Week three already in the Premier League and tonight has seen six-time champion Stephen Hendry secure his first win of the campaign while John Higgins currently takes on Marco Fu …
Neil Robertson 1-5 Stephen Hendry
32-69(60), 1-99(98), 78(32)-4, 19-52, 10-58(51), 1-133(127)
Tonight’s opening match between Stephen Hendry and Neil Robertson might not have been the highest-quality match that we will see in this tournament, but with two points and £6,000 secure, Stephen will not mind one bit!
Although Neil had a couple of decent chances in the opener, a missed pink from the green spot with just the colours remaining proved to be costly and a relieved Hendry duly secured the frame. This lead soon became 2-0 with a break of 98 and at this stage everything was looking good for the Scot, just as it had done a week earlier against Judd Trump.
Just like that match however, Stephen began to miss in what was a very scrappy third frame and Neil eventually took it after around 25 minutes to get himself back into contention. Unfortunately for the Australian however, as poor as Hendry was beginning to look in the middle-part of the match, Neil had looked off his game from the start and Hendry managed to scrap his way to frame four, securing a point in the process.
From this point Stephen began to improve again, securing the lead with a run of 51 before finishing off the match with an excellent clearance of 127 – career century number 735. Having lost out last week Stephen will be pleased to have some points on the board, indeed he moved to the top of the table with this result on frames won, but he will be conscious of the need to improve when he takes on John Higgins in Aberdeen on October 15th.
Neil meanwhile will next be in action against Ronnie O’Sullivan in a fortnight at the Charter Hall, Essex.
John Higgins 3-3 Marco Fu
69(69)-8, 24-65(44), 60-52, 39(38)-65(41), 90(90)-16, 46-66
In the second match of the night, reigning world champion John Higgins and Marco Fu played out the first draw of the 2009 Premier League in what was another error strewn match. John was probably the slightly better player as seen by his breaks of 69 and 90 but Marco hung in there well and in particular at 2-1 and 3-2 down, responded to take a couple of close frames and take a point from the evening.
As already mentioned, John well next be in action against Stephen Hendry in Aberdeen next month while Marco faces Judd Trump in Colchester.