UK Championship 2009 Qualifiers: Day Eight Results

Categories:

The final day of the 2009 UK Championship qualifiers has arguably been the best yet as a number of high-quality matches are being played to a finish tonight. Click below to see who will be joining Tom Ford and Matthew Stevens in the last 32 tonight…

Click here to see how the last 32 draw is shaping up.

Note that the provisional rankings have now been updated.

It has been a day of close matches but not reading the script was 2003 UK Champion Matthew Stevens who continued his encouraging start to the season with a 9-1 demolition of Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell. Just two years ago it was Adrian who prevailed at the same stage of the competition with a 9-7 victory but this time it was the Welshman who dominated, moving 7-1 ahead after the first session before completing his revenge this evening.

With a tie against Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 32 at Telford, things will be much tougher for sure in his next match but with his minimum ranking points secure and a few wins behind him, perhaps he could spring a surprise.

Soon to join him in the last 32 were Tom Ford and Liang Wenbo who impressively defeated Barry Hawkins and Welsh youngster Michael White respectively. Tom has had a tough time over the last year or so, falling out of the top 48 at the end of the last season but having now qualified for his first venue since last season’s Shanghai Masters, hopefully things are on the up. He has been working with Sight Right coach Steve Feeney recently and perhaps now we are starting to see the fruits of that partnership.

It was not such a good day for Sight Right stablemate Mark Davis however as his strong week was ended by Premier League semi-finalist Judd Trump who in the process won his first ranking event match of the season. Locked at 4-4 at the interval as they traded breaks of 103, 52, 77, 49×2 and 40, the pair remained hard to separate until breaks of 69 and 54 from Judd were enough to see him over the line.

Elsewhere the excellent run of Ken Doherty at Prestatyn came to an end as he lost a tough match to Jamie Cope, while Steve Davis won his first match of the season to book an intriguing tie with old rival Stephen Hendry in Telford.

Results from Global Snooker:

Monday 30th November 2009

Matthew Stevens 9-1 Adrian Gunnell
64-1, 62-41, 60-43, 107(107)-16, 62-40, 47(47)-68(40), 68(55)-40, 62-33, 54(44)-1, 50-5

Judd Trump 9-7 Mark Davis
22-68, 14-117(103), 76(52)-17, 28-61(49), 89(40,49)-31, 108(77)-0, 7-63(41), 60-48, 73-5, 76-38, 0-87(87), 63(57)-54, 40-71(58), 46(46)-69(62), 69(69)-0, 62(54)-1

Steve Davis 9-7 Michael Judge
63-29, 81(81)-1, 86(46)-39, 50-61(47), 21-72, 56(50)-64, 70(42)-25, 75(55)-13, 73-46, 13-65, 74(45)-4, 70(45)-53, 7-62(44), 60(50)-70(45), 43-58, 66(66)-1

Jamie Cope 9-6 Ken Doherty
0-90(51), 25-63, 17-71, 62-61, 82(82)-35, 47-88(53), 136(86)-0. 105(45,60)-0

Liang Wenbo 9-4 Michael White
32-68, 85(40)-19, 127(127)-0, 73(52)-1, 29-67, 76(49)-0, 0-84(84), 77-58(49), 122(103)-0, 104(65)-19, 63-26, 0-88(88), 66(54)-32

Dave Harold 5-9 Anthony Hamilton
26-89(61), 69(65)-0, 4-66(55), 32-62, 5-73(64), 6-82(82), 81-57(57), 55-63

Barry Hawkins 5-9 Tom Ford
17-76, 76(37,39)-8, 59(59)-73(60), 65-11, 54(47)-18, 0-63(62), 1-84(84), 8-81(64), 0-75, 67(67)-32, 68-5, 7-128(104), 40-89(55), 50-69

Ricky Walden 9-6 Andrew Higginson

1-83(50), 66-17, 4-82(61), 25-52(42), 15-88(55), 1-122(100), 70(43)-1, 66(64)-12, 32-70, 86(86)-20, 60-53, 59-52, 84-46, 59-48, 80(53)-1

Tweet This Post

This post has no tag

4 comments

Martin says:

November 30, 2009 at 8:37 pm (UTC 0 )

Reply

And the Nugget wins through 9-7! Great stuff from Steve.
dannyboy says:

November 30, 2009 at 8:42 pm (UTC 0 )

Reply

Well played Steve Davis. Came through judgement day impressively given how he has played recently. Despite the close score Steve made few “easy ball” mistakes today. One poor frame in the 2nd session but Steve has made nine 40+ breaks today including an 81 and a closing 66 when the pressure was building. Really good to watch the match for free on 110 sport. With Wenbo finishing early got a lot of live coverage of Steve’s game. Interesting to hear Mark King’s insight into Steve’s preparation. For the first two ranking events he apparently hardly had longer than 30 minutes practise! Hence his 5-4 and 5-0 loses. For this event he has been putting in 2-3 hours a day. Great to hear as it shows Steve has a potting game when he puts in some decent preparation. Judge fought back well and will rue his awful potting in frame 12 when I think I might have closed out Steve! That frame to go 8-4 down and not 7-5 proved massive. What pleased me though is that Steve has found his form of last season when he won so many matches both in qualifiers and in the championship league. I think Hendry might get a decent match next Sunday and I for one can’t wait to follow on the red button from 1pm. Last week I was thinking 9-3 Hendry! After today I think it may go a lot closer. If he matches today’s form I think it could go at least 15 frames duration if not longer. A final swangsong – life in the old dog yet for me! Class is permanent Mr Davis!
matt2745 says:

November 30, 2009 at 8:54 pm (UTC 0 )

Reply

Cheers for the detailed review Danny. Hoping for a Hendry win next week of course but if Davis is practising then it could be a close one…
Sammy@SnookerSceney says:

November 30, 2009 at 9:37 pm (UTC 0 )

Reply

Woo Hoo!
Nice one Fordy!
Only seen him once on TV and that was during the UK Pool Championships

Pro Snooker Blog