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Betfred.com World Snooker Championship Draw
Crucible Photos
The opening match of the tournament featured defending champion Neil Robertson against rising star and China Open champion Judd Trump, find out how their match finished here.
Three matches went down to a deciding frame in the first round. The first of these was the battle between seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry and former Crucible semi-finalist Joe Perry. Just like with his match against Chinese debutant Zhang Anda last year, Hendry had to come through a nervy final-frame decider to win.
Hendry led 6-3 after the first session but was pipped back by Perry to 6-6. After exhanging frames one by one, Perry made a break of 69 to set up the decider. Hendry had two scoring chances and built up a 53-0 lead before Perry hit in 33 and then a long safety battle ensued. After making a bad mistake Perry unfortunately left the brown near the cormer pocket before Hendry slotted it home for his third consecutive Crucible 10-9 win.
Hendry will have to step up his game for his next round match though as he faces Mark Selby who came through against Crucible debutant Jimmy Robertson. The world no.63 from Sussex won the first frame but never took off from their as Selby took the next 10 in a row to win the match 10-1. Even with that scoreline Selby only made 3 breaks of 50 or higher in the match so he wasn't at his best either, could that be a silver lining for Hendry?
The second final-frame decider of the tournament was between Welsh Open finalist Stephen Maguire and the consistant world no.26 Barry Hawkins. Both players have had a decent season and Barry especially was looking for his first Crucible victory and he managed to get it on this, his sixth attempt. The former UK Champion Maguire looked out of sorts from the very start of the match as he found himself trailing 6-3 to Hawkins at the end of their first session.
Maguire looked a lot stronger in the second session though as breaks of 64, 50 and 58 aided in him coming back to 8-8. Hawkins knocked in a 62 in the next before Maguire took a scrappy 18th to set up the decider. Hawkins managed to get Maguire trapped in a tough Snooker behind the green and Maguire failed to leave it safe on the escape putting Hawkins in amongst the balls in which he duely knocked in an exeptional 92 break to win his first match at the Crucible.
Barry doesn't have it any easier in the next round though as he is up against the winner of the only other first-round final frame decider; Antrim's Mark Allen who came through against two-times world champion finalist Matthew Stevens in their match. The boys exchanged throughout the match until they were tied at 6-6, but then the Welshman seemed to step it up a gear with breaks of 68 and 54 aiding in him needing only one more frame to clinch the match at 9-6.
Having looking out of sorts for most of the match Allen suddenly became a different player and a break of 103 put him back to 9-7. A scrappy frame went down to the colours but Stevens missed a difficult match-ball pink in which Allen potted from an incredible distance to close back to 9-8. Once again Stevens had his chances in the 18th frame but was clearly struggling to handle the Crucible pressure when it went down to the colours and Allen fluked the green to win the frame to force the decider.
Both players had numerous chances with Allen making a break of 33, then Stevens twiced missed a red to the top corner, after which Allen knocked it in and then it was all over for Matthew as Mark won the match with a cool 45 break, and was quick to embrace his four-year-old daughter Lauren watching from the front row. Matthew will have been happy returning to the Crucible after three years but he will not be happy that he was unable to clinch it when it mattered. Mark though will be on top of the world and will start favourite against Hawkins.
The only other qualifier to make it through to the second round was the world no.20 from Essex Stuart Bingham who beat the 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon 10-8 in a very hard fought match. Bingham has had a good season already including beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in the UK Championship and reaching the quarter-finals, but qualifying for the Crucible again and reaching the last 16 is a more special achievement.
Ebdon was looking favourite to win the match when he came from 5-4 behind to lead Bingham 8-6, but the player from Essex who once shocked defending champion Stephen Hendry in the first round 10-7 in the 2000 tournament seemed to find a rich vein of form with the aid of breaks of 88 and 67 to win the match 10-8. Ebdon had a chance to clear up in the 18th to force the decider but he had the biggest kick of the tournament and missed the black. If that black had gone in who knows what would of happend, but all credit to Stuart, he held himself together well and deserves to be in the top 16 next season.
Suart will have a tougher match in the next round though as he is pitted against China's no.1 and Masters champion Ding Junhui who wasted no time in dispatching this season's Shanghai Masters finalist Jamie Burnett by a 10-2 scoreline. The Scot looked out of sorts at times and struggled to find any consistancy as Ding reeled in breaks of 52, 117, 58, 84 and 128 to win the first seven frames. Desperate to avoid the whitewash Burnett managed to win two but it wasn't to be as Ding sails through smoothly to the next round. Looking strong as ever this season, Ding is a real dark horse in this event and many will favour him to go all the way here.
