SHEFFIELD: Australian cueist and the tournament’s favourite Neil Robertson has defeated the debutant Ashley Hugill by 10-5 to proceed to the second round of the ongoing World Snooker Championship 2022, here on Tuesday.

The world number two Robertson, who faced the Englishman Hugill in his first match of the campaign, defeated the latter by 10-5 in the Best of 19.

The in-form Robertson started his world championship campaign with a century as the second-ranked cueist piled 127 points in the opening frame.

The debutant then bounced back swiftly and took an early lead by claiming the next three frames.

Robertson, however, hit back in devastating fashion as a run of eight frames in a row put him just one short of a comfortable victory.

Hugill then looked to pull things back into his favour by winning the next two frames and cutting the margin to 9-5.

In the 15th frame of the match, the tournament’s favourite Robertson then sealed the victory as the second-ranked scored another century to increase his total match tally to five. His best break of 132 in this match came in the ninth frame.

The 2015 champion Stuart Bingham, on the other hand, also made it to the second round after securing a convincing victory over China’s Lyu Haotian.

ROUND 1 RESULTS

Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-5 David Gilbert
Mark Selby 10-7 Jamie Jones
Jackson Page 10-7 Barry Hawkins
Zhao Xintong 10-2 Jamie Clarke
Stephen Maguire 10-8 Shaun Murphy
Mark Williams 10-3 Michael White
Anthony McGill 10-7 Liam Highfield
Mark Allen 10-6 Scott Donaldson
Neil Robertson 10-5 Ashley Hugill
Stuart Bingham 10-5 Lyu Haotian
Yan Bingtao 10-6 Chris Wakelin