number two.
The duo had clashed at the exact same stage of last year's tournament, when Wilson had far too much for Hill, whitewashing him 5-0.
The 23-year-old knew he would have to take the game to The Warrior, who won the recent Shanghai Masters, and he did just that, knocking in consecutive breaks over 50 in the first three frames, culminating with a 124 century in the third.
That was enough for a 2-1 lead, with the Irishman taking the last frame before the interval to leave him just two frames from victory.
A break of 56 in the fourth left him on the brink, before a couple of scrappy frames saw Hill eventually get over the line.
The challenge now for the world number 47 will be to see how far he can go in these rankings events, having shown that he can beat the world's best on his day.
Next up for Hill is a meeting with Lei Peifan in the last 32, after the Chinese player saw off Jimmy Robertson 5-3.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh fired the second maximum break of the tournament as he cruised to a 5-1 win over China's Pang Junxu.
The Thai star reeled off five frames in a row, culminating in his memorable 147, in the course of booking his place in the third round.
Un-Nooh’s feat followed Xiao Guodong’s 147 in his opening match against Mink Nutcharut on Sunday.
Xiao continued his good form with a 5-2 win over Ishpreet Singh Chadha on Monday.
Mark Allen set up a last-32 clash with Hossein Vafaei, after seeing off Zak Surety 5-1, with a top break of 120.
Teenager Stan Moodie rose to the occasion to stun experienced Ding Junhui and stun the home crowd with a 5-3 win.
The 18-year-old Moodie fired four breaks over 50 including a 131 in the fifth frame to seal arguably the most impressive win of his young career.
Judd Trump continued his comfortable progress with a 5-1 win over Liu Hongyu, but John Higgins revealed he may take time off after crashing to a 5-1 loss to Dylan Emery.
Higgins, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, told wst.tv: "I’m struggling for the motivation. I think I might take a month off and see where I am after this. I don’t know if I should have come out here."
