Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy looked to be making it four wins from four for the seeded players tonight but Barry Pinches changed all that with a fine victory against world number three Shaun Murphy…
Click here to see how the results have affected the provisional rankings.
Mark Allen 5-3 Ian McCulloch
32-62, 81(71)-32, 80(46)-27, 68(64c)-56, 16-86(51), 28-74(73), 64(51)-39, 74(55)-4
Mark Allen tonight withstood a mid-match wobble against Ian McCulloch to come through and book his place in the last 16.
After the first two frames were shared, a tense third frame followed where despite having had several chances to take it, Allen looked like gifted it to McCulloch who was 50 behind with 51 remaining. Unfortunately for the man from Preston however he could not take advantage, missing the required black off the final red to leave himself needing snookers which never came. To add insult to injury he amassed a 56-0 lead in frame four having had a couple of chances to win the frame, but again could not make the most of them and found himself 3-1 down at the interval.
His opponent from Northern Ireland however was not playing too great and appeared to lose his focus when the two resumed, losing the next two frames and finding himself staring at 4-3 as Ian looked to clear the table. McCulloch however has not won too many matches recently and it showed when he missed the final blue for a long way which Allen then potted spectacularly with a double into a centre-pocket. This proved to be a killer blow for Ian who would score just four points in frame eight and a break of 55 ensured that a relieved Allen would be through to the last 16.
After his strong finish to 2008/9, Mark will be pleased to have recorded his first win of this season and got himself into the top 10 provisionally once again. He seems to be quite an inconsistent player but if he can find his best form this week then he could well be a contender to make the break through and reach his first final, just as Liang Wenbo did in Shanghai.
For Ian McCulloch his run to the last 32 has been a welcome boost, though it was obvious from watching him both tonight and last season during the World Championship qualifiers that he is low on form and this is reflected in his slow average shot time. While he was never the quickest player, as was picked up in commentary tonight he almost appears to be overthinking things at time and this can make things harder than perhaps they need to be…
Shaun Murphy 4-5 Barry Pinches
67-34, 83(67)-24, 22-110(109), 14-82(36), 76(46)-15, 63-89(46), 93(93)-0, 66(43)-81, 43-76
World number three Shaun Murphy was sent crashing out of the Grand Prix at the first hurdle tonight as Norwich veteran Barry Pinches pulled off excellent clearances in both of the last two frames to turn the match around.
Things did not look so good for Barry early on as he struggled to settle and found himself 2-0 down to the man who last defeated him at the Welsh Open this February. A break of 109, the 96th century of his career seemed got him off the mark in frame three however and he levelled things up in the next to head into the interval level.
Things looked to swing back Murphy’s way when the two resumed as he moved into a 4-3 lead and had several chances to win it in each of the last two frames, but Barry hung in there and thanks to a couple of cool clearances under pressure, particularly in the deciding frame, managed to complete the upset.
This is an excellent win for Barry and marks only the second time in the last year that he has made it through to this stage of a ranking event, the first since he overcame Graeme Dott in Bahrain. Moving him up from 62 to 57 in the rankings, hopefully this will be the win that he needs to get himself going for the remainder of the season.