Neil Robertson was delighted to kick off his latest UK Championship bid with a 6-2 win over the highly-rated Julien Leclercq in York.
Robertson told World Snooker Tour afterwards: "I rate him [Leclercq]. He's a great talent and I've been keeping an eye on him this season, how he's been going, especially this week.
"I was really pleased for him that he could get this experience early on his career because I think he'll learn an awful lot from it. He'll be far better for the experience, for sure."
The Australian, who is chasing what would be his fourth UK Championship title, looked like being dragged into a dogfight when the Belgian youngster was on course to level the scores at 3-3.
However, a missed red along the bottom rail of the kind we have already seen plenty of in the opening two days of the tournament, let Robertson off the hook and he took full control thereafter.
Welcome to snooker hell, Julien Leclercq!
— WST (@WeAreWST) November 30, 2025
Neil Robertson made sure the end of their match in York was a painful one for the Belgian. @allbritish_ | #UKChampionship pic.twitter.com/nRIWmlLqiD
The standard didn't improve greatly, but Leclercq had missed his chance and Robertson set up a meeting with Wu Yize who held off a spirited comeback from Michael Holt on the other table.
Wu moved seamlessly into a 5-0 lead as early an finish appeared on the cards, only for Holt to burst into life with breaks 59, 82 and 60 to reduce his arrears to 5-4.
It wasn't to be enough, however, as Wu dominated the 10th frame after finally managing to escape from a well-laid snooker from his opponent, allowing him to stumble over the winning line.
Wu said: "I was quite pleased with myself in the first half, because I took my chances.
"It was a fantastic experience, the player introductions was the best part. I stepped out and went down the stairs, it felt like i was going into a final.
"Neil Robertson is a great player. I will just try to enjoy myself in the match, because I feel like I have been playing well lately."
