After a relatively predictably opening day to the third event of the Players Tour Championship, the second has already seen Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty crash out with a round and a half still to play! Click below for more…
As was the case yesterday, information from the events is frustratingly hard to come by with no livescores facility or streaming, but sporadic updates are at least available over at Global Snooker here.
Having already lost early on in during the previous two PTC events, Shaun Murphy’s fortunes failed to improve this morning as he crashed out of this latest event at the hands of Martin O’Donnell who triumphed 4-3. Shaun nevertheless lies well placed in the latest provisional rankings to move back up the list but with a significant amount of points due to come off at the second revision as his 2008 UK Championship victory fades into the memory banks, he could do with getting a few more points on the board during the next few months.
A player who has accumulated a large number of rankings points recently meanwhile is Event One winner Mark Williams, but it was not to be his day today as he won just one frame against Ian Glover. The man whom Mark beat in the final of the 2003 World Championship, Ken Doherty, also lost although up against Jamie Cope it was always going to be a tough match for the Irishman.
What of reigning world champion and world number one in waiting Neil Robertson? The Australian managed to win his first significant match of the season by a 4-0 scoreline but perhaps rustiness got the better of him in the second round as he was defeated 4-2 by Welshman Dominic Dale. He will now meet event two finalist Barry Pinches who is again performing well, defeating Fergal O’Brien during the last 64 stage following a deciding frame shoot-out.
Elsewhere a friend of the blog, Stuart Pettman is enjoying an improved run following his disappointing loss to Zhang Anda in the Shanghai Masters qualifiers earlier in the week while Mark Davis defeated young former professional Andy Lee in a battle of two players coached by SightRightUK coach Stephen Feeney.
Finally, Reanne Evans’ tough start to life among the professionals continued as she was whitewashed by the experienced Dave Harold at the last 128 stage this morning.