Northern Ireland Open: Mark Allen into round two but Shaun Murphy exits
- Published
Mark Allen will face China's Tian Pengfei in the second round
Home hope Mark Allen progressed to the second round at the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast after a scrappy 4-2 win over England's Sanderson Lam.
World number seven Allen could only manage a best break of 35 but Leeds man Sanderson, ranked 107th, could not exploit the Antrim player's struggles.
"I just didn't play great which can happen in the first round," said Allen.
Former world champion Shaun Murphy exited after a surprise 4-1 defeat by Chen Zifan of China.
Murphy, 35, won the recent Champion of Champions event by beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final but was badly out of sorts against the world number 97.
Robertson into round two
Neil Robertson, trying to regain a top-16 place to qualify for the Masters, began with a 4-1 win over Jamie Jones at the Waterfront Hall.
Australian Robertson, world title winner in 2010, has slipped to 17th place in the rankings.
Jimmy White ended a run of eight consecutive first-round defeats as he beat Dominic Dale of Wales 4-3 while defending champion Mark King progressed to round two with a 4-1 win over Australia's Matthew Bolton.
While Allen progressed to round two, another Northern Ireland hope Joe Swail bowed out as he lost a 3-1 lead against China's Lyu Haotian.
There was also defeat for two other home hopes as Jordan Brown was beaten 4-0 by another Chinese player Mei Xiwen with Declan Brennan losing 4-2 against England's Billy Joe Castle.
Anthony Hamilton reached the semi-finals in Belfast last year
Hamilton and Wilson exit
Both last year's beaten semi-finals Kyren Wilson and Anthony Hamilton made early exits.
Emerging Iranian talent Hossein Vafaei beat Nottingham man Hamilton 4-2 while Sam Craigie hit two centuries in his 4-1 victory over world number 14 Wilson in an all-English battle.
Wilson also managed a break of 105 in frame two but former world under-21 champion Craigie produced runs of 106, 110, 88 and 81.
The Belfast tournament started with a field of 126 players competing for the Alex Higgins Trophy and the final takes place on 26 November.
English Open champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, four-times world champion John Higgins, and Judd Trump will all be in first-round action on Tuesday.
O'Sullivan faces Germany's Lukas Kleckhers in the evening session with the afternoon action including Higgins' encounter with Nigel Bond and Trump's match against Stuart Carrington.