Day two and already Stephen Maguire’s defence of his China Open title has come to an abrupt end as Dave Harold keeps his hopes of a return to the top 16 alive. Click below to read about that and the rest of the action from China today.
Morning Session
Results
Joe Swail 4-5 Robert Milkins
10-72(64), 0-61, 70-37, 9-60(44), 69-15, 81(81)-9, 0-91(57), 127(127)-0, 5-83(78)
Afternoon Session
Results
Stephen Maguire 0-5 Dave Harold
0-115(115), 36-65, 17-73, 22-62(33), 59(50)-71(36)
John Higgins 5-4 Anthony Hamilton
36-68, 49-56, 41-80, 21-66(50), 70(50)-8, 92(92)-0, 88(88)-0, 67-5
Peter Ebdon 5-2 Tang Jun
8-126(76), 45-64(38)
Joe Perry 2-5 Ricky Walden
0-140(140), 64-15, 15-82(82), 25-80(39)
Having already ended Stephen Maguire’s defence of the Northern Ireland Trophy earlier this season, Dave Harold has done it again and now dumped the world number two out of the China Open that he also won last season. What a win it was, a comprehensive 5-0 whitewash sending him into the last 16 as he aims to end his season on a high and give himself a chance of moving back into the top 16, having already lost his opening World Championship qualifier.
In his next match he will play Peter Ebdon who today won just his third match of the season and gave his own chances of staying in the top 16 a huge boost. He has had a nightmare time recently but having seen Judd Trump crash out yesterday he must have fancied his chances to do something here and has managed to take full advantage by defeating his conqueror Tang Jun 5-2. Given their respective form this season I would have to make Dave a slight favourite for the next match, but who knows, this win might just have given Peter the lift that he needs.
The most dramatic match of the morning however was that between John Higgins and Anthony Hamilton as the double world champion Higgins recovered from 4-0 down at the interval to clinch a remarkable 5-4 victory. Not only is this a hugely disappointing way for Hamilton to end his season, but it probably ensures that he will lose his place in the top 32 at the end of the season as he is already out of the World Championship. For Higgins though it is a brilliant win. He has since admitted that at 0-4 he was thinking about his flight home, but at 2-4 he sensed that he had a chance if he could keep Anthony of the table and so it has proved. Next up for him will be a tie with either Marco Fu or Tian Pengfei.
The real dark horse in the top half of the draw (yes another one after Trump’s exit), Ricky Walden has continued his excellent record in China this season, winning his eighth match in the country against Joe Perry. He started well with a 140 and never really looked back, further breaks of 82 and 39 helping him to a 5-2 victory. Awaiting the winner of tomorrow’s tie between Stephen Hendry and Robert Milkins, Ricky will be confident of another good run here now and it would not at all surprise me to see him move into the semi-finals and who knows, perhaps a re-match with Mark Selby who he defeated on the way to his Shanghai title?
Finally in the last of the qualifying matches held over from Prestatyn, Robert Milkins caused another shock by defeating Welsh Open finalist Joe Swail to book a re-match with Stephen Hendry who of course beat him in Bahrain. It was a a close match, Milkins making the better start to lead 2-0 before Joe took him to a deciding frame at 4-4. Robert held his nerve though and an excellent 78 break won him the match, another excellent result for a player who I must admit, I had almost written off given the quality of both Liang Wenbo and Swail.
Evening Session
Results
Allister Carter 5-0 Nigel Bond
75(75)-18, 84(84)-0, 72(69)-36(36), 69(69)-57(32), 77(54)-0
Ryan Day 5-2 Jamie Cope
80(71)-47, 1-62, 30-66(62), 84(48)-18, 68(68)-23, 77(56)-14, 64(57)-50(50)
Neil Robertson 5-4 Gerard Greene
12-123(118)
Ding Junhui 3-5 Xiao Guodong
33-74, 11-81(74), 127(127)-0, 54-73, 61-33
Welsh Open champion Ali Carter continued his excellent form with a resounding 5-0 win over Nigel Bond in today’s evening session. Although Nigel has not had the best of seasons, he is no mug so to put in such a dominant performance with a 50+ break in every frame sends out an ominous message to the rest of the field. It will be very interesting to see how having finally taken that first title affects Ali and if this is anything to go by it won’t be too long before he adds a second title to his CV. Next up for him here in China will be either Mark Allen or Stuart Pettman.
After a difficult last few tournaments, Ryan Day has got his season back on track with a strong 5-2 win over Jamie Cope. Since reaching the final of the Grand Prix Ryan has struggled to reproduce the form that took him there, though of course to some extent it is hard to read too much into that given how few ranking events there are on the calendar these days. Jamie Cope is a good player though and this win will surely give Ryan a lift going into a tie with either Mark King or fellow Welshman Mark Williams in the next round.
Well it has been a week of shocks so far and today we have had another as young Chinese wildcard Xiao Guodong has completed surely the biggest win of his career to date, sending Chinese number one Ding Junhui crashing out of his home event at the first hurdle.
Xiao started the match really well, moving into a 2-0 lead while Ding struggled to find his rhythm. The 2005 winner though knocked in an excellent 127 break and towards the end of a marathon 50 minute frame dominated by Xiao, looked like he would steal it as the pressure began to mount on the youngster. Unfortunately for Ding however he missed a tricky pink into the green pocket and having left it over the jaws, turned round and immediately walked out of the interval, knowing he has just wasted a fabulous chance to level the match.
From this point on Xiao was visibly nervous, as commentator David Hendon pointed out, knocking in the long pots that did not have so much pressure on, but struggling with the easy ones that he expected to pot. Ultimately though he just about hung on and just as he was nervous, Ding appeared to be growing more and more frustrated with how the match was unfolding.
For Xiao this is a real high point for him because although he will not earn ranking points for his run this week, he will surely take a lot of confidence from it into next season when the PIOS number one will make a full-time return to the main tour. It does not get any easier for him in the next round though where he will face either Ronnie O’Sullivan or Fergal O’Brien for a place in the quarter-finals.
Ding though is now in real trouble. Coming into the event at 14th in the latest rankings (World Championship points included), wins today from chasers such as Dave Harold, Peter Ebdon and Ricky Walden have moved them to within 1,000 points of Ding. It is very much a possibility now that Ding will need to beat countryman Liang Wenbo at the World Championship month if he is to retain his top 16 place for next season. For a player who already has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, he could really do without this going into the biggest tournament in snooker…
Neil Robertson has come through a real topsy turvy clash with Gerard Greene to book his place in the last 16 and a match with either Shaun Murphy or Cao Xinlong. Early on it looked like it would be a routine win for the Australian, moving 3-1 up at the break with the aid of an opening frame century. Gerard though put together a great fight-back and went into the lead at 4-3, threatening to dump yet another seed out of the tournament on day two. Neil was not to be denied however and having forced a decider, then took it to secure an important 5-4 win.