Here are today’s results:
And a few comments about the matches I had the opportunity to watch, in part or in full
All four held-over last 128 matches were on television. From the top seeds, only Liang Wenbo lost, and Ian Burns totally deserved the win, he played well, Liang didn’t.
John Higgins scored very heavily against a very, very poor Lyu Haotian. John played really well, but it’s fair to say that Lyu didn’t give him any opposition whatsoever. Lyu had chances, and couldn’t take any. He missed everything and usually left openings as well. He scored only 9 points in the whole match. If Lyu was a kid who had never played a top player, I would understand that he could be overwhelmed. But the guy has been a pro for two seasons in the past… I’m a bit puzzled.
Ding and Mark Selby both won easily without playing well. They didn’t need to and you would expect them to improve in the next round.
None of the wildcards won their match.
Regarding the last 64 round, there were a few big surprises. Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham lost Li Hang and Yan Bingtao respectively. Both matches were close but the top seeds never looked comfortable. Anthony McGill lost also, by 5-2, to Mark Joyce. Joyce is a very dangerous player of course, but the score is rather severe. Also Joe Perry was beaten by 5-1 by Mike Dunn and this was certainly unexpected, certainly with such a damning scoreline.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Actually I think Lyu Haotian has done so well to bounce back from the horrors of 2015, which you revealed in your post (10 Dec 2016). Last season he won two Chinese tour events, including a 147, and then the Asian Amateur, beating Pankaj Advani in the final. He’s often harshly criticised, especially on Chinese social media, but perhaps the kid just needs a little respect to help rebuild his confidence at this level. And didn’t Zhou Yuelong have a similar experience against Ronnie in Shenzhen?
Possibly indeed his poor performance was just the result of stress. I hope he can come back, he has loads of talent.
Hello,
just came across an interview with Ronnie recorded by the Superstar Online Team which I would like to share.
Here is the link:
http://www.juxingzaixian.com/pc/pages/player/demandLive.js
The audio is not great, but as the stream evolves it gets a bit better.
Ronnie answers questions about a range of topics. There are very detailled Q&A about his cue at the beginning and again towards the end of the interview . He still plays with his original one having not found a new one he really feels comfortable with, although John Parris is obviously working on a new one.
Cheers
Silvry
Thank you for this Silvry. I knew from weibo that Ronnie had done this interview but hadn’t found it yet. I was too busy watching the match this morning. And I knew he was still playing with his damaged/repaired cue as Jason Francis had told me on the day they left for China. Being patient to find one he really feels right with is probably a sensible approach that will pay dividends in the long term.