Apologies for the lack of results so far, suffice to say it has been a very busy day at the office! However, the final day of the qualifiers has been unfolding and below are the results and brief reports.
EDIT: Note that my provisional rankings page has now been updated to the end of the Grand Prix qualifiers.
Morning Session
For the second event in a row, veteran Scot Marcus Campbell has ended the hopes of young Judd Trump, this time with a resounding 5-3 victory at Prestatyn. It was a match of good quality with five 50+ breaks between them and at 3-3, was far closer than their Shanghai qualifier last month. From there though it was Campbell who managed to seize the initiative in frame seven with a run of 54 before securing victory in the eighth.
Marcus’ good start to the season goes on and against Joe Perry, a player who has not enjoyed a good 2009 so far, he will fancy his chances of making it into the last 16 of an event for the first time since this tournament back in 2007. For Judd Trump however these are slightly worrying times as he has now lost his opening match in both tournaments so far this season and finds himself slipping down the provisional rankings as a result. It may still only be early days but with just six ranking events in total this season, he cannot afford to be losing too many last 48 matches…
The battle of the Davis’ promised to be a close encounter today but as things turned out it would be an entirely one-sided affair as Mark handed his famous namesake Steve a 5-0 whitewash. Starting the match with breaks of 74 and 106, Mark established his dominance from the outset and having won a closer third frame for 3-0 put himself well on the way to victory.
Following a much improved last 12-18 months, Mark is now notching up wins on a regular basis and though Steve is far from at his peak, a win against him is always a good result. 2007 winner Marco Fu will not be an easy opponent in Glasgow but Marco does tend to lose a few too many matches to players ranked lower than him so it could be an interesting match.
Like Judd Trump however, Steve has now lost both of his two ranking event matches this season and now sees his outside chances of a return to the top 16 for the third time recede further.
In brief, 2006 world champion Graeme Dott was surprisingly hammered 5-0 by fellow Scot Jamie Burnett and so will miss out on playing in front of his home crowd for the second straight year, while Stephen Lee and Barry Hawkins were also surprise casualties.
No such upsets for Ricky Walden and Matthew Stevens however, while Nigel Bond secured an important win over Peter Lines to get some more points on the board.
Barry Hawkins 3-5 Mark Joyce
42(42)-71, 8-69, 38-61, 75(53)-54(36), 67(54)-1, 75(55)-22, 25-74(63), 28-71(46)
Steve Davis 0-5 Mark Davis
0-75(74), 22-106(106), 49-72(54), 0-108(42,61), 41(37)-69
Ricky Walden 5-2 Adrian Gunnell
75(36)-2, 25-80(76), 0-129(115), 74-38, 69(55)-22, 78(66)-4, 64-28
Graeme Dott 0-5 Jamie Burnett
36-89(51), 59(59)-73(38,35), 33-66(34), 63(63)-70(42), 68(60)-75(rsb)
Judd Trump 3-5 Marcus Campbell
77(68)-15, 42(38)-72(59), 17-89(85), 54-10, 6-63, 85(52)-38, 0-86(54), 37(36)-73(39)
Matthew Stevens 5-1 Mike Dunn
69(46)-13, 67(33)-0, 72(42)-53, 60(38)-74, 72(63)-51, 76(65)-52(36)
Nigel Bond 5-3 Peter Lines
61-37, 75-9, 70(44)-60(60), 50-74, 24-61, 13-72(38), 63(62)-23, 69(51)-5
Stephen Lee 3-5 Robert Milkins
93(38)-45, 54-76, 62(49)-18, 0-70(46), 49-62, 46-65, 72(48)-31, 15-53
Afternoon Session
Another good win for Ken Doherty tonight as his resurgence continued against Dave Harold. Amazingly even at this early stage in September, Ken has now already guaranteed that he will earn more ranking points from his 2009/10 campaign than the 7794 that he secured during his nightmare 2008/9 season!
Two other players who have struggled for form during the last year or so are Barry Pinches and Ian McCulloch and both were able to secure narrow 5-4 victories tonight against Michael Holt and Joe Swail respectively.
The highest quality match however was the one between Matt Selt and Fergal O’Brien which saw some sensational scoring. Though the scores are posted below, I will simply reproduce their frame scores as I believe that it tells the story better than any words from me!
Fergal O’Brien 3-5 Matthew Selt
8-88(84), 87(87)-0, 113(113)-8, 93(93)-0, 25-92(88), 28-88(54), 21-118(81), 0-117(81)
Finally, Shanghai Masters finalist Liang Wenbo meanwhile continued his good form with a victory over Dominic Dale tonight to set up another clash with Peter Ebdon in Glasgow, while David Gilbert’s good run came to an end with a 5-2 defeat to Stuart Bingham.
Gutted this morning as it is clear for all to see that Steve Davis is going to fade away this season. Wasnt awful against Selt last month and given Matthew’s form this season a 5-4 loss was no disgrace but with no disrespect to Mark Davis, his loss today was far more worrying. He seems to have lost his safety edge and his medium break building. Last season Steve battled through a lot of 4 hour marathons and showed a lot of determination to try and get the all important result. This match was all done in an hour and a bit. I know Mark Davis was fluent and in the breaks but there is no fun in this kind of performance for Steve. It will take him another 2 years of first match losses for him to drop out of the top 64. On today’s form and his dip following the WC loss against Robbo and Selt last month this losing sequence is not such a fanciful prediction. Selt, Mark Davis and possibly Judge as his first 3 opponents for half the season should have been a blessing. He now has a massive UK qualifier to try and redeem his season. As I said 6 weeks ago I’d take 2 wins this season as long as they were at the UK and Worlds. Well here’s hoping Steve but you are going to have to wake up. I can’t believe you want to lose matches like this repeatedly for the next two years. By May it may be thanks for the memories!
In the other matches another encouraging win for Doherty – a certainty to replace Hamilton in the top 32. Holt flatters again and his top 16 chance looks gone. As does Trump who will need a big UK or WC now to get in the top 16 as Wenbo and Walden look certs. For me Trump may need another year. Cope will be pleased but overall the results are not too bad as a lot of the same players have won through meaning the downside for losers wont be so big. Steve will be low 20s after this event which means the UK is massive. I can’t believe its moved to Pontins as Sheffield was a good venue last season and a lot nearer Telford. Do you think its worth a ticket for the Hendry v Davis match in advance given Steve will need to win 9 frames???
Wow! It seems O’Brien and Selt were brilliant! 7(!) 80+ breaks with two centuries!
Also Doherty seems to have found his form as he eased through with five 50+ breaks. Great stuff.
Was just typing about that match, absolutely sensational stuff.
I would fancy Steve to beat Judge/Delaney really. Worst comes to the worst I’ll have your ticket!
I wonder if not being in the PL this season might affect him, he’s been in it basically forever until now and win or lose it did give him weekly match practice.
how far up the rankings will selty move up ?
I’m updating the rankings right now, give me half an hour and they’ll be done.
cheers mate
Ok have updated them, will double check them in the morning but basically Selt has gone up five places to 55th. Obviously he’s a little low at the minute because of his low minimum totals for the rest of the year, but if he can keep up this form he has great potential to keep improving. Within 1,000 points of the top 48th really.
I left to go to the prem league wiv Holty 4-1 up. Aand HE LOSTT!
I am so depressed