Snooker news - Ronnie O'Sullivan hits three straight centuries in Belfast opener, Murphy crashes out

ByEurosport

Updated 13/11/2018 at 22:45 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan made a blistering start to his Northern Ireland Open campaign with a 4-0 win over world number 97 Soheil Vahedi in Belfast.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is in fine form at the English Open

Image credit: PA Sport

But 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy is out in the first round having suffered a 4-2 loss to Sam Baird at the city's Waterfront Hall with world number 110 Baird closing out a shock win courtesy of a closing break of 105.

Fresh from winning the Champion of Champions tournament in Coventry with a 10-9 win over Kyren Wilson on Sunday evening, the five-times world champion O'Sullivan flew into Belfast on Tuesday morning and made a flying start against an opponent who has lost all seven matches this season.

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Clocking up an average shot time of 14 seconds and a match that finished in under 45 minutes (officially 44 minutes and 59 seconds), O'Sullivan made breaks of 86, 111, 116 and 108 to power through.

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Vahedi had his chances in the first frame, but was blown away amassing only 49 points in four frames.

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World number one Mark Selby looked shared as he overcame Anthony Hamilton 4-1.

Selby started quickly with breaks of 85 and 122 as he took the opening two frames before Hamilton got on the board with a break of 59.

However, Hamilton was unable to build on that and the former world champion secured the two frames needed to move into the next round where he will face Jimmy Robertson.

Marco Fu's poor form continued as he was beaten 4-2 by Chen Feilong.

Northern Ireland Open - first round results

Mark King 4-0 John Astley
David B Gilbert 4-1 Fergal O'Brien
Mei Xiwen 4-0 Zhang Jiankang
Hammad Miah 4-2 Basem Eltahhan
Chris Totten 4-3 Dominic Dale
Lu Ning 4-3 Craig Steadman
Kishan Hirani 4-3 Jak Jones
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 Soheil Vahedi
Robbie Williams 4-0 Simon Lichtenberg
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-0 Robert Milkins
Peter Ebdon 4-0 Patrick Wallace
Chen Feilong 4-2 Marco Fu
Alan McManus 4-0 Allan Taylor
Ross Muir 4-1 Elliot Slessor
Mark Selby 4-1 Anthony Hamilton
Sean O'Sullivan 4-1 Andy Lee
Scott Donaldson 4-1 Ken Doherty
Sanderson Lam 4-3 Joe O'Connor
Jack Lisowski 4-0 Hossein Vafaei
Sam Baird 4-2 Shaun Murphy
Zhang Anda 4-3 Yan Bingtao
Jimmy Robertson 4-1 James Cahill
Judd Trump 4-2 Matthew Selt
Joe Swail 4-1 Luke Simmonds
Robin Hull 4-1 Jordan Brown
Matthew Stevens 4-3 Ricky Walden
David Lilley 4-2 Duane Jones
Hamza Akbar 4-2 Ashley Hugill
Martin O'Donnell 4-3 Jimmy White

Northern Ireland Open

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