2014 UK Championship - Robertson overcomes thriller match

Defending champ, Neil Robertson struggled

The second day of the televised stages of the UK Championship and the surprises are hitting us at full speed: defending UK champion, Neil Robertson kept everyone on their tenterhooks as he started the battle against Englishman Kyren Wilson by being in not such a good form, while in the opposite corner Ken Doherty was putting the youngster Michael White in all sorts of trouble after being lead 3-0 down.

Defending UK champion Neil Robertson entered the arena by carrying a cricket bat, as his way to pay tribute to the late Philip Hughes who sadly died last Thursday after a match injury.

But as the match developed it was becoming clearer and clearer that Neil wasn't at his best, in the first frame over-cutting a red on 35 and leaving Kyren with the chance to capitalize; which he did after two runs, of 44 and 25.

Neil managed to hit a 90 and draw level, minutes later as the mid-session interval was kicking off the lads being once again all square at two apiece.

Kyren almost getting over the line

After the mini-break the Aussie scrapped his way to take the lead, but Wilson replayed by taking the next frame on a respotted black.

Going hand in hand, the scoreline soon turned into 5-4 in favour of Wilson who had a magnificent 87 clearance, and also seemed to have a great chance in prevailing the cues battle.

A very edgy 10^th frame saw a lot of chances being wasted by both players, but in the end it was down to the colours, Kyren failing to obtain a good position on the last brown, thus Robertson managing to pot it and also score a perfect 86 break in the next frame for a 6-5 final scoreline.

After the match, Neil tweeted: "Somehow scrapped through today! So happy I could take the bat out."

Ken Doherty is through to the next round after beating Michael White by 6-4, in a spectacular match which saw the Irishman having to put on quite a comeback show from being 3-0 down.

But if someone can do it, that's "The darling of Dublin", so Kenny took his time into building himself a nice strategy and hit in breaks of 73, 109 and 52 not just to overcome the deficit, but also to beat his opponent.

Ronnie O'Sullivan not happy ab playing conditions

His Twitter message was rather moving: "How could I lose today on my son's birthday, happy birthday Christian, sorry I couldn't be there ;( ".

Mark Allen whitewashed Luca Brecel by 6-0, while Peter Ebdon beat Norway's Kurt Maflin by 6-1.

The second part of the day made its debut with the match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Peter Lines, a match that was short of fireworks, but became pretty tense in certain moments.

Clearly in pain about his ankle, but looking better than when he played against Daniel Wells, Ronnie took the first three frames of the match with just a top break of 54.

Peter managed to get one on board as the mid-session interval was starting, but after the break O'Sullivan made a 106 clearance to which he added a frame won on the black for a 5-1 lead.

Lines kept the match alive by firing in runs of 41, 31 and 54 to win the next two frames, but "The Rocket" sealed the deal with a 74 and 33 for a final 6-3 victory.

Peter Lines

After the match, O'Sullivan complained about the playing conditions, about the poor organisation of the tournament, the table playing strangely and the format of bringing 128 players in a tiny place like the Barbican Centre. You can read more about his press conference here.

Shaun Murphy has also qualified for the next round after beating Robin Hull, 6-3, the some scoreline being registered by Stuart Bingham in front of Alfie Burden. I must also add that Stu hit a great 142 break, which is at the moment, the highest of the competition.

Below you can check the Sunday's scorelines:

Kurt Maflin 1-6 Peter Ebdon
Rod Lawler 6-5 Martin Gould
Mark Davis 6-4 Liam Highfield
Luca Brecel 0-6 Mark Allen
Rory McLeod 6-5 Zhang Anda
Ken Doherty 6-4 Michael White
Yu DeLu 4-6 Stephen Maguire
Neil Robertson 6-5 Kyren Wilson

Alfie Burden 3-6 Stuart Bingham
Tom Ford 3-6 Joel Walker
Matther Selt 6-4 Xiao Guodong
Joe Perry 6-1 Mike Dunn
Ben Woollaston 6-3 Tony Drago
Liang Wenbo 3-6 Jack Lisowski
Peter Lines 3-6 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Robin Hull