NEIL Robertson continued his impressive start to the new campaign after winning his first match of the Australian Goldfields Open.

After retaining his Wuxi Classic title over the weekend, Robertson stretched his winning run further in his home tournament after coming back from behind to beat Andrew Higginson 5-2.

Breaks of 66, 94 and 89 helped Robertson steer into the last 16 of the tournament after recovering from 2-1 behind.

Following his triumph last week, Robertson is yet to lose a game this season and including the end of last season has won 16 out of 18 matches.

The Australian will play Welshman Jamie Jones in the next round after he recorded one of the most surprising results in the competition so far by beating Stephen Maguire 5-0 in the first round.

Robert Milkins and Matthew Stevens yesterday (Tuesday) were the first players to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.

But first round matches resumed today (Wednesday) to allow the likes of Robertson and Joe Perry a breather following their success in the Wuxi Classic which only concluded on Sunday.

However Perry, who lost to Robertson 10-9 in that dramatic final, suffered an early exit in Bendigo losing 5-4 to Alan McManus.

Barry Hawkins, who reached the semi-finals of the Wuxi Classic also went out in the first round after a 5-2 defeat to Peter Ebdon in what was a repeat of the 2012 Australian Open final.

Elsewhere, Judd Trump hit two century breaks in a 5-2 win over Rory McLeod and Martin Gould continued his good form with a 5-3 win over last month’s Yixing Open finalist Michael Holt.

Earlier in the tournament, Fergal O’Brien produced a shock by beating Mark Allen 5-2 but then lost to Stevens in the second round.

Four times world champion John Higgins’ wait for more silverware continued when he lost to Milkins 5-2 in the second round.

All last 16 games come to a conclusion tomorrow (Thursday) before the quarter-finals take place on Friday.

 

Australian Open 2014 – Last 16 Draw:

Neil ROBERTSON vs Jamie JONES
Robert MILKINS 5-2 John HIGGINS
Stuart BINGHAM vs Mark JOYCE
Mark DAVIS vs Shaun MURPHY
Judd TRUMP vs Alan McMANUS
Martin GOULD vs Ricky WALDEN
Matthew STEVENS 5-2 Fergal O’BRIEN
Xiao GUODONG vs Peter EBDON