Mark Joyce battles back for victory

The Walsall player, who fell to a last 64 defeat against world No.4 Kyren Wilson at last week’s UK Championship, edged past China’s Xu Si 4-2 in the third Home Nations event of the season in Milton Keynes.

World No.57 Joyce says the tables felt alien on Monday morning but breathed a sigh of relief after finding his feet and advancing to Wednesday’s next round.

“I thought the table played totally differently to last week,” said Joyce, 37.

“They’ve obviously been re-clothed and first thing Monday morning, they just play really trappy, slidy and a little bit heavy. In the UK last week, they were a bit squarer and definitely quicker.

“I’ve got to just adapt a lot quicker – it caught me out a little bit during the first half an hour of the match and I put myself under a bit of pressure at 2-0 down.

“Luckily, I managed to nick a big third frame and that seemed to change the game a little bit. I scored pretty heavy.

“I’m not complaining about the table – the table was absolutely beautiful, it’s a matter of getting used to it, because obviously it’s absolutely brand new.”

Joyce toppled Israel’s Eden Sharav in the first round of the UK Championship and was bidding to bounce back from his defeat against Wilson in front of the televised table lights.

And he did that in style at the Scottish Open, showing his resolve to strike breaks of 108, 56 and 53 to keep his hope of emulating his third round appearances in 2017 and 2018 alive.

Joyce, a two-time UK Championship quarter-finalist in 2010 and 2017, will next meet world No.34 Ben Woollaston in the second round on Wednesday.

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