The final day of the 2009 UK Championship qualifiers has arguably been the best yet as a number of high-quality matches are being played to a finish tonight. Click below to see who will be joining Tom Ford and Matthew Stevens in the last 32 tonight…
Click here to see how the last 32 draw is shaping up.
Note that the provisional rankings have now been updated.
It has been a day of close matches but not reading the script was 2003 UK Champion Matthew Stevens who continued his encouraging start to the season with a 9-1 demolition of Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell. Just two years ago it was Adrian who prevailed at the same stage of the competition with a 9-7 victory but this time it was the Welshman who dominated, moving 7-1 ahead after the first session before completing his revenge this evening.
With a tie against Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 32 at Telford, things will be much tougher for sure in his next match but with his minimum ranking points secure and a few wins behind him, perhaps he could spring a surprise.
Soon to join him in the last 32 were Tom Ford and Liang Wenbo who impressively defeated Barry Hawkins and Welsh youngster Michael White respectively. Tom has had a tough time over the last year or so, falling out of the top 48 at the end of the last season but having now qualified for his first venue since last season’s Shanghai Masters, hopefully things are on the up. He has been working with Sight Right coach Steve Feeney recently and perhaps now we are starting to see the fruits of that partnership.
It was not such a good day for Sight Right stablemate Mark Davis however as his strong week was ended by Premier League semi-finalist Judd Trump who in the process won his first ranking event match of the season. Locked at 4-4 at the interval as they traded breaks of 103, 52, 77, 49×2 and 40, the pair remained hard to separate until breaks of 69 and 54 from Judd were enough to see him over the line.
Elsewhere the excellent run of Ken Doherty at Prestatyn came to an end as he lost a tough match to Jamie Cope, while Steve Davis won his first match of the season to book an intriguing tie with old rival Stephen Hendry in Telford.
Results