Aaron Hill got his new year off to a positive start by beating former champion Mark Williams in the German Masters on Tuesday.
The Irishman won the opening two frames before seeing the 2011 and 2018 winner fight back to restore parity at the mid-session interval.
Hill, though, subsequently took a couple of scrappy frames to lead 4-2 and completed the fine victory with a tidy 115 century break in the seventh frame.
The 22 year-old, ranked at number 59 in the official world rankings, is hoping for a strong week to ease any tour survival concerns.
Williams wasn’t the only big name who crashed out as the round of 64 concluded at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
Fellow top 16 member Gary Wilson suffered a 5-4 defeat at the hands of Daniel Wells, while 2021 finalist Jack Lisowski was beaten 5-3 by Alexander Ursenbacher.
Ryan Day, Noppon Saengkham, and Pang Junxu all exited the tournament with losses to lower-ranked contenders, albeit those results didn’t necessarily go down as shocks.
Day was denied in a close battle with Ricky Walden, Saengkham lost 5-4 to Jimmy Robertson, and Pang was pipped by the same scoreline by Anthony McGill.
The other notable seeds who were in action on day two of the calendar year’s opening ranking event managed to emerge unscathed, however.
Mark Selby and Luca Brecel overcame Liu Hongyu and Jiang Jun with respective 5-2 triumphs over the Chinese opposition.
Mark Allen had an even handier time of it – the Pistol enjoying a routine 5-0 success over David Lilley.
Si Jiahui, who was one hurdle shy of becoming the German Masters champion in 2024 when he lost to Judd Trump in the final, thrashed Ken Doherty by the same margin.
Xiao Guodong, Wu Yize, and Elliot Slessor were the other players to safely emerge with spots in the last 32.
The second round at the venue stages takes place on Wednesday with another busy day and three sessions of snooker to look forward to in the German capital.
2025 German Masters
Tuesday, January 28th
Results
Si Jiahui 5-0 Ken Doherty
Elliot Slessor 5-1 Lyu Haotian
Mark Selby 5-2 Liu Hongyu
Anthony McGill 5-4 Pang Junxu
Wu Yize 5-1 Jackson Page
Mark Allen 5-0 David Lilley
Luca Brecel 5-2 Jiang Jun
Xiao Guodong 5-3 Fan Zhengyi
Alexander Ursenbacher 5-3 Jack Lisowski
Aaron Hill 5-2 Mark Williams
Ricky Walden 5-3 Ryan Day
Jimmy Robertson 5-4 Noppon Saengkham
Daniel Wells 5-4 Gary Wilson
Wednesday, January 29th
Order of play
9am UTC
Yuan Sijun vs Ross Muir
Ben Woollaston vs Barry Hawkins
Si Jiahui vs Xiao Guodong
Zhang Anda vs Robert Milkins
Jak Jones vs John Higgins
Zhou Yuelong vs Kyren Wilson
2pm UTC
Judd Trump vs Joe O’Connor
Hammad Miah vs Neil Robertson
Mark Allen vs Wu Yize
Ali Carter vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Ricky Walden vs Dylan Emery
7pm UTC
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Shaun Murphy
Mark Selby vs Elliot Slessor
Tom Ford vs Daniel Wells
Jimmy Robertson vs Aaron Hill
Luca Brecel vs Anthony McGill
Click here for the latest scores and results
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST