Jamie can't cope with Aussie ace

Defending champion Neil Robertson wasted little time booking his place in the last 16 of this year’s Welsh Open.

The Aussie ace kept his title defence on track with an impressive 5-1 victory over Stoke young gun Jamie Cope at the £225,500 tournament at the Newport Centre.

Robertson now meets one of three possible players in the next round, with Matthew Stevens, Tian Pengfei and Ali Carter all still to play their first matches.

Stevens and Pengfei play each other tonight, with the winner set to play Carter for a place in the last 32 stage against the left hander from Melbourne.

Despite today’s win, Robertson revealed he has been struggling with his form and his fluency around the table.

“I haven’t had much rhythm, so today I tried to go out there and just attack the balls and try to grasp the match rather than waiting for my opponent to make mistakes,” he said.

“My average shot time was 30 seconds, and last year in the same tournament it was 13 seconds.

“Since the start of this season, I’ve been playing at a pedestrian rate, not as fluent and attacking as I was last season.

“Maybe I’ve been looking at too many options rather than playing the first shot I see, which is usually the best one.”

Robertson started the brighter against Cope, an opponent he beat 9-5 to land the Royal London Watches Grand Prix last season.

A break of 87 made it 1-0, before the world number seven won a scrappy second frame to double his advantage.

Cope, twice a ranking event runner-up last season, hit back with a cool 107 break to reduce his arrears, but it was Robertson who reeled off the next three frames for a deserved victory.

Runs of 77 and 71 made it 4-2, before the 26-year-old clinched the match with breaks of 41 and 34 in the next frame.

Meanwhile, Welshman Dominic Dale slipped to an agonising 5-2 loss to Scot Alan McManus.

One of this year’s local favourites, Dale pocketed a match high break of 53, but it was never going to be enough to beat the former World Championship semi-finalist.

McManus had a top break of 64, but most of the frames were scrappy as the Bearsden-based professional progressed.

In other matches, promising Bristol teenager Judd Trump pocketed breaks 48, 112, 123 and 60 in an impressive 5-2 victory over Ulsterman Joe Swail.

This season’s Masters champion Mark Selby had breaks of 56 and 75 in a 5-2 win over Stoke’s Dave Harold, while Welshman Ryan Day proved too strong for another Ulsterman Mark King.

Day had runs of 73 and 62 in a comfortable 5-2 victory to earn a last-16 meeting with either seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry or Nottingham’s Michael Holt.