Mark Selby looked impressive in a 6-0 second round victory over Oliver Lines at the UK Championship on Sunday.
The world no.1 began the match with a clinical century break of 133 and never looked back, reeling off six frame on the trot for a crushing victory.
Selby had a chance to make a maximum in the last frame but missed the 13th black, failing the opportunity to land £40,000 from the rolling 147 prize.
The Englishman wont worry too much about that, though, and looks well in the mood to challenge for a second UK Championship success.
That said, Selby could still later face stiff challenge from his main rivals as the majority of the bigger names safely negotiated the last 64.
In form duo Neil Robertson and Mark Allen both recorded 6-2 victories over Aditya Mehta and Michael Georgiou respectively, while Judd Trump was made to work a little harder in his 6-3 triumph over Stuart Carrington.
2004 champion Stephen Maguire showed a few more signs of a return in his confidence with a 6-0 drubbing of Jamie Cope and Ali Carter toppled Daniel Wells 6-4.
However, there were a few upsets on day five of the tournament.
Barry Hawkins was lucky to get away with escaping an early exit in the first round, but wasn’t to be so fortunate again as he was downed 6-3 by the dangerous Robin Hull – despite the latter not compiling a break above 50.
Ryan Day, meanwhile, who was hoping for a long run in York to try to muscle his way into contention for a spot at the Masters in January, crashed out after a 6-2 loss to Dechawat Poomjaeng.
Poomjaeng’s fellow Thai Thepchaiya Un-Nooh won the last two frames to deny Ireland’s Fergal O’Brien in a decider while 2006 champion Peter Ebdon, aided with an excellent 135, did likewise in his 6-5 win over Dominic Dale.
Sunday’s sports headlines were dominated by one Scottish tennis player’s almost solo victory over Belgium to win the Davis Cup for Great Britain.
But young Belgian Luca Brecel reversed the stakes in his bout with Anthony McGill, advancing to the last 32 with a hard-fought 6-4 victory.
Elsewhere, former Crucible quarter-finalist Jamie Jones comfortably beat China’s Xiao Guodong while there were wins for Englishmen Michael Holt, Mark Joyce, Matthew Selt and David Grace.
The latter earned an impressive 6-2 triumph over Robert Milkins to similarly end the Milkman’s hopes of being invited to the Masters.
