YUSHAN, CHINA, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- World No.1 Mark Selby and Ding Junhui both enjoyed victories of qualification round at the 2017 Snooker World Open held in Yushan County, Jiangxi Province, China.
The first four frames were shared between Mark Selby and Thai Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn. After the mid-session interval, the world No. 1 dominated the rest of the match by winning three consecutive frames to secure his berth at the first round.
"I didn't start off very well and probably should have been 3-1 down at the interval," said Mark Selby. "After the break I thought I played a bit better, but I will need to improve as the tournament goes on."
Home favorite Ding had a comfortable 4-0 start before the interval against Hammad Miah.
The latter seized his only opportunity in a chaotic fifth frame before Ding booked his first round clash with Zhang Anda with 82-7.
"I had plenty of chances in the match to take lead," said Ding, "It felt like I was playing in exercise."
Akani Songsermsawad took a 4-2 lead with impressive back to back century breaks of 101 and 119 points before English Open champion Liang Wenbo won three frames in a row to come through with 5-4.
The week-long competition offers a total prize of 700,000 pounds with the champion pocketing 150,000.