Many other matches were won by a margin of 10-3 or better, one of these featured the out-of-sorts three-times world champion and crowd favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan who wasn't bothered much by the two-time ranking event winner Dominic Dale in their match. O'Sullivan finally managed to find some consistancy in his game after consecutive first-round losses to Ryan Day in ranking events and entertained fans with two 147 attempts and century breaks of 113, 115 and 100 along with 4 other breaks of 50+ to beat Dale 10-2.
Ronnie now has a mouth-watering clash with PTC Grand Finals champion and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy who seriously impressed in beating this season's EPTC3 winner Marcus Campbell by the huge margin of 10-1. Murphy took every frame in the first session with breaks of 93, 100, 56, 68, 53, 53, 75, 99 and 96 to race to a 9-0 lead overnight. Campbell though narrowly avoided the whitewash with a break of 62 in the first frame in their second session but that was it for the Scot as Murphy hit a 61 in the 11th to win 10-1. Murphy has been critical of O'Sullivan's approach and attitude to the game in the past, their second round match is easily the tie of the second round for me.
The other big victory of the first round was Shanghai Masters champion Ali Carter who beat Stoke potter Dave Harold 10-3. Harold never really challenged Carter in this match as the 2008 world finalist made breaks of 65, 66, 63, 80, 64 and 61 in seeing off the tour veteran. A much harder match awaits him in the next round as he faces the 2006 world champion Graeme Dott who came through 10-7 (only correctly picked score by me!) against Mark King. King had his chances in the match, but apart from a tournament high break of 138 in the 11th he never really set the stage alight as Dott hit breaks of 63, 53, 69, 73 and 102 in beating King 10-7. Graeme seriously impressed in his run up to the finals in last year's event, could he do it again?
German Masters champion and provisional world no.1 Mark Williams seriously impressed in his match against good friend Ryan Day as he wasted little time in dispatching him by a 10-5 scoreline. After winning the first session 6-3, Mark didn't look back from there and even though Ryan won two more frames it was Mark who dominated the session and breaks of 89, 70 and 66 in the last three frames to seal his victory. Mark still remains my personal tournament favourite and it will be interesting to see how he gets on in the next few rounds, especially with a possible O'Sullivan clash in the quarter-finals.
Mark will take on Masters semi-finalist Jamie Cope in his second round match who through a nervy 10-7 match against Crucible debutant and world no.80 Andrew Pagett. Both players weren't really at their best and were visually nervous throughout both sessions. Cope took to the lead after the first session by 5-4 and both had chances in the second. When Cope was 8-5 ahead, Pagett came back to 9-7 but it was too late and failed to pot the final pink to go 9-8 as he was put off his shot by the lights turning off on the other table. Cope then duely slotted in the pink & black to win the match. He will need to step up his game against Mark in the next round to stand any chance.
2008 Shanghai Masters champion Ricky Walden was accused of slow play and dragging the game out by his opponent Rory McLeod in their opening round match even though Rory's shots were on average 4 seconds slower (33 seconds a shot compared to Ricky's 29). Rory eventually came out the winner of that match after their epic 7 hours and 16 minutes encounter with an average frame time of 27 minutes by a 10-6 scoreline. Ricky now finds himself out of the top 16 for the next season, he will have to find some consistency in all events, not just the PTC's next season to get back in the elite group.
Rory will go on to meet three-times world champion and this season's UK and Welsh Open champion John Higgins who came through slightly easier than expected against Stephen Lee by a comfortable 10-5 margin. Higgins stormed to a 6-3 lead after the first session and never looked to be faultering in the match as he match as he hit less than no four centuries (132, 101, 131 and 121) and four other breaks over 50 in beating the EPTC4 champion. After this performance it's easy to see why Higgins is the tournament favourite and will take a lot to stop him, possibly a full-flight O'Sullivan in the semi-finals?
