Click for the updated provisional seedings…
Today saw the bottom half of the draw played through to the last 16 as Matthew Stevens continued his push for a top 16 place with a string of impressive victories. Jimmy White also advanced…
For the second week in a row Matthew Stevens was not given an easy first round draw as he was paired with Scotland’s Stephen Hendry but again he made light work of the seven-times world champion, a break of 142 the highlight this morning as he recorded a 4-1 victory. Also like last week, Matthew managed to make the most of this win by defeating two more players, this time Tom Ford and Fergal O’Brien, to reach the last 16 stage and keep himself in contention for a top 16 place at the time of the next cut-off point.
Also through is fan favourite Jimmy White, although not without a scare as in his final match tonight against James McBain he actually trailed 3-2 before coming back to win. His most impressive victory however came earlier in the day when he saw off Stoke’s Jamie Cope comfortably to keep himself in the tournament.
Generally it was a day in which most of the top players were tested, but managed to find a win. This was very much the case for both Mark Selby and Ali Carter who survived tough challenges from Xiao Guodong and Patrick Einsle respectively before prevailing. These two will fancy their chances of going all the way tomorrow although you never know, particularly with Mark who has not been the model of consistency so far this season.
Mark Allen continues to grin and bear it in the PTC having criticised the series last week, winning two matches today to get some much-needed ranking points on the board. After a stuttering start to the new campaign, he has at least won matches during the last two PTC weekends and given himself some sort of momentum on which to build on. He was beaten today by Event Five finalist Jamie Jones who is in a rich vein of form at the moment as he looks to secure a top 64 place for the first time.
I have now updated my provisional seedings page to cover the event up to the last 16 stage. Hopefully now the mistakes that crept in with the new table have been ironed out (thanks people!), so we have an accurate picture as to who needs to do what by the conclusion of the UK Championship…