Zhang Anda fired his third career 147 and Stuart Bingham dredged up an improbable 6-5 win over Mark Williams amid “unplayable” accusations on an incident-packed day at the UK Snooker Championship in York.
Zhang made his maximum in the fourth frame of his eventual 6-3 win over Chinese compatriot Lei Peifan, just hours after Judd Trump and Neil Robertson had blasted the table conditions following Trump’s win over the Australian by the same score.
Bingham then extended the evening’s drama by recovering from a 5-2 deficit to beat Welshman Williams, despite a howler at the start of the 10th frame of the match when he somehow contrived to pot the black from his own break-off shot.
Zhang, whose maximum was described as “perfect” by Eurosport commentator Ronnie O’Sullivan, will pocket at least a share of the tournament’s £15,000 highest break prize, eclipsing the 146 achieved by Zhao Xintong in the qualifying rounds.
His brilliant break was in sharp contrast to the struggle faced by Trump in the opening stages of his clash with Robertson, a three-time UK winner who had battled through two rounds of qualifying after falling out of the world’s top 16.
Trump belatedly found his form with consecutive breaks of 73, 126 and 67 helping him reel off five straight frames that kept alive his hopes of winning the prestigious title for the first time since 2011.
Asked in his post-match interview if they were the worst conditions in which he had played, Trump said: “I’ve played in some bad conditions, but that was close.
“It’s disappointing as it seems to be the bigger events. It was very heavy all the time. I’ve always struggled here because the tables are so heavy.
“Hopefully they can change them. All the players have been struggling – hopefully they can do something about it.”
Robertson, who made himself a heavy favourite to progress into the last 16 before a missed red on the cusp of extending his lead to 4-1 changed the course of the match, was equally scathing of the environment.
“That was as tough as I’d ever played on,” said the Australian, a former three-time winner. “It was as unplayable as it gets in professional conditions.
“Being such a tough sport anyway it can make either player look stupid.”
Bingham’s early woe against Williams put even Trump’s travails into perspective as the 2015 world champion fashioned a top break of just 26 as he headed to the interval trailing 3-1.
And despite falling further behind at 5-2, Bingham somehow managed to summon enough momentum to force a decider against the stuttering Williams, surviving even his break-off blunder before taking his first chance in the decider to book his place in the last 16.
Earlier, veteran John Higgins rolled back the years as he completed a 6-0 whitewash of China’s He Guoqiang, who was making his Barbican debut.
Scotsman Higgins, a four-time world champion, signalled his intent with early breaks of 110 and 92 before further extending his advantage into the interval. Two more half-century runs saw the 49-year-old comfortably into the last 16.
“I am very pleased. The first two frames I knew it would be a tough game for him,” Higgins told BBC Sport.
“It is a great atmosphere, I was nervous as well, but I got off to a decent start and I just put the pressure on him.
“When I play like that, I feel like I am a match for anyone.”
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