Day three in Bendigo saw both the conclusion of the last 32 of the ongoing Australian Goldfields Open, as well as the start of the last 16 as Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire became the first two players to make it through to the quarter-finals.
Continue reading for my day three summary of the action in Bendigo…
The winner of this title 12 months ago, Judd Trump continued his strong start to the new season with a 5-2 victory against qualifier Ian Burns today.
Taking the first three frames with a top break of 111, already the third century break of the season for a player who last season compiled an impressive 82 tons, he was to add further breaks of 63 and 63 in the last couple of frames to progress to the quarter-finals.
There he will face Scotland’s Stephen Maguire, who edged out Ricky Walden in a close decider to reach the last eight of this event for the first time.
Indeed Maguire had not won a match in Bendigo prior to this year and having seen his opponent today hit a new tournament high break of 142, before adding 78 to lead 4-3, looked to be in some trouble this evening.
The world number 15 though was able to take the final two frames with a top break of 51 to edge out Walden and set up another meeting with Trump, after their notable matches at the UK Championship and Masters last season.
Earlier in the day we were to see the completion of the final four first round matches in Australia and it was to prove a good day for the qualifiers involved, with three of the four emerging victorious against higher ranked opposition, all in deciding frames.
These included Ali Carter, who hit a top break of 114 in an encouraging victory against this year’s World Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy, whose participation was at one stage in doubt due to the late arrival of his luggage.
Next up for Carter will be a match against Michael White, who enjoyed a 5-3 win against Iranian youngster Hossein Vafaei Ayouri, a result that moves him into the provisional top 16 ahead of the cut-off for the Shanghai Masters, a position that he will retain unless Robert Milkins is able to win the title this week.
White is joined in the last 16 by friend and countryman Jamie Jones, who came back from 4-2 down to defeat two-time Bendigo semi-finalist Mark Davis, while Martin Gould edged out Marco Fu with a break of 76 in his decider to set up a match with Michael Holt on Thursday.