It is not often that you would see Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, Peter Ebdon, Ali Carter, Ryan Day and Jamie Cope all out of a tournament by the last 16 stage but that is what has happened today as some unfancied names have made it through. One big name who has more than delivered so far however is the Jester from Leicester, Mark Selby…
Having come through a tricky match with Michael Holt following a deciding frame, event one winner Mark Williams could not repeat the feat in his second match as he lost out to the ever-improving Mark Davis 4-2 this evening. Davis, who of course finished last season ranked inside the top 32 for the first time in his career, has really taken his game up a level during the past couple of seasons and he added a further win over Mark Joyce (who himself had recorded a couple of good wins today), to book his last 16 spot.
Not to be so fortunate however was the man whom Davis defeated earlier this year at the Crucible, Welshman Ryan Day whose disastrous run of form continue with a 4-1 defeat to Belgian Bjorn Haneveer. Coming into this event ranked provisionally 15th, any extra ranking points would have been useful for Ryan but it was not to be and his confidence must now be as low as it has been at any point during the past five years.
What of former champions Peter Ebdon and Shaun Murphy? Those of you who read my previous post this morning will have seen that it was Shaun who ended the tournament of the 2002 champion but he himself was not to progress much further as he ran into an inspired Mark Selby this afternoon. Having already seen off Rod Lawler with breaks of 125, 92 and 62 in the first round, Mark knocked in further runs of 110, 85, 84 and 73 to defeat Murphy before rolling in 127, 111, 59 and 55 to whitewash Liu Chuang. If Mark can reproduce this scoring tomorrow then it is hard to see him losing out but it only takes one poor performance with such a short format to see an upset…
To see Mark in the last 16 is not particularly surprising but there are some names who casual followers of the game will be less familiar with. Take for example Welshman Andrew Pagett, back on the tour after his relegation at the end of the 2008/9 season who has today defeated Andrew Norman, compatriot Jamie Jones and then most impressively Stephen Lee to stay in the competition.
Last season’s PIOS number two Liam Highfield is another who has shown what he can do today, defeating Judd Trump in the third round to progress in what is only his second ever tournament at this level. Incidentally Judd had earlier in the day recorded breaks of 138 and 144, the latter being a career-best for the 20-year-old against Joe Perry.
Finally Jimmy Robertson has also excelled today, defeating Tony Drago, Andy Hicks and Marcus Campbell to ensure that he will be back in action at the EISS tomorrow.
I was planning to update the rankings tonight but due to time constraints I will look to do so tomorrow evening…