It was a good day for the top 16 at the Sanyuan Foods China Open as Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and Marco Fu all negotiated the first round.
Hong Kong's Fu impressed in a 5-2 defeat of Belgium's Bjorn Haneveer, his first win in a ranking event match since the Roewe Shanghai Masters last September.
"Bjorn found it difficult to adjust to the speed of the table so maybe that helped me," said Fu, who received a confidence boost in winning last week's Championship League. "I changed my technique two months ago and that has proved worthwhile. I feel much better now than I did three or four months ago."
Australia's Robertson, who has never been past the last 16 of a ranking event in China, eased to a 5-2 win over Mike Dunn. From 1-1, Grand Prix winner Robertson flew through four of the last five frames with breaks of 112, 88, 102 and 66.
"I played very well, about the best I could," said the left-hander. "My performances in China have not been great in recent years so I want to do well this time and build up for the World Championship."
Williams saw off Stoke's Jamie Cope 5-3. The twice World Champion was tied at 3-3 depsite breaks of 67, 61 and 68, before pulling away to win the last two frames with a top run of 67.
"Jamie's more or less a top 16 player so I knew it would be difficult. My form has been good in practice and I played well all through the match today," said Welshman Williams. "The crowds here are always good and it's one of my favourite places to play."
World No 2 Maguire enjoyed a 5-3 success over Barry Hawkins
