On a day highlighted by Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 11th maximum break, what else has been going on at the PTC4 event in Furth today as the professionals entered the competition? Click below for my round-up of the day’s action…
Where else to start but with Ronnie O’Sullivan who today recorded three century breaks including a 147, the latter coming during his last 32 victory against Adam Duffy. Having earlier seen off Scotland’s Anthony McGill and Turkey’s Ali Kirim, the latter appearing to be unfortunately out of his depth. Still, O’Sullivan looks to be in the mood and in this form will prove hard to stop come last 16 day. A word though for Duffy who before coming up against the PTC1 winner built upon his good performances in recent events with further wins against experienced duo Anthony Hamilton and Joe Swail.
Also through to the last 16 with the minimum of fuss today was Leicester’s Mark Selby who won all 12 frames that he played against Sam Harvey, Rory McLeod and Craig Steadman. Often finding himself in the latter stages of events, can Mark go on to win one for the first time since the Wuxi Classic earlier in the summer?
Next up for him will be Andrew Higginson who came through a deciding frame finish to oust PTC2 winner Judd Trump from the tournament earlier today. Having also seen off Adam Wicheard and Liu Chuang Andrew has got some important ranking points on the board as he jockeys for position with Scotland’s Marcus Campbell in the rankings.
Elsewhere it has been another strong event for Joe Jogia who has won through to the last 16 stage of a PTC event for the third time this season. His most impressive win came against Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen in the second round before he ended the run of India’s Aditya Mehta in a seventh and deciding frame thereafter. Perhaps surprisingly Aditya had already seen off both Ryan Day and Simon Bedford to make it to his third match.
Also maintaining his strong form was Australian Open quarter-finalist Matt Selt, now up to a career high 39th on my latest projected seedings list following three wins today, notably against Dominic Dale at the last 32 stage. Next up for him will be Mark Davis who defeated Jimmy White and Jamie Cope as he bids for that elusive top 16 place at the October seedings revision. Now up to 15th on my projected list, can he stay there?
What of John Higgins? Having comprehensively defeated old rival Stephen Hendry 4-0 in his second match the reigning world champion saw his run come to an abrupt end following a deciding frame against China’s Li Yan in the last 32. Li will now go on to meet Ronnie O’Sullivan in what looks to be a fascinating match on paper.
Alan McManus, Marco Fu and to a lesser extent Alfie Burden were surprise first-round losers while Michael Holt and Ian McCulloch also exited early on. For Ian in particular the result could be a decisive one as with just two further PTC events to come because the season’s first seedings revision, his position inside the top 64 looks to be increasingly uncertain.
What will tomorrow bring?