Night eight of the Premier League featured Steve Davis and Ding Junhui in the first match with John Higgins and Mark Selby in the second. Click below to find out what happened…
Match One: Ding continues good run
Ding Junhui made it two wins in a row for him with a straightforward 4-2 victory over the struggling Steve Davis tonight.
As I said in my preview, Ding has been looking much better recently and he started the match in ominous fashion with a flawless break of 139, the highest of the tournament so far. In the second frame Davis did have a chance to level it, but a missed red to the corner pocket proved to be costly and Ding doubled his lead with 72 to add to an earlier 31.
Ding was flying and simply did not look like he was going to miss as he constructed another top break to make it 3-0 and secure at least one point from the match. Indeed at this stage he actually had a 100% pot success rate, though this came to an end with a missed pink as the break ended on 78.
One point soon became two as breaks of 32 and 56 put Ding into a 4-0 lead, though Davis did at least restore some pride by taking the last two frames of the evening, the fifth with a break of 70.
Ding Junhui now moves up into the top four spots on five points and will be confident of progressing to the semi-finals in Hopton next month. Next up for him in the league is a match with snooker legend Stephen Hendry in Kidderminster on November 27th.
As for Davis, though he remains pointless at the bottom of the league, he did at least win a bit of money tonight by taking the last two frames and he managed to make the scoreline respectable. His final match will also be in Kidderminster when he meets Scotland’s John Higgins who will be desperate to win and secure a semi-final spot for himself.
Match Two: Super Selby into semi-finals
A second win in as many weeks for Scotland’s Stephen Hendry moves him back into the top four again and continues his improved run of form recently while Steve Davis is now all but out of the competition.
Like Ding earlier on, Mark Selby looked terrific from the off as he opened the match with a century break of 102 to earn himself an extra £1,000, but a mistake in the next frame when he appeared not to spot a plant in the middle of the bunch let Higgins in to make it 1-1. A similar error in frame three looked like it would be just as costly, but a kick on a black took all of the pace out of the white and meant that John had to play safe. In the end this proved to be costly as Selby went back into the lead and then built on it with a 93 in frame four.
A nice break of 60 from John in the next frame kept his hopes of salvaging a draw alive but Selby finished off the match in style with his second century break in frame six. In doing so he has now become the first man definitely to qualify for the semi-finals in December and looks well-placed to finish top of the league stage. His final league match will be against Joe Perry in Kidderminster at the end of the month.
John meanwhile cannot now qualify for the semis if my maths is correct (though I’d not bet money on that!), and after a promising start to the campaign with a draw against Ronnie O’Sullivan, will be disappointed how his last few matches have unfolded. He still has two more matches to go and will be back in action next week when he takes on Joe Perry in Carlisle.