Full Results & Frame Scores (courtesy of World Snooker);
John Higgins (Scot) 10-5 Stephen Lee (Eng)
34-77; 83 (56)-14; 76 (70)-31; 78-0; 133 (132)-0; 105 (101) -15; 1-84; 46-78; 135 (131) -0; 124 (124)-0; 61-47; 0-101 (101); 0-86; 74 (74)-0; 81 (81)-1
Mark Selby (Eng) 10-1 Jimmy Robertson (Eng)
35-70; 90-50; 70-21; 66-20; 71-63 (63); 68-29; 77-19; 102 (56)-36; 82 (82)-53; 107 (107)-0; 89-44
Mark Allen (NI) 10-9 Matthew Stevens (Wal)
50-59 (52); 99 (99)-14; 53-76 (54); 91 (91)-4; 117 (86)-9; 39-60; 73-38; 33-78; 42-70; 47-67; 67-10; 0-74 (68); 69 (69)-35; 2-67 (54); 28-69; 103 (103)-14; 60-59; 64-29; 91-26
Graeme Dott (Scot) 10-7 Mark King (Eng)
99 (63)-8; 39-67; 93 (53)-0; 26-69; 74 (69)-37; 68-22; 131 (58,73) -0; 131 (102)-0; 0-116 (69); 65-52; 0-138 (138); 26-64; 31-70 (52); 66-1; 67-0; 0-79 (79); 74-15
Marco Fu (HK) 8-10 Martin Gould (Eng)
80 (70)-19; 137 (97)-0; 0-80 (80); 81 (81)-0; 95 (63)-24; 59-72; 23-81; 115 (115) -0; 95 (56) -0 ; 38-75; 33-91 (66); 3-71; 0-103; 30-75 (51); 73 (60) -13; 126 (100)-0; 6-90 (59); 15-82
Ricky Walden (Eng) 6-10 Rory McLeod (Eng)
15-85 (85); 70 (61)-43; 34-81; 88 (59)-0; 48-82; 105 (64) -14; 63-38; 1-68; 45-79; 62-6; 35-76; 8-69 (62); 2-58; 1-68 (65); 75-0; 60-72
Peter Ebdon (Eng) 8-10 Stuart Bingham (Eng)
14-95: 82-44; 105 (93)-13; 24-74; 64-44; 85 (77)-33; 24-101 (50); 0-79 (79); 1-88 (55); 62-38; 63-43; 70-11; 52-64; 97-4; 0-88 (88); 1-68 (67); 18-58; 29-72
Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) 10-2 Dominic Dale (Wal)
75-29; 78 (78)-0; 51-66; 0-69 (56); 64-48; 66-42; 96 (96) -0; 117 (113) -7; 75 (73) -24; 115 (115) -5; 104 (96)-9; 109 (100)-20
Stephen Maguire (Scot) 9-10 Barry Hawkins (Eng)
24-78 (73); 44-56; 44-84(72); 21-69; 75-13; 23-53; 123 (68,55)-7; 15-80 (73); 71-54; 67-22; 14-65 (53); 5-105 (71); 65-18; 66 (64)-53; 68(50)- 39; 72 (58)-6; 12-98 (62); 75-9; 0-101 (92)
Stephen Hendry (Scot) 10-9 Joe Perry (Eng)
62 (58)-73; 68 (56)-34; 0-68 (67); 64 (50) - 55; 133 (133) - 1; 42-76; 74 (55)-10; 73-23; 117 (117)-0; 7-80 (62); 63-74; 29-59; 67 (67) - 59 (55); 0-109 (80); 62-51; 13-63 (54); 53-4; 8-70 (69); 62-34
Ding Junhui (Chi) 10-2 Jamie Burnett (Scot)
78 (52)-14; 117 (117) - 1; 77 (58) - 13; 86-1; 73-58 (51); 110 (84)-8; 132 (128) -0; 36-71; 88-10; 69-61 (61); 16-61; 71 (71) -1
Mark Williams (Wal) 10-5 Ryan Day (Wal)
61-37; 18-71 (62); 75-7; 72 (71)-0; 66-51 (51); 137 (137)-0; 39-79 (79); 4-79 (63); 87 (84)-1; 79 (55) -52; 57-66 (66); 45-56; 93 (89)-11; 71 (70)-8; 87 (66) -32
Ali Carter (Eng) 10-3 Dave Harold (Eng)
84 (65)-23; 92 (66)-22; 71 (63)-55; 57-6; 96-15; 84 (80)-48; 81 (64)-40; 65-1; 0-92 (92); 49-60; 15-57; 61-50; 73 (61)-37
Shaun Murphy (Eng) 10-1 Marcus Campbell (Scot)
115 (93)-0; 63-26; 100 (100)-8; 73 (56)-27; 76 (68)-1 ; 71 (53)-34; 128 (75, 53)-8; 99 (99)-0; 96 (96) - 33; 5-83 (62); 89 (61)-32
Jamie Cope (Eng) 10-7 Andrew Pagett (Wal)
75 (75)-55; 45-75 (75); 68-39; 74-75; 25-51; 35-71 (61); 73-30; 108 (90)-0; 73 (54)-37; 81-21; 74 (53)-0; 20-91; 67-60; 98 (51)-16; 12-65; 12-75 (54); 57-47
Neil Robertson (Aus) 8-10 Judd Trump (Eng)
91 (72) -13; 44-77; 51-56; 79 (79) -2; 0-122 (122); 127-0 (127); 7-68; 39-76 (54); 100 (100) -0; 64-54 (54); 17-78 (70); 59 (58)-58 (58); 90(90)-1; 1-67 (67); 24-75 (75); 25-65; 72-53 (53); 0-84 (83)
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