Jimmy Robertson scored his best result in recent months as he came from 2-0 down to beat Mark Allen 4-2 in the first round of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong.
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Robertson started the current season strongly, notably knocking out John Higgins and Kyren Wilson on his way to the quarter-finals of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in September, and he has now claimed another huge scalp with victory over world number seven Allen.
The result keeps alive Robertson's hopes of qualifying for this month's Sportsbet.io Players Championship in Telford as he now lies 20th in the Johnstone's Paint One-Year Rankings and if he reaches the final he will jump into the top 16. Allen is defending champion in that event but defeat today means his place in Telford is not secure yet.
Breaks of 50 and 63 gave Allen the first two frames, but Robertson then dominated by taking four in a row with top runs of 65, 68 and 50 as he set up a last 16 tie with Mark Selby on Thursday evening.
Barry Hawkins added another win to his superb season with a 4-1 win over Tom Ford. Hawkins was runner-up in both the Victorian Plumbing UK Championship and Machineseeker German Masters as well as reaching the quarter-finals of last week's Weide Cup World Open. Breaks of 126 and 105 today helped him set up a second round fixture with Shaun Murphy.
"It's looking like one of my best seasons ever," said Hawkins, who is seventh on the one-year list. "I haven't won anything but I have been very consistent and hopefully I can still pick up a trophy. My main aim at the start of season was to be in the top 16 for the Crucible so I have done that already.
"I am over the moon to beat Tom because since winning the Shoot Out he's had confidence. It's an amazing venue and if I can get to the later rounds it will be a fantastic atmosphere."
That result ended Ford's hopes of qualifying for Telford, and also means he misses out on the top 16 status for the World Championship which he enjoyed last year.
China's top player Ding Junhui suffered a surprise 4-3 defeat against Xu Si. Ding led 3-2 with top breaks of 78 and 108 but Xu won the sixth with a run of 81 then dominated the decider with 43 and 24. He now meets Hossein Vafaei, who took full advantage of his late call up in place of Ronnie O'Sullivan as he edged out Si Jiahui 4-3.