The second staging of the Jiangsu Classic tournament over in China got underway this morning and already we have seen three century breaks and a number of interesting results…
Thursday 4 June – 13.00
Ding Junhui 1-2 Li Hang 29-47, 118(117)-12, 38-73(65)
Shaun Murphy 2-0 Jin Long 54-52, 114(114)-6
Mark Allen 2-0 Stephen Hendry 77(60)-40, 65(32)-0
Ryan Day 2-0 Peter Ebdon 132(132)-0, 66(60)-51
Ding Junhui 2-1 Stephen Hendry 80(49)-47(47, 32-71(60), 64(35)-43
Joe Perry 0-2 Marco Fu 60(37)-88, 13-74(32,37)
Allister Carter 0-2 Mark Selby 33-70(47), 2-124(92)
Shaun Murphy 2-0 Marco Fu 80(43)-0, 72(46)-0
Thursday 4 June – 19.00
Ryan Day 2-0 Mark Allen 53(34)-52(45), 62(36)-21
Peter Ebdon 1-2 Li Hang 66(55)-14, 44(36)-68(31,37), 17-92(32,31)
Ding Junhui 2-1 Mark Allen 92(40,52)-45, 60(53)-70(48), 92(78)-26
Ryan Day 1-2 Li Hang 69-13, 8-77(77), 16-62(62)
Allister Carter 2-1 Joe Perry 0-99(99), 96(38,56)-22, 45-38
Mark Selby 2-1 Jin Long 42-102(39), 68-41(35), 106(31,39,32)-33
Shaun Murphy 0-2 Joe Perry 0-74(74), 0-80(31,49)
Allister Carter 2-1 Jin Long 1-80(46), 85(81)-15, 58-52
Morning Notes
A mixed start for defending champion Ding Junhui as although he managed to edge out Stephen Hendry in his second match, despite a century break earlier on he slipped to a 2-1 defeat against his young countryman Li Hang. As regular readers of my blog will know, I have been very impressed with 18-year-old Hang’s progress during the last year and am pleased to see that he has got off to a good start in this tournament.
Unfortunately for Hendry however, his loss to Ding was his second of the day following a 2-0 defeat to Mark Allen and already he faces an uphill struggle to qualify for the semi-finals.
In other news, Ryan Day has got off to a good start, setting an early target for the high break prize with a 132 against Peter Ebdon, while the in-form Shaun Murphy has picked up from where he left off in the World Series with a couple of 2-0 victories against Jin Long and Marco Fu.
Evening
Li Hang has continued to impress tonight with further victories over top 16 players Ryan Day and Peter Ebdon to leave himself well placed to progress to Saturday’s semi-finals. In both matches he came from a frame behind to win 2-1 and though it is such a short format, it bodes well for the future to see him come back like that.
Despite their losses to Hang however, both Ding Junhui and Ryan Day were able to defeat Mark Allen tonight which combined with their other victories this morning, leaves them right in contention for a semi-final place still. Allen, Hendry and Ebdon meanwhile will probably need to win each of their matches tomorrow to stand any chance of progressing.
In the other group, Ali Carter, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy have all won two matches each, with Carter in particular looking strong having only played two so far. While the other players are not out of it yet, I expect that battle for the two semi-final places available to come down to those three.