UK Snooker: Judd Trump made to work hard to secure third round spot in York

Trump recovered from 3-2 down to win 6-3 despite being far from his best, the left-hander managing a highest break of 84 and three other half-centuries.

“When you get in a game like that, it goes a bit scrappy and not how I want the game played, you’ve just got to dig in,” said Trump.

“A lot of things didn’t go my way but you’ve just got to try your absolute hardest and never give up.

“There were a couple of frames I chucked away, there were a couple of distractions. It’s hard when there’s so many tables going on at once and you’ve got people leaving.

“It’s good to have the crowds back but there are a lot more distractions.”

Scotland’s Stephen Maguire made breaks of 127, 104, 90, 75 and 73 as he thrashed China’s Tian Pengfei 6-1, but three-time winner Ding Junhui lost 6-3 to Sam Craigie.

Ding made breaks of 134 and 96 to get back on level terms at 3-3, only for Craigie to win the next three frames with the aid of breaks of 105 and 84.

The most exciting match of the day saw China’s Zhao Xintong defeat Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5 in a high-scoring contest.

Zhao trailed 3-0 before rattling off five frames in a row with breaks of 120, 114, 50, 92 and 56, but Un-Nooh fought back to force a decider which Zhao eventually won 73-66 on the black.

Ricky Walden completed a 6-3 win over Li Hang with a break of 129, while there were also wins for Cao Yupeng and Xiao Guodong over Martin Gould and Robert Milkins respectively.

Elsewhere, Ronnie O’Sullivan moved into the last 32 after coming from behind to beat Robbie Williams, responding to falling 2-1 behind by winning five frames in a row to claim victory, registering breaks of 91, 74, 66 and 55.

The six-time world champion, who secured the most recent of his seven UK Championship titles in 2018, said: “I have been enjoying it so much that it took the edge off my game.

“I thought maybe I should start applying myself a bit more mentally.

“If I had not got my act together he would have probably taken advantage and won. I made him feel it out there and made him feel that I was there to try and win. I am going to try and not enjoy it this week and see what happens.”

O’Sullivan’s opponent in the next round will be Mark King, who defeated Gerard Greene 6-2.

Kyren Wilson also made safe progress as he whitewashed Jak Jones 6-0 – he will now meet China’s Wu Yize, a 6-4 victor over Hammad Miah.

John Higgins advanced with a 6-3 win over Sunny Akani, and Mark Allen saw off Joe O’Connor 6-4 to set up a clash with David Gilbert, who beat Alexander Ursenbacher 6-3.

John Astley, conqueror of 2020 champion Neil Robertson, fell to Mark Joyce, while Astley’s fellow amateur Si Jiahui, who knocked out Shaun Murphy in the previous round, was beaten 6-4 by Dominic Dale.

Barry Hawkins won 6-1 against Gao Yang and Jack Lisowski defeated Martin O’Donnell 6-4.

Yan Bingtao is out after losing 6-3 to Ben Woollaston.