The British Open was making it’s first return to the snooker calendar after 17 years away and looks very different from the last event back in 2004. The first four rounds are played over a quickfire best-of-five format.
The draw system in place has also thrown up some interesting ties in round one with the likes of Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins all in action.
There was also the notable match between former partners Mark Allen and Reanne Evans.
12-time women’s world champion Evans had a bitter row with Evans at the Crucible earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the BBC said at the time: “For the sake of ten minutes, Reanne left the players’ practice room so Mark Allen could practise before his match without distraction upon his request.
“Her broadcast commitments weren’t affected.”
And there were more fireworks between the pair ahead of their first-round match at the British Open.
Evans reached out to his former partner with a fistbump, but the gesture was completely ignored by Evans.
Higgins enters the British Open as the defending champion, albeit from 17 years ago, and he got off to the perfect start by rattling in his 12th-career 147 break.
That edged him ahead of seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry in the all-time list for the iconic feat.
“It was a brilliant first frame for me getting the , and a great way to start the tournament. And to do it there in front of a crowd after the last couple of years felt really good.
“The atmosphere was there when I was going for it. And to get above Stephen Hendry in anything is special without a doubt, there aren’t many times that is the case.
British Open results LIVE
Monday 16th August
Ian Burns 3-1 Michael White
Bai Langning 3-0 Ashley Carty
Robbie Williams 3-1 Sunny Akani
Joe O’Connor 3-2 Steven Hallworth
Xu Si 3-2 Fan Zhengyi
John J Astley 3-1 Zhang Anda
Liang Wenbo 3-1 Simon Lichtenberg
Jordan Brown 3-2 Andrew Higginson
Dylan Emery 3-2 Gao Yang
Jak Jones 3-2 Lyu Haotian
John Higgins 3-1 Alexander Ursenbacher
Louis Heathcote 3-2 Yuan SiJun
Hammad Miah 3-2 Ben Woollaston
Chen Zifan 3-0 Farakh Ajaib
Ken Doherty 3-0 Zak Surety
Martin O’Donnell 3-2 Gerard Greene
Mark Williams 3-0 Tian Pengfei
Jimmy White 3-0 Aaron Hill
Matthew Selt 3-2 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Judd Trump 3-2 Mitchell Mann
David Lilley 3-1 Craig Steadman