Day two in Shanghai as John Higgins, Mark Selby, Joe Perry and Dominic Dale make their entrance into the competition. Click below to read how they are getting on in the afternoon session:
Mark Selby 5-1 Judd Trump
Mark Selby became the first man to reach the last 16 today as he eased past Bristol’s Judd Trump in around 90 minutes this morning.
Looking sharp from the start, Selby picked up where he left off in the Premier League with a break of 88 in the first frame before Judd managed to level the score in a scrappy second frame. Selby though was in no mood to mess around as from then on he produced some devastating snooker, hitting breaks of 105, 85 and 75×2 to book a match with either Mark King or Jimmy White in the next round.
It was another thoroughly impressive performance from Mark who has looked in great form recently and will be very much one of the favourites to win the title this week. His decision over the summer to speed up his cue action in preparation for the Premier League certainly looks to have paid off as he is not only more entertaining to watch at the moment, but he is playing with a fluency that I have not seen before in his game.
John Higgins 5-4 Tom Ford
It was not to be a good day for Leicester’s other top player Tom Ford however as double world champion John Higgins won moved into the next round with a narrow 5-4 win.
Early on it looked like it would be a much more comfortable match for John as he used his vast experience to capitalise on a number of errors from his younger opponent. With Higgins taken the first frame with a well-constructed break given the awkward position of the reds, both had chances in the second before again Higgins took it with a break of 84 after Ford had gone in-off. The third frame will have been the hardest for Tom to take however as having made a series of terrific pots, he missed a simple blue off the spot when clearing the final colours to gift Higgins a 3-0 lead.
To his credit though, having suffered such a disappointment Tom did not fold at this point as many might have expected. He hung in there and managed to take the last frame before the interval to give himself hope before fighting well in frame five to bring the score back to 3-2.
Higgins, the first player to win an event in Shanghai back in 1999 at the China International, needed a boost at this point and it was to come when having got away with a terrible shot, he stepped in to restore the two frame lead with a total clearance of 136.
Again though Ford would not give up as he took the next two frames to level things at 4-4 and force a deciding frame. As against Steve Davis last week however, he could not quite complete the comeback as his long-potting deserted him and Higgins made him pay. Had Ford won that third frame that he really should have then it might have been a different story but I doubt that Higgins will care too much. He will now face either Ryan Day or Liang Wenbo in the last 16.
The Rest
Like Selby, another player to pick up where he left off in the Premier League last week was Joe Perry who cruised past the struggling Matthew Stevens 5-1. Although lacking the heavy scoring of the Selby match, Perry always looked the stronger player and will now meet the winner of this afternoon’s tie between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Pettman.
Finally Steve Davis completed another narrow victory over defending champion Dominic Dale, eventually winning 5-4. Like last week against Tom Ford he led the match comfortably before being forced into a deciding frame. Again though he steadied himself to win it, earning a tie with either Ding Junhui or the in-form Dave Harold.
Last 32
John Higgins 5-4 Tom Ford 78(38)-8, 102(84)-21, 69-42(41), 14-90(57), 32-79(47), 136(136)-0, 5-64(55), 5-120(100), 64-1
Joe Perry 5-1 Matthew Stevens 53(47)-66, 60-32, 63-39, 66(37)-41(33), 105(105)-23, 74(51)-0
Mark Selby 5-1 Judd Trump 88(88)-45, 0-73(43), 145(105)-0, 93(85)-18, 88(75)-25, 110(75)-12
Dominic Dale 4-4 Steve Davis 73(46)-13, 89(69)-1, 0-101(54,46), 44(43)-70(33), 41-77(32,33), 33(33)-80(66), 58-50, 60(39)-26, 4-87(33,54)