The Shootout tournament, snooker’s most unpredictable event with only one clock-evaporating frame, kicked off at exactly 1 pm under a boozy atmosphere, in contrast to the hushed atmosphere in other tournaments.
As was expected, defending champion, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh was the first to kick off proceedings at the venue, taking on Alex Borg in a nerve-wracking encounter. The reigning champion suffered a scare to make it to the second round. The Thai trailed multiple times against Borg but was able to edge past his opponent.
The shot clock sound is absolutely irritating, and if any of these cueists had a choice, they would bypass this tournament. The duo of Igor Figueiredo and Kurt Maflin also made it through to the last-64 to join Un-Nooh.
Elsewhere, it was a surprise win for David Lilley against Gary Wilson. Wilson lost by only a couple of points as he let the former slide past him into the second round. As these kinds of matches go, there was only little chance for techniques to come into play.
The pair played several sets of frantic snooker, but it all came down to the final ball, where Lilley was the lucky one.
Mark Davies also made it through to the second round courtesy of a win over Harvey Chandler. A particularly exciting fixture was a duel between Chang Bingyu and 14-year-old debutant Iulian Boiko from Ukraine.
Xiao Guodong also took to the table to take on Si Jiahui. The former edged past his opponent in what was a squeaky contest. The game went right down to the last black as Jiahui watched his opponent blast past him. Xiao nicked the game by a 68-63 scoreline.
Comebacks have been the theme of this competition since its inception, and this was no different.
Sunny Akani racked up an impressive performance to knock out Mark Selby. This was one of the highlights of the night as the three-time world champion, and Mark Selby fell disappointingly to Akani. This tournament is surely a respecter of no one.
A former champion, Michael White, also tumbled out of the tournament after he was narrowly beaten by Kyren Wilson.
Written by: Roland Arum
