Day three from Newport and today sees Ronnie O’Sullivan get his campaign for another Welsh title underway. During the rest of the day I will continue to update this post as the results come in so please keep checking back…
Results
John Higgins 5 – 2 Dominic Dale
41-82(55), 75(50)-4, 33-60(45), 86(64)-14, 69(43)-28, 101(101)-2, 82(60)-33
Ding Junhui 5 – 3 Matthew Stevens
72(59)-19, 0-71(71), 0-73(45), 69(40)-28, 86(59)-28, 6-86(86), 71(56)-0, 72-43
Marco Fu 5 – 4 Fergal OBrien
0-80(80), 75(75)-47(47), 101(101)-13, 0-74(74), 0-115(65,50), 58(46)-22, 142(142)-0, 53-73, 87(69)-0
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-2 Steve Davis
59(58)-2, 81(42)-12, 0-132(132), 43-76(62), 112(63)-20, 119(118)-9
Neil Robertson 5-3 Jamie Burnett
77(67)-3, 18-63, 92(42)-5, 15-58(40), 63-44, 125(124)-11
Mark Selby 5-1 David Gilbert
90(90)-0, 53-66(58), 70(66)-0, 76(58)-33, 58-49(49), 54-45
Mark King 5-3 Dave Harold
53-87(64), 63(55)-21, 69(65)-78(43), 115(47,64)-23, 40-76, 82-30, 67-34, 80(49)-0
Joe Swail 5-1 Martin Gould
62(42)-57, 63-28, 35-69, 70-63. 93-19, 68-64(64)
Reports
John Higgins became the first man to win through today and book a clash with either Neil Robertson or Jamie Burnett in the next round with a 5-2 victory over Welshman Dominic Dale. Initially it was the local man who looked to be in good shape, leading 1-0 and 2-1, but unfortunately for him he was not scoring as heavily as he did in his qualifying match against Liang Wenbo on Monday night. This proved to be decisive as Higgins began to get into his stride and press on with with breaks of 64, 101 and finally 60 in the final frame to secure the win.
Room for improvement for John but he played pretty well and will be glad to have got through without too much trouble given how it looked like it could go all the way at the interval. Dominic’s loss meant that there was just one Welshman left in the tournament until…
Just a few minutes after Dominic’s exit, Matthew Stevens was also sent packing from his home tournament as he fell to a 5-3 defeat against Ding Junhui. Indeed the match followed a similar pattern to Dale’s with the pair trading frames early on until they found themselves level at 3-3, but from there it was Ding managed to move up another gear and close out the next two frames for victory.
It is a much-needed win for Ding who is still far from sure of remaining in the top 16 next season. This result though will no doubt be a big boost and hopefully he can press on now in this tournament as he is far too good a player to keep sliding down the rankings. For Stevens though it is a blow to his top 16 ambitions for this season, though another strong run in either China or Sheffield would put him right back into contention…
Away from the TV cameras meanwhile, Marco Fu came through a tight scrap with veteran Irishman Fergal O’Brien to book his place in the last 16. While it was a long match however, this is not to say that it was a low quality affair as it was actually anything but. Breaks of 80 and 74 from Fergal as well as 75 and 101 from Marco saw them level at the interval and the standard continued afterwards as Marco made a 142, the highest break of the tournament so far and the match moved towards the inevitable decider. In the end a run of 69 from Marco proved to be crucial and he now awaits the winner of this afternoon’s tie between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Steve Davis.
And the winner of that tie was Ronnie O’Sullivan, though for a while it looked like it might turn out to be a closer match than many expected. After seeing the world number one quickly move into a 2-0 lead, Steve responded in fine style with a total clearance of 132, only his third century break in the last two seasons andwith the help of a 62 in the next, headed into the interval level. Despite these breaks however, Steve has struggled to score as heavily as he really needs to during the last few years and it was this problem that resurfaced when play resumed as O’Sullivan took the next three frames to book a tie with Marco Fu. Steve did have his chances but a couple of poor misses let Ronnie off the hook and he just could not afford to do that.
On O’Sullivan’s part it was a solid performance, a few unexpected misses but he always looked like running out the winner in this one. The strangest thing is that he was wearing a white shirt for the match, something that I can’t remember him doing for quite some time now. Similarly Steve Davis was wearing a black shirt, very strange!
After a long match with Jamie Burnett, Australian number one Neil Robertson booked a last 16 tie with John Higgins as he came through as a 5-3 winner. After an early 67 from Neil the standard was not the best we have seen this week, but in the end it was a good win for him as he finished it off with a terrific century break. He will have to keep that up though if he is to find a way past Higgins who despite not playing brilliantly himself earlier, is bound to raise his game.
Disappointing for Jamie but he did a great job just to qualify in truth and hopefully he will be able to get back on the winning trail when the World Championship qualifiers get underway later this month.
Defending champion Mark Selby became the first man to reach the quarter-finals this week with a fairly comfortable 5-1 win over this week’s surprise package David Gilbert. Early on though it looked like being a really top match as breaks of 90 and 58 saw them level in no time, before Selby took a 2-1 lead with 66.
The crucial frame however was the fourth just before the interval when Gilbert fought so hard and had chances to take the frame to a re-spotted black, but eventually Selby managed to snatch it and head into the break 3-1 up. From this point on Gilbert did not appear to quite have the level of belief that has taken him to the last 16 for the first time and watching Selby pinch another frame on the colours for 4-1, the writing was on the wall and he duly finished it off in the next.
David will be disappointed because he had his chances in almost every frame and the scoreline does not really reflect how the match went. Hopefully though he will be able to concentrate on the positives from this week and give it a good go at the World Championship qualifiers.
For Mark it is a good win and he now awaits the winner of Anthony Hamilton and Michael Judge in the next round.
Mark King emerged from a marathon match with Dave Harold tonight to win only his third ranking event match of the season tonight. It was a match that before it started looked to be incredibly tough to call and as the two traded 50+ breaks until the scoreline reached 3-3 you could see exactly why. In the end though it was Mark who was just able to pull clear when it mattered and book a tie with 2006 finalist Shaun Murphy.
After yesterday’s career-best win over Stephen Hendry it was back down to earth with a bump this evening for Martin Gould who was dimissed by Joe Swail by five frames to one. Martin never really got into it and despite winning a scrappy third frame to keep in touch, it was Joe who moved into his first quarter-final since 2007 Grand Prix. This is a much needed boost for Joe who looks to have all but secured his spot in the top 32 for another year, something that looked unlikely in early December 2008. He will now await the winner of the clash between Stephen Maguire and Ding Junhui…