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Former champions Judd Trump, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy all gained first-round victories on the opening day of the 2025 UK Championship at York Barbican.
Trump, who won this event in 2024 and 2011, defeated Scotland's Stephen Maguire 6-4 in an entertaining clash to move into the last 16 where he will play China's Si Jiahui.
Higgins and Murphy then set up a thrilling last-16 tie after they recorded 6-2 successes against Ben Woollaston and Lyu Hoatian respectively.
Trump has not won a tournament since his success at the same venue 12 months ago. He lost in the final of the Players Championship, the Northern Ireland Open and the Champion of Champions and reached the semi-finals of the Masters, the Championship League, World Grand Prix, the World Championship and the Snooker Championship in Saudi Arabia.
He will not be playing in the Scottish Open in Edinburgh in the week before Christmas so this is his last chance to win an event in 2025, although he has still been happy with his performances over the past 12 months.
"It has been a decent year, a solid six or seven out of 10 with a lot of positives," said 36-year-old Trump. "I reached the semi-finals of the Masters, the semi-finals of the Worlds, reached four finals. On that basis you could say I'm one of the in-form players of the year.
"Even if I won here, it would not be a good year compared to other seasons - unless I win seven events in a season then it won't do anything for me. So much is expected of me, if I don't win straight away there's more pressure and you don't have that time when you're at the top.
"Having so many good years in a row, it brings you back down to earth and you just have to work harder. I still really want to win every event and I'm not miles away."
Earlier in the season, Trump had experimented with using a different cue - one with a titanium ferrule rather than a traditional brass one - but he was back to using his old cue in York.
"It's the same cue but it's not going to last forever," said Trump. "I didn't want to switch before the UK Championship. After this tournament I have a month to figure it out. I will definitely be trying out more cues. I hate changing cues, I stray away from it completely. I just felt I needed more consistency, more power."
Maguire, the 2004 winner, made breaks of 86, 111, 82 and 86 but also made costly errors, with Trump stealing the eighth frame on a respotted black having trailed 26-61.
For 44-year-old Maguire, he was left fuming and blamed the table after he missed a vital shot in the seventh frame. With the score 3-3 and him leading 24-1, he missed what appeared to be straightforward red into the middle pocket.
"When you play a shot into the middle and the white takes off, I nearly missed the red completely, it's supposed to be the second biggest tournament in the world," said Maguire.
"How can you not get the table up to scratch? The table played well apart from that slate, the bags [pockets] were tight for both of us. That match was there for the winning, it was a simple shot. Judd did not know what day it was. Through no fault of my own, I'm out of the tournament.
"There's no way he played better than me. There's no positives there. I thought I had a lot more to give in this tournament. I feel a bit hard done by, but it's not sour grapes."
Trump added: "If that goes in it would have been a completely different game and he would've been 4-3 up, so I can sympathise."
In response to the criticism of the table, a statement from the World Snooker Tour (WST) said: "We always listen to feedback from players and will check any issues raised."
In the evening session, three-time UK champion Higgins and 2008 winner Murphy won their matches to set up what promises to be one of the best last-16 matches.
"Winning is all that matters," said Murphy following his 6-2 win over Lyu, a victory that saw the Englishman win five frames in a row as he recovered from 2-1 down.
"It's just like the World Championship in the first round. I watched every single ball of [qualifying] Judgement Day, I love it, then you realise you're going to play one of these guys that are really sharp, match fit and they have a fair crack at it.
"I played nicely in parts, a few mistakes, but delighted to get through and the small matter of John Higgins next."
Higgins and Mark Williams are already 50 years old, with Ronnie O'Sullivan reaching that landmark on Friday, and Murphy felt the trio were a snooker inspiration.
"What they continue to achieve, spurring each other on, is remarkable," added Murphy, 43. "John has been a big help in my career, I watched him a lot and I just hope I don't have to watch him too much in the next round.
"It has shown what the rest of us can do if you keep your heads down. When I first started playing snooker, you thought your career would be over by 40, but they have been the trailblazers."
Higgins won two frames against Woollaston on the black and made five half-century breaks during the match.
"Ben will be kicking himself. He should have won frames two and three, I made some good clearances," said Higgins
"I played Shaun in China and I managed to win, but he beat me the last couple of times before that. He hits the ball like an absolute dream so I hope it's a good game.
"Winning the Masters [in January] has given him extra confidence and he is so dangerous when he is playing well. It's Scotland against England."
Earlier on, Si became the first man through to the last 16 after making easy work of Wales' Ryan Day with a 6-0 victory in just over two hours.
The Welshman failed to register a single point in four of those six frames, scoring only 55 points in total compared to 521 from Si, who made breaks of 61, 80 and 68.
Sixteenth seed Si also potted 151 balls, with only 16 from Day, whose highest break of the afternoon was only 22.
