Higgins, Selby and Murphy progress to second round of Northern Ireland Open

By Press Association

John Higgins, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy safely reached the second round of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

World number five Higgins beat Chinese teenager Chang Bingyu 4-2, sixth-ranked Selby overcame Xu Si, also of China, by the same score and world number eight Murphy eased past Fraser Patrick 4-0.

David Gilbert, 10th in the rankings, lost 4-3 to Anthony Hamilton and China’s world number 16 Ding Junhui, Anthony McGill and James Wattana all bowed out.

World number one Judd Trump, beaten 10-9 by Neil Robertson in Sunday’s Champion of Champions final in Coventry, and Ronnie O’Sullivan are among those in action on Tuesday.