Day Three from Sheffield and it has been a good one for Scotland so far with both Alan McManus and Anthony McGill emerging victorious. Less fortunate though was Jamie Burnett…
Day Three Results:
Anthony Hamilton 5-1 Adam Wicheard
Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 5-1 Alfie Burden
Jack Lisowski 5-3 Mike Dunn
Liu Song 5-4 Jamie Burnett
Nigel Bond 5-2 Kyren Wilson
Jimmy Robertson 5-1 Jimmy White
Tony Drago w/o Ian McCulloch
Simon Bedford 5-2 Andy Hicks
Anthony McGill 5-1 Jamie O’Neill
Dominic Dale 5-3 Xiao Guodong
Alan McManus 5-3 Mark Joyce
Matthew Selt 5-3 David Gilbert
Matthew Couch 2-5 Steve Davis
Joe Delaney 2-5 Joe Swail
Dave Harold 5-2 Adrian Gunnell
Robert Milkins 5-3 Jamie Jones
Having snuck through his opening match in a deciding frame, Anthony Hamilton had it somewhat easier today as he saw off Adam Wicheard with a top break of 103 and the loss of just one frame this morning to move into the final qualifying round. There he will face UK Championship quarter-finalist Stuart Bingham for a place in Germany.
Another UK quarter-finalist was to crash out today however, Walsall’s Mark Joyce who perhaps surprisingly slipped to a 5-3 defeat at the hands of veteran Scot Alan McManus. Having slipped down the rankings Alan is not quite the player that he once was but he has shown some improved form recently and is not a bad bet to cause an upset in the next round against an out of sorts Joe Perry.
It was a bad day at the office (as he said so himself on Twitter), for Jimmy White as the six-time world finalist suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Jimmy Robertson, a player who has done well since returning to the tour last year and is probably somewhat underrated in places. Next up for him will be the inconsistent Judd Trump who seems to have stalled somewhat during the last 18 months or so.
Young trio Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Jack Lisowski and Anthony McGill were all able to come through safely today, but it was not to be for Xiao Guodong who suffered a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Welshman Dominic Dale.
The only decider of the morning saw Jamie Burnett lose out narrowly to tour returnee Liu Song who continues his improved run of form this season. I still need to clarify his position on my updated provisional ranking list and hope to do so soon.