Home favourite Jordan Brown booked his place in the Third Round of the Northern Ireland Open as a number of big names exited the competition at Waterfront Hall.
The Antrim man secured his spot thanks to a late fightback against Michael Holt, who was leading 3-2 in the pair’s Second Round clash before Brown clinched the final two frames to seal a date with Scott Donaldson in Round Three.
Brown (39) will have the crowd’s backing in his duel with Donaldson having also defeated his good friend Mark Allen in the First Round on Tuesday, with the 40-year-old opening up on his mental health struggles and revealing he may have played his last game in snooker in an emotional post-match interview on TNT Sports.
There will be a new Northern Ireland Open champion either way as last year’s winner Jack Lisowski saw his title defence end early this time around.
The Englishman, who claimed his first ranking title with a Final success over Zhou Yuelong in Belfast 12 months ago, lost 4-1 to Scotsman Anthony McGill, who secured a Third Round date with Poland’s Mateusz Baranowski following his triumph.
Four-time world champion John Higgins was another to taste defeat, losing 4-2 to Welshman Jak Jones, with Stuart Bingham and Luca Brecel other high-profile performers to fall after respective reverses to Ka Wai Cheung (4-0) and Martin O’Donnell (4-2).
There were no such issues for Kyren Wilson or Mark Williams, however, with both world champions securing safe passage into the Third Round.
O’Donnell will have his sights set on claiming the scalp of Welshman Williams, who got the better of Zhang Anda 4-2, while Wilson will take on China’s Pang Junxu after defeating Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh by the same scoreline.
Elsewhere in the Third Round, there is an intriguing all-Wales affair between Jones and Daniel Wells in store, while two-time Northern Ireland Open Semi-Finalist Elliot Slessor takes on Ricky Walden.