Day four and we are down to the last sixteen in Shanghai as the likes of Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins are in action this afternoon. Click below to read how the matches have unfolded:
Mark Williams 5-2 Jamie Cope
What a match, Jamie Cope hits breaks of 147 (yes 147), 92 and 72 yet somehow loses it 5-2!
Mark Williams played very well from the start though and moves into his first quarter-final since the China Open back in March. He took the opening frame with a clearance of 75 before stealing frame two having seen Jamie make a 72 break on the way to what would have been a maximum.
Jamie was to make up for this disappointment in the best possible way in the third however as he hit a sensational maximum break, the second of his career. He followed this up with 92 in the next to level it up at the interval, particularly impressive given what he had just achieved.
This was to be as good as it got though as Williams showed his undoubted class when play resumed, taking the next three frames to close out the match and earn a tie with Ronnie O’Sullivan tomorrow.
Jamie will be disappointed not to have won given how well he scored in the match, but with a second career maximum and the £22,000 that will go with it, it hasn’t been too bad a day at the office!
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-3 Joe Perry
Ronnie O’Sullivan might be into the next round but it was far from a top performance as his patience appeared to snap halfway through the match following an incident with referee Brendan Moore. Joe Perry could not take advantage however and O’Sullivan will face Williams tomorrow.
O’Sullivan raced into a 3-0 as although he missed a few easy balls, these went unpunished by Joe Perry for a while. Joe did hit back however to make it 3-2 by taking both frames either side of the mid-session interval. By this point O’Sullivan seemed to be rushing all of hits shots following a warning from the referee early on in the match. It is not clear what this was given for, the Eurosport commentators suggesting that it may have been foul language, though this needs to be confirmed.
He did however manage to take the sixth frame before Perry hit back once again with a break of 106 to make it 4-3. It was to be in vain though as O’Sullivan, despite appearing to be doing his best to lose the match, took advantage of a poor positional shot from the final yellow to green by Perry took the chance he needed to seal the win.
O’Sullivan’s supporters will now be hoping that he gets his head together tonight because it is hard to imagine that someone of Mark Williams’ class will let him get away with a repeat performance…
Other news
Ryan Day continued his strong form with another victory over double world champion John Higgins this afternoon. Hitting breaks of 62, 67 and 88, Day soon led 3-0 and despite a Higgins fightback, capped by a nice 134 break to make it 3-2, held his nerve to secure a 5-2 win.
He will now face his friend Stephen Maguire who overcame Basildon’s Stuart Bingham in what was the latest finish of the day. The match was a lengthy one, mainly because of an epic fifth frame with the score locked at 2-2. Eventually it was Maguire who prevailed and went on to take the match 5-3.
Last 16
Dave Harold 4-5 Steve Davis 60-55(54), 73(65)-54(49), 71(64)-0, 0-98(97), 69(38)-36, 1-86(55), 13-81(81), 51-64
Neil Robertson 4-5 Ricky Walden 61(55)-14, 90(76)-0, 49(39)-90(60), 64(50)-1, 59-26, 31(30)-72(32), 0-79(75), 41(41)-79(66), 0-89(89)
Mark Selby 5-0 Mark King 61(48)-29, 68(68)-13, 89(53)-39(39), 90(48,34)-26, 112(44,68)-12
Marco Fu 5-2 Andy Hicks 87(36,30)-38, 82(74)-29, 6-111(85), 82(54)-33, 69(68)-65(43), 68(41)-75(36), 102(54)-10
John Higgins 2-5 Ryan Day 12-75(62), 32-94(67), 18-116(88), 70-35, 135(134)-0
Stephen Maguire – Stuart Bingham 62-34, 48-82(77)
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-3 Joe Perry 82(48)-34, 67(45)-55(55), 75-51, 0-73(73), 97(68)-8, 10-82(78)
Mark Williams 5-2 Jamie Cope 81(75c)-49, 85(39)-76(72), 0-147(147), 0-96(92), 67-1