Snooker Players

World Championship - Milkins delivers victory over Robertson

Yet another shock today at the Betfair World Snooker Championship 2013 at the Crucible, as Gloucester's Robert Milkins came from 5-4 down to beat former world champion Neil Robertson 10-8. Stuart Bingham also impressed in his match against newcomer Sam Baird.

World Snooker Championship 2013 - Milkins delivers victory over Robertson

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World no.19 Robert Milkins is a two-times ranking event semi-finalist and one of the most consistent players on the tour at the moment. Many had picked his first round Betfair World Snooker Championship opponent, China Open victor Neil Robertson, to win his second title at the Crucible.

The Australian was looking in form, from the start of the match as he produced some excellent breaks to go 5-2 up, including the tournament break of 143. Milkins fought back to 5-4 so it was building up nicely for today's final session.

After Gloucester's Milkins won the first two frames in the afternoon to make it four in a row, Robertson battled with a 86 of his own before the next four frames were shared to make it 8-8 between the pair.

Runs of 37 & 27 were enough for Milkins to take the 17th frame after 2010 world champion Robertson missed a red to the corner. And a 51 break in the final frame was eventually enough to see another Crucible shock as Milkins ran out a 10-8 winner over his highly tipped opponent.

Robert Milkins Snooker World Championship 2013

Robert Milkins

"I'm absolutely chuffed," said Milkins "Beating Neil over the best of 19 frames, it doesn't come much better than that.

"Yesterday Neil played really well and I didn't have the run of the ball," he added, "and I somehow came out of it only one frame behind at 5-4

"I didn't feel so good today and I didn't play as well but I won a lot of close frames. My safety has been stronger than the rest of my game for the last couple of years."

Robertson's early departure along with other top players; John Higgins, Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens & Mark Allen means the draw has opened up for the snooker odds on favourites: Mark Selby, Ding Junhui & Ronnie O'Sullivan.

There was to be no such problems for a winner of multiple events this season: Stuart Bingham. He took on the final debutant to walk out down the famous Crucible steps this month: world no.73 Sam Baird.

Premier league champion Bingham got off to the perfect start in the first session, dominating play against his over-awed opponent who just couldn't seem to settle. The former Australian Open champion looked thrilled to be leading 8-1 overnight.

When they resumed it didn't take long for Bingham to go one away from victory after a smooth run of 73. Baird managed to nick the next, scrappier frame before the two-times Asian PTC winner Bingham got the last frame he needed with a break of 79 to see out a comfortable 10-2 victory. He plays the in-form Mark Davis next up.

Stuart Bingham World Snooker 2013

Stuart Bingham

"Thankfully for me I got on top of Sam pretty early and he started feeling the nerves of playing his debut here," said Bingham.

"I was 8-1 down to Hendry at the end of the first session last year so I know exactly how it feels, and it was important for me to get the job done as soon as I could tonight.

"I was practising with Mark Davis just before he came up here so I knew he was in good form. Back home he beat me 10-9, on my table. It is going to be a tough game."

Elsewhere at the Crucible two second round matches got underway. First was the battle of two former world champions. Shaun Murphy dominated the scoring against Graeme Dott, making top breaks of 128, 112, 54 and 99 to take a 6-2 advantage in the best-of-25 match.

The other match featured an unusual tussle between two qualifiers who Mark Williams & Stephen Maguire respectively, Wales's Michael White and Thailand's Dechawat Poomjaeng. 21-year-old White got off to a great start, winning two of the first three frames with a top break of 101 in the second.

A rare occurence in any snooker match, never mind the Crucible, happened in the next frame. Poomjaeng whilst using the spider over the blue, missed reds on three consecutive attempts and conceeded the frame by default. Check out a video of the incident here.

From then on the crowd favourite just couldn't get any momentum together and lost the next four in a row, giving White a crucial 7-1 lead heading in to tomorrow's next session.