Captain gives Davis his marching orders
Allister Carter started his Welsh Open title defence in style with a 5-1 defeat of Mark Davis
Carter couldn't have started the defence of his Welsh title in more convincing fashion. A superb 120 break in the first fame put him firmly on the front foot.
However a rather bitty second went to his oppenent after Davis made 41 and finally cleared blue to black.
A late run of 38 gave Carter the lead again after the players had parried with a couple of twenty plus breaks early in the frame.
Carter won the fourth to take a 3-1 interval lead with a 57 made on his first visit to the table.
The fifth frame proved pivotal. Carter totally mis-judged a safety shot, cannoning a red to leave the white amongst the reds, but Davis missed a tricky red to the corner and left the Essex man in for a run of 33.
Carter closed out the match with an effort of 64 in the sixth frame.
"I'm pleased to get that match out of the way", commented Carter after the match.
"It was a potential banana skin avoided.
"I was excited last week, I couldn't wait to get down here and start playing.
"It doesn't really feel any different coming to the tournament as defending Champion, but it's nice to be introduced as The Champion, that's a nice feeling and gives you that little extra edge of confidence.
"But that was all a year ago, and this is now. My season hasn't really got going. It's been a bit stop, start.
"When you play top players all the time, you know you can't win every match.
"We all go through good and bad spells. You enjoy it when it's your turn and if it's not then you just wait for your turn to come round again.
Carter now goes through to play Neil Robertson in the Last 16, on Wednesday evening.
Robertson was in cruise control as he secured a 5-2 win over Chinese qualifier Liu Song.
The Aussie smacked in breaks of 92, 41, 129 and 43, while Song's best effort was 48.
Marco Fu was the second seed of the day to get knocked out. Andrew Higginson, a former Welsh Open runner up, won a high scoring match 5-2.
Higginson fired in back to back breaks of 94 to take a 2-0 lead and followed that with 70 and a 122 clearance to open an almost unassailable 4-0 gap.
Fu came back after the interval with 105, and won the next with 45, but Higginson held on to close out the match.
