Aaron Hill continued to build his reputation as one of snooker’s best up-and-coming players as he fired two centuries in a 4-1 win over Lei Peifan to reach the last 32 of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.
Cork’s 23-year-old Hill has had a fine start to the season, notably reaching the quarter-finals of the English Open and the last 16 of two other events. He has also made the first two 147s of his career within the past five weeks. And today’s superb display, highlighted by breaks of 84, 109, 54 and 134, kept up his hopes of another deep run and set up a clash with Barry Hawkins on Tuesday night.
“It’s great to get off to a good start in my home event,” said world number 47 Hill. “From 1-0 down it was more or less a perfect performance. It was a great crowd and a lot of my family and friends were here, they made a lot of noise, clapping nearly every shot. I’m delighted to give them something back.
“It has been a long time coming but I am getting consistent results now and I believe I can be doing this week in, week out. Experience is massive in this game and I have five years behind me. I am getting closer to where I want to be. Times are good now and snooker is in the best place now it has ever been.“
Hill is working with former pro Fergal O’Brien and cites that as a key factor behind his improvement. He said: “It’s unreal working with Fergal, he has been there and done it all. Whatever question I ask him, he always has the answer. He tells me to focus on everything in my control, and not worry about anything out of my control. That’s really important when you are out there because you have to stay in the moment.”
And asked about his brace of 147s, he added: “It was such a great buzz. I had always dreamed of making one on the tour. I have got a lot of recognition from other players, asking me ‘no 147s this week’? That’s a good feeling. Hopefully I can make another one here in Belfast.”
Shaun Murphy, arguably the form player on the tour having won the British Open and finished runner-up at the Xi’an Grand Prix, saw off David Lilley 4-0 with a top run of 115. He said: “I have played well all season, earlier in this season I had to keep the faith and I felt it would come good at some stage. I feel like when I get chances then nine times out of ten I will take them. I’m just trying to enjoy this while is lasts.”
Elliot Slessor made an 87 in the decider to beat Fan Zhengyi 4-3 while Hawkins saw off Zak Surety 4-0 with a top break of 74. BetVictor English Open runner-up Zhou Yuelong beat Dylan Emery 4-2 with a best run of 86.
Mark Allen admitted that he gets more nervous playing in the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open than he does at any other tournament, but he came through that pressure to beat Robert Milkins 4-3 with a tremendous break in the deciding frame.
The home favourite, who lifted the Alex Higgins Trophy in 2021 and 2022, is into the last 32 and will face Ben Woollaston on Wednesday. With Jordan Brown and Aaron Hill also into the next round, there will be plenty for the Belfast fans to cheer about over the coming days at the Waterfront Hall.
World number eight Allen won the BetVictor English Open last month and is the front-runner for the £150,000 bonus which goes to the leading player across the four-event series. He was pushed all the way tonight by Milkins, who is in danger of tour relegation this season, but 12-time ranking event winner Allen finished strongly.
Milkins led 2-1 with breaks of 70 and 98 before Allen came from 62-11 down to steal the fourth with a vital 52 clearance. Frame five went to Milkins, then Allen responded with a break of 104 for 3-3. In the decider, Milkins had first chance but made just 14 before narrowly missing a tricky red to a centre pocket. His opponent seized the moment with a run of 113.
“It was nice to finish the match off well because I was getting a lot of support and they didn’t have much to cheer about until the end,” said Antrim’s Allen. “I can take that confidence through to the next round.
“I feel more nervous here than I do in any other event including the World Championship. I try to do breathing exercises and relax before I go out there, but as soon as you get into the arena it hits you. I was edgy at the start and made some errors, I only settled down when I made the clearance to go 2-2. It’s mad because I have won here twice so I shouldn’t be feeling as bad as I do, but it just shows what it means to me. If I went out feeling flat I would be more worried, but I don’t ever feel like that here.”
Asked about the BetVictor bonus, he added: “I’ll think about it when we get to the Welsh Open and see what I need to do. I just need to keep winning matches and if I can win this event it would create some daylight. But there’s a long way to go.”
Gary Wilson beat Chang Bingyu 4-3 in a dramatic finish just after midnight. Chang came from 3-0 down to 3-3 but twice missed match-ball final brown in the decider when he led by 17 points, first to a baulk corner and then a short range pot to a top corner. Wilson capitalised on the second miss to pot the last four balls.
“From 3-0 it all went a bit silly,” said Wilson. “I missed a few, everything went awkward, he got the run of the ball and it felt like it was going to be one of those nights. In the end he played the brown right-handed (Chang is left-handed) and maybe he should have played it with the rest. He clearly twitched it a bit. Thankfully I held myself together to pot the last few balls because they weren’t easy.”
Martin O’Donnell’s cue went missing en route from London to Belfast and he was reunited with it just minutes before his match with Jak Jones. But O’Donnell still managed to come from 3-1 down to win a marathon three-and-a-half hour battle 4-3 with a top break of 103.
Jimmy Robertson enjoyed a 4-2 success against Stuart Bingham while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh recovered a 2-0 deficit to beat Joe O’Connor 4-3 with runs of 65, 74, 64 and 66.
Some more on is the 4-3 win by Theppy over Joe O’Connor. It was a close, hard fought match. Joe won the fist two low scoring frames. Then Theppy “woke up”: breaks of 65, 74 and 64 put him in the lead by 2-3. Joe responded with a 118 break to restore parity, only for Theppy to take the decider aided by a break of 66.
Stuart Bingham, the 18th seed, was the highest ranked player who lost yesterday. Despite scoring 2 of the 3 breaks over 50 scored during their match, he was beaten 4-2 by Jimmy Robertson as mentioned above.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 