UK Championship: Second Round Draw and Preview

The UK Championship resumes on Saturday with the start of the second round in the draw at the Barbican Centre in York.

Defending champion Neil Robertson and 2008 winner Shaun Murphy have already bitten the dust, beaten by two amateur top-ups at the opening hurdle in midweek.

However, the majority of the top-16 seeds remain in contention after safely negotiating their initial tests to reach the second round in the 2021 UK Championship draw.

While a couple of the highly fancied competitors have been accounted for already, several heavy hitters remain in the hunt for the £200,000 top prize.

Judd Trump is the overall favourite in the betting market, and the recent Champion of Champions conqueror takes on Chris Wakelin in the last 64 on Sunday afternoon.

Trump memorably triumphed in the UK Championship a decade ago, but he has so far been unable to add to his Triple Crown tally in this particular tournament since then.

Seven-time UK champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, reigning world champion Mark Selby, and the in-form John Higgins are among the others who are expected to feature prominently.

The Rocket faces Robbie Williams next, while Selby and Higgins encounter Hossein Vafaei and Sunny Akani respectively.

Ding Junhui, Mark Williams, and Stephen Maguire are the other former UK Championship winners who are still in the draw for the second round.

For Ding, the upcoming week is extremely important in terms of his aspirations to hold onto his status as an elite player among the top 16 in the world rankings.

The Chinese cueist, who meets Sam Craigie tomorrow, will lose the ranking points he gained from his 2019 success in York and is expected to drop outside the top 16, a result that would simultaneously cost the 34 year-old a spot in the Masters.

Welshman Williams entertains Anthony Hamilton, meanwhile, with 2004 UK champion Maguire in action against Tian Pengfei.

World number five Kyren Wilson plays Jak Jones, Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Allen tackles Joe O’Connor, while one of the ties of the round that doesn’t feature a top-ranked player is the meeting between attacking talents Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Zhao Xintong.

UK Championship Second Round Draw

Click here to view the schedule

TOP HALF

John Astley (a) vs Mark Joyce
Farakh Ajaib vs Jordan Brown
Anthony McGill (16) vs David Grace
Zhou Yuelong vs Ashley Hugill
Li Hang vs Ricky Walden
Anthony Hamilton vs Mark Williams (9)
Luca Brecel vs Tom Ford
Tian Pengfei vs Stephen Maguire (8)

Kyren Wilson (5) vs Jak Jones
Wu Yize vs Hammad Miah
Yan Bingtao (12) vs Ben Woollaston
Gary Wilson vs Liam Highfield
Noppon Saengkham vs Ali Carter
Stuart Carrington vs Stuart Bingham (13)
Mark King vs Gerard Greene
Robbie Williams vs Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)

BOTTOM HALF

Judd Trump (3) vs Chris Wakelin
Joe Perry vs Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins (14) vs Gao Yang
Martin Gould vs Cao Yupeng
Alexander Ursenbacher vs David Gilbert
Joe O'Connor vs Mark Allen (11)
Michael Holt vs Andy Hicks
Dominic Dale vs Si Jiahui (a)

John Higgins (7) vs Mark Allen
Zhao Xintong vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ding Junhui (10) vs Sam Craigie
Peter Lines vs Fan Zhengyi
Jimmy Robertson vs Graeme Dott
Martin O'Donnell vs Jack Lisowski (15)
Robert Milkins vs Xiao Guodong
Hossein Vafaei vs Mark Selby (2)

Live coverage of the UK Championship is on the BBC and Eurosport. Click here for other available options around the world.

Featured photo credit: WST