Northern Ireland Open: Neil Robertson praises Belfast crowd after comeback victory

Neil Robertson says the atmosphere created by the Belfast crowd helped him overturn a 3-0 deficit at the Northern Ireland Open.

The world number 11 defeated Kurt Maflin on Wednesday to advance to the last-32.

"Every time when a chance was presented to me the crowd were all cheering so you want to do it for them," said Robertson.

"I suppose you could say it was the crowd the got me over the line."

The 2010 World Champion has come through two close encounters already this week, defeating Ben Woollaston 4-3 in the opening round.

"The fans here are amazing, they really are," said the Australian.

"They love their snooker and this is one of the best places to come and play snooker."

Robertson will be joined in the last-32 by England's Judd Trump who surged past second round opponent Stuart Carrington in just 45 minutes.

After the victory, the 29-year-old hit back at recent criticism of his performances.

"I probably come in for more criticism than most other players joined together for some reason," he suggested.

"I probably show more potential or make the game look easier than most of the other players so they think I should probably do better"

"I think my best form is there, it is coming out in spells and it is just about keeping that up for the whole tournament now."

2017 Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Williams exited the tournament on Wednesday after Ali Carter recovered from 3-1 down to set-up a meeting with China's Xiao Guodong.