Snooker news - Judd Trump beats Peter Ebdon in scrappy English Open first-round clash

Trump has already picked up one title so far this season, beating Shaun Murphy to claim the International Championship in Daqing, and starts this week as second-favourite to Ronnie O'Sullivan in Crawley.

But the world champion was far from his brilliant best, with neither player able to make a single break of more than 48, but Trump was afforded plenty of opportunities by an equally scratchy Ebdon.

He will now face either world No 71 Sam Baird or No 56 Daniel Wells for a place in the third round and will hope to produce some better performances later on in the week.

"It was a bit scrappy. I found it quite hard out there," Trump admitted afterwards.

"It's always difficult getting up for the first few rounds. You just want to get through as easy as possible.

"I'm not too disappointed [with the way I played]. I'm through to the next round.

"It's always difficult to get your rhythm against Peter because he plays a little bit slower but it was my own fault that I played a few easy balls and ended up getting a little bit bogged down."

Elsewhere, Ronnie O'Sullivan survived a scare to beat Jamie O'Neill 4-3, while Mark Selby fought back from a frame down to beat Barry Pinches 4-2 to secure his place in the second round. Pinches took the second and third frames to lead Selby 2-1, before the 2017 World Champion won three straight frames with breaks of 103 and 130.

World No 17 Ali Carter suffered an early exit at the hands Scotland's Alan McManus, losing 4-2. McManus raced into a two-frame lead and while Carter pulled one frame back, the Englishman was always one step behind as McManus restored his two set lead and closed the match out with the game-high break of 76.

Ding Junhui was also on the receiving end of a surprise defeat as he went out at the hands of veteran Welshman Dominic Dale after losing 4-3.

And Stuart Bingham edged a 4-3 thriller against Poland's Kacper Filipiak. Filipiak recovered from two frames down, registering a break of 100 in the process, but the England world No 13 responded with a break of 103 to go 3-2 ahead. Filipiak responded once more to level the match at 3-3, but Bingham saw off his opponent with a break of 111 to scrape into the second round.

Tuesday sees 2018 finalist Mark Davis taking on another former world champion Graeme Dott, while Kyren Wilson faces off against 2016 English Open champion Liang Wenbo .

The English Open is part of the Home Nations Series, also comprising the Northern Ireland Open, the Scottish Open and the Welsh Open, with a bonus of £1 million on offer to any player who can win all four tournaments in the same season.

The 128-player field are competing for prize money of £366,000, broken down as follows:

Si Jiahui 4-0 Soheil Vahedi

Ben Woollaston 4-3 Andrew Higginson

Gerard Greene 3-4 Tian Pengfei

Matthew Stevens 2-4 Xu Si

Duane Jones 3-4 Lu Ning

Yan Bingtao 3-4 Mei Xi Wen

Barry Hawkins 4-0 Amine Amiri

Tom Ford 4-0 Peter Lines

Fan Zhengyi 4-3 Riley Parsons

Anthony McGill 2-4 Chris Wakelin

Martin Gould 3-4 Sunny Akani

Kurt Maflin 4-3 Noppon Saengkham

Joe Perry 4-1 Mark Lloyd

Judd Trump 4-0 Peter Ebdon

Stuart Bingham 4-3 Kacper Filipiak

Ali Carter 2-4 Alan McManus

Anthony Hamilton 4-2 Zhang Jiankang

Ryan Davies 4-2 Peifan Lei

Xiao Guodong 4-2 Rod Lawler

Mark Selby 4-2 Barry Pinches

Mark King 0-4 Robbie Williams

Zhou Yuelong 4-2 Michael White

Ding Junhui 3-4 Dominic Dale

Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Robert Milkins

Joe O’Connor 4-2 Ian Burns

Michael Holt 4-1 James Cahill

Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-3 Jamie O’Neill

Alfie Burden 4-3 Andy Hicks

Harvey Chandler 2-4 Mike Dunn