Half of the 16 first-round ties have been played, with seven UK Championship seeds managing to safely reach the next stage in York.
The tournament’s early stages have often produced story lines involving lower-ranked players riding the momentum from the qualifiers, but aside from one instance, the seeds have generally looked in control.
Xiao Guodong was the first player from the top 16 of the world rankings to be sent packing from the Barbican Centre.
The reigning Wuhan Open champion compiled a brace of century breaks but still lost 6-2 to fellow Chinese competitor Pang Junxu on Sunday evening.
Pang emerged from the qualifiers with victories over Liam Highfield and Noppon Saengkham, and it was somewhat expected that the players from the preliminary competition would have a bit of edge considering their relative match sharpness.
But before Pang’s triumph over Xiao, there had been a 100 per cent record of UK Championship seeds advancing to the second round.
Part of this might, in fact, be because of the reintroduction of the tiered draw a few years back with seeds knowing that an early exit now carries greater weight than it did in the past, especially in terms of ranking points through the importance of at least winning their first games.
Reigning champion Judd Trump got the ball rolling on Saturday afternoon with a hard-fought 6-4 triumph over Stephen Maguire.
The other games on the opening day of the venue stages were completely dominated by the higher-ranked contenders.
Si Jiahui thrashed Ryan Day with a whitewash display while John Higgins and Shaun Murphy recorded 6-2 wins over Ben Woollaston and Lyu Haotian respectively.
Moving into Sunday, Neil Robertson launched his bid to win the title for the fourth time with a comprehensive 6-2 defeat of Julien Leclercq.
Recent International Championship winner Wu Yize held off a late fight back from Michael Holt to win 6-4, the same margin that Mark Williams pipped David Gilbert by.
There are still eight more first-round clashes to be played across Monday and Tuesday’s order of play.
Headlining day three will be world champion Zhao Xintong, who entered this year’s UK Championship as the pre-tournament favourite in the outright market at a lot of outlets.
Last month’s Riyadh Season Snooker Championship winner is involved in one of two all-Chinese battles in the afternoon session.
Zhao faces Long Zehuang while fellow former UK champion Ding Junhui is in action against Xu Si.
Later on Monday, Mark Allen will enter the fray against Scott Donaldson with Gary Wilson entertaining Zhang Anda.
It’ll then be the concluding stretch of the opening round on Tuesday with all eyes on how Ronnie O’Sullivan will fare as he begins his bid for a record-extending ninth UK crown.
The Rocket encounters Zhou Yuelong in the last 32 and could play Mark Selby in a mouthwatering last-16 fixture if the latter can also overcome Lei Peifan.
The remaining two matches see Kyren Wilson play Elliot Slessor and Barry Hawkins – the runner-up a year ago – take on David Lilley.
2025 UK Championship last-32 draw and schedule
Round 1 (bo11)
(Times in UTC/GMT)
Judd Trump (1) 6-4 Stephen Maguire
Si Jiahui (16) 6-0 Ryan Day
Ding Junhui (9) vs Xu Si (Mon, 1pm)
Mark Allen (8) vs Scott Donaldson (Mon, 7pm)
Mark Williams (5) 6-4 David Gilbert
Xiao Guodong (12) 2-6 Pang Junxu
Wu Yize (13) 6-4 Michael Holt
Neil Robertson (4) 6-2 Julien Leclercq
Kyren Wilson (3) vs Elliot Slessor (Tues, 7pm)
Barry Hawkins (14) vs David Lilley (Tues, 7pm)
Mark Selby (11) vs Lei Peifan (Tues, 1pm)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (6) vs Zhou Yuelong (Tues, 1pm)
John Higgins (7) 6-2 Ben Woollaston
Shaun Murphy (10) 6-2 Lyu Haotian
Gary Wilson (15) vs Zhang Anda (Mon, 7pm)
Zhao Xintong (2) vs Long Zehuang (Mon, 1pm)
Featured photo credit: WST
