My headlines get worse don’t they? Anyway today saw the conclusion of the last 16 stage as local hero Neil Robertson lost a thriller with Dominic Dale while it was a good day for players called Mark. Except for Mark Davis anyway…
In a week that has seen a number of shocks, Welshman Dominic Dale caused another today by defeating Australian number one Neil Robertson in dramatic circumstances to reach his first quarter-final at a full ranking event since the 2008 Bahrain Championship.
Having dropped the opener Dominic recovered well to lead 3-1 before the next two frames were shared leaving Neil just one away from victory. The Australian however has come back from bigger deficits than that before and predictably managed to put together a comeback to force a decider before moving 18 clear with just pink and black remaining.
There was however to be another twist in the tale as Dale was able to force the snooker on the pink that he needed on the pink before potting the final two balls to clinch a remarkable victory. Having come back in similar circumstances against Martin Gould last year to win one of the PTC events in Sheffield it is another example of Dale’s ability under pressure.
From a tournament point of view it would have been nice to have seen the home favourite go on a run here in Australia but hats off to Dominic, one of the nicest players on the tour and someone who lets not forget knows how to win ranking event tournaments having captured two previously.
He faces a tall order in the next round however as he comes up against compatriot Mark Williams who having laboured to a 5-2 victory against Barry Pinches yesterday was far happier with his performance today in seeing off form player David Gilbert by the same scoreline. Battling it out toe for toe with Mark Selby at the top of my projected seedings list, Mark will be hoping to go all the way this week in order to get some more points on the board.
Selby though will have similar thoughts and he ran out a 5-3 winner today against the much-improved Mark Davis, a player hoping to crack the top 16 for the first time this campaign.
Next up for Mark will be 1997 Ken Doherty who came back brilliantly against Liang Wenbo today to win 5-4 having at one stage trailed 4-1. Like Dominic Ken is a player who I have a lot of time for and he too has had a long wait for a ranking event quarter-final, indeed it is his first since the 2009 Shanghai Masters and before then you have to look back as far as the 2007 China Open.
Following what had been billed as something of a grudge match due to ‘bowtiegate’ last week at the World Cup, Ken did apologise for those comments and hopefully that will put the matter to bed.
The same however can probably not be said for tomorrow’s match between Stuart Bingham and Mark Allen after both came through comfortably today as the two exchanged insults in their post-match press conferences today in a feud apparently dating back to their meeting at the UK Championship last year. Unfortunately the match will not be on the TV table tomorrow but it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top in what should be a hard-fought clash!
With eight players left the outcome of the tournament is anybody’s guess but for me I would still expect the winner to come from Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby or Mark Williams, with Mark Allen a dark horse also. That said, Judd Trump has shown recently that talent can be a substitute for experience and perhaps it will be one of the outsiders who can go all the way. We will have a much better idea after tomorrow I suspect…
Thursday Results
Mark Williams 5-2 David Gilbert
Mark Allen 5-1 Marcus Campbell
Mark Selby 5-3 Mark Davis
Ken Doherty 5-4 Liang Wenbo
Dominic Dale 5-4 Neil Robertson
Stuart Bingham 5-0 Tom Ford