While yesterday saw several matches go all the way to a deciding frame, today has been rather straightforward with players such as Ken Doherty racing into the last 48…
Note that due to time constraints, the provisional rankings will be updated at the end of the week.
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Click here to see the full day’s results at Global Snooker.
Prior to today former world champion Ken Doherty had won each of his opening round matches this season and David Gilbert was powerless to change that as Ken stormed to a 5-0 win. Although Ken was not able to record a century break, runs of 49, 41, 66, 69 and 75 limited his opponent to just 42 points this afternoon and enabled him to set up a rematch with another former world champion, Graeme Dott who defeated him in the recent Welsh Open qualifiers.
Other 5-0 winners were Robert Milkins and Andrew Higginson who overwhelmed Marcus Campbell and Joe Jogia respectively. Robert’s win was particularly impressive as Campbell was the seeded played and had already reached three venues out of four this season so was clearly in good form. Milkins himself has been much improved this season however and was able to make it count today to set up a tie with Michael Holt tomorrow.
Brilliant Baird
Arguably the most impressive performance of the day however came from tour newcomer Sam Baird who destroyed the experienced Ian McCulloch with a devastating run of scoring which included two breaks of 100, 87, 86 and 67. He suffered a slow start to the season by losing his opening match in three of the first four tournaments played but perhaps he is adapting to life at the top level and if he can defeat Fergal O’Brien tomorrow will qualify for the first venue stage of his short career.
Elsewhere many of the matches went to seedings as Mike Dunn, Michael Judge, Alan McManus and Rory McLeod all eased into the last round. Exceptions to the rule however were Leicester’s in-form Tom Ford won yet again while a resurgent James Wattana impressively saw off Martin Gould to move closer to another venue.