Star Xing Pai Haikou World Open Day One

Hainan Island, China

Michael Holt made a century in the deciding frame to edge out Zhu Yinghui 5-4 at the 2012 Haikou World Open.

Nottingham's Holt survived a scare against 17-year-old Zhu, one of the crop of young Chinese wildcards. Holt's heavy scoring was ultimately the difference as he weighed in with three centuries: 101 in the first and last frames and a tournament high 135 in the third.

With the match poised at 3-3, Zhu missed a relatively easy black and Holt took full advantage to edge into the lead in what was the turning point of the match. Zhu levelled at 4-4 with a 69 clearance before Holt clinched victory with his third ton.
"He played well and didn't do much wrong," said Holt, who now plays Stuart Bingham. "He should have won really as he missed that black to go 4-3. I was a bit lucky even though I made some good breaks."

Lu Ning, an 18 year-old from Jilin, gained a hard-fought win over veteran Nigel Bond to set up a last 32 match against World No.1 Mark Selby.

It was a scrappy affair with only two 50 plus breaks, a 51 from Bond to win the third frame and a 94 from Lu to give himself a 4-3 lead. In the end a run of 43 in the decider saw Lu over the line. “Before the match I didn't really think I would win but as the match progressed I really started to believe that I could,” said a delighted Lu.
One other Chinese wild card knocked out his professional opponent as 30-year-old Jin Long scored a 5-3 win over England's Sam Baird to set up a last 16 meeting with Ding Junhui.

Jin opened up a 3-0 lead with breaks of 50 and 60 before Devon-based Baird pulled one back before the mid-session interval. Jin made it 4-1 when they resumed but breaks of 73 and 56 from Baird gave him every chance, before his opponent stole the match-winning frame on the black.

Day one results (wild card round):
Sam Baird (ENG) 3-5 Jin Long (CHN)
Tom Ford (ENG) 5-4 Lu Haotian (CHN)
Mark King (ENG) 5-2 Hossein Vafaei Ayori (IRI)
Robert Milkins (ENG) 5-3 Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon (THA)
Jimmy Robertson (ENG) 5-2 Zhou Yuelong (CHN)
Joe Perry (ENG) 5-0 Rouzi Maimaiti (CHN)
Michael Holt (ENG) 5-4 Zhu Yinghui (CHN)
Nigel Bond (ENG) 4-5 Lu Ning (CHN)

The first round proper starts on Tuesday, with the £400,000 world ranking tournament running until Sunday.