Day two of the current PTC event saw Peter Ebdon just about keep his bid for a top 16 place on track with a dramatic 4-3 victory over Irish professional David Morris but it was the end of the road for Tom Ford as the Event Three winner crashed out at the first hurdle. Click below for updates or view my Twitter page here.
Last 128
At 3-1 down against world number 59 David Morris it looked likely that Peter Ebdon would be heading out of this PTC event but the 2002 world champion fought back well, winning one subsequent frame on a re-spotted black on his way to a 4-3 victory.
It was not to be a good day for Leicester’s Tom Ford however as the Event Three winner was brought back down to earth by Martin O’Donnell, the conqueror of Shaun Murphy last weekend. Tom’s cause was not helped by the fact that he apparently was suffering from a leg injury sustained when playing football recently but that did not stop him from taking three frames to force a decider which Martin won with a break of 76.
Speaking of former world champion Shaun Murphy, he won just his second match in the PTC against Nottingham’s Michael Holt, also coming through a deciding frame. The man who Murphy defeated to clinch his World Championship, Matthew Stevens, also won through to the last 64 meanwhile with a comfortable 4-1 victory against Thai legend James Wattana.
If you are looking for upsets, the biggest surprise of the morning so far was probably the defeat of Stuart Bingham who lost in seven frames to the unheralded Chen Ze. Stuart Pettman also exited at the hands of Mike Dunn, despite coming back from 3-0 down to force a decider at one point.
At the time of writing Marcus Campbell trails Ian Glover 3-1 and Scot Alan McManus surprisingly leads Liang Wenbo by the same scoreline as he looks to cling on to a place in the top 48. World champion Neil Robertson is also in action against Welsh youngster Daniel Wells.
Finally Graeme Dott has also come back from behind to lead Adam Wicheard 3-2, but the main story from that match is the fact that Graeme missed out on a second career maximum in frame three, eventually breaking down on 104.
EDIT: Impressively, Adam won the last two frames to defeat Dott 4-3 while Ian Glover completed a 4-3 win over Marcus Campbell.
Furthermore there has been a huge shock this evening as world champion Neil Robertson has crashed out at the hands of Daniel Wells who came back from 3-0 down to defeat his illustrious opