Ronnie O'Sullivan eases to opening win in title defence, Mark Williams out in first round

ByEurosport

Updated 15/02/2017 at 01:07 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan began the defence of his Welsh Open title with a comfortable 4-1 win over world number 35 Tom Ford in Cardiff.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the Masters six times.

Image credit: Eurosport

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The five-times world champion lost a scrappy opening frame against his fellow Englishman, but won the next four with breaks of 53, 101 and 47 on his way to completing a comfortable win.

O'Sullivan - who beat Neil Robertson 9-5 in last year's final for a fourth Welsh Open victory - will face Mark Davis in the round of 64.

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World champion Mark Selby eased through with a 4-0 win over Liam Highfield.

But home favourite Mark Williams suffered a shock 4-3 defeat to world number 115 Elliot Slessor with Slessor rolling in a closing 90 to complete his progress at the event.

"It's been the biggest win of my career," said 22-year-old Slessor. "I feel like I can win any match, but also lose any match."

Slessor lost the first frame, but won the next three frames boosted by a couple of 50 knocks.

Williams restored parity at 3-3 with runs of 69 and 52, but a fine 90 break was enough to end the Welshman's hopes.

2014 finalist Ding Junhui is also out of the tournament after suffering a 4-2 loss to Robin Hull.

Judd Trump wasted little time in completing a 4-1 win over 2007 Welsh Open finalist Andrew Higginson in the evening's opening match.

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Trump set the highest break of the tournament mark with a run of 140 in the fourth frame while also running in 102, 52 and 56.

Scottish Open champion Marco Fu recovered from his 6-4 defeat to Ryan Day in the World Grand Prix semi-finals in Preson on Saturday with a 4-2 win over Martin Gould.

But there was an early exit for the in-form Masters finalist Joe Perry, who went down 4-3 to Scotland's Anthony McGill.