World Championship 2011 Qualifiers - 3rd Round Results

Its the third round of qualifying for the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 at the EISS in Sheffield and the players ranked 33-48 were battling the remaining qualifiers for a place in the final round and a chance to reach the Crucible.

Steve Davis faced a player 32 years his junior in the form of rising star Jack Lisowski. Jack already had beaten Kuldesh Johal in the previous round so the momentum would be behind him. Breaks of 121, 50 and 41 helped Jack race into a commanding 6-3 lead going into the second session, could Steve respond in time? The answer was yes as Steve rolled back the years with consecutive breaks of 94, 101 and 105 to come back to 6-6. The next few frames were a more scrappy affair but thanks to a break of 80 in the penultimate frame Steve brought us into a decider. Jack had chances but thanks to breaks of 15 and 38 it was enough for Steve to win the frame 59-16 and to move through to the final round of qualifying where he will face one of the toughest qualifiers; Stephen Lee, for his 31st appearance at the Crucible. Jack will be back next week for the PTC finals though so his season isn't over.

Matthew Selt has been in the ascendancy since the start of the last season. He qualified for two venues and has been consistantly winning matches in the PTC events and qualifiers. He hasn't reached a venue this season though and he will have his eyes set on his debut appearence at the Crucible after beating Patrick Wallace 10-9. The match wasn't a high quality affair and finished near midnight but breaks of 42 and 58 helped him from from 9-7 behind to set up the decider. Patrick hit a 43 but it wasn't enough as Matthew made a break of 80 to snatch the final frame and set up a tough meeting with Scot Marcus Campbell in the final round tomorrow.

Several matches went all the way to a deciding frame in this round. Another of these was the one between Twitter favourite Mike Dunn and amateur Sam Baird. Sam surprised us all by beating pros Reanne Evans, T.Thirapongpaiboon and Alfie Burden to reach the penultimate round but his Crucible dream ended here on the very final ball. No player ever was more than two frames in the lead and eventually it went down to a final frame decider. Sam made a break of 32 and then Dunn made two breaks of 27 and 36 which should of put him safely through but Sam amazingly got two snookers on the blue and pink to leave an awkward black (as can be seen here). After a good safety from Sam, Mike missed the pot but didn't leave the black easy. Sam overcut the black which left it over the pocket for Mike to finish off. Sam has played brilliantly over the last 7 days and he will be one to watch in the future. Mike faces newly top.16 relegated Mark King for a place in the Crucible.

Special mentions go to players Liu Song, Liu Chuang, David Gilbert and Andrew Pagett who have all come from the first round of qualifying and beaten three opponents each to reach the final round of qualifying for the Crucible Saturday and Sunday.

Full Results:

Rory McLeod 10-3 Kyren Wilson
Mark Joyce 6-10 Liu Song
Jamie Burnett 10-8 James Wattana
Mike Dunn 10-9 Sam Baird
Michael Holt 10-8 James McBain
Robert Milkins 10-4 Joe Jogia
Tom Ford 8-10 Liu Chuang
Peter Lines 6-10 David Gilbert
Fergal O`Brien 10-4 Paul Davison
Matthew Selt 10-9 Patrick Wallace
Anthony Hamilton 10-7 Michael White
Steve Davis 10-9 Jack Lisowski
Dave Harold 10-9 Jamie Jones
Alan McManus 10-8 Stuart Pettman
Nigel Bond 10-9 Andrew Pagett
Tony Drago 8-10 Jimmy Robertson

Tickets are still available for the final stages of the qualifiers in Sheffield, to book call 0114 256 5567 or visit www.arenaticketshop.co.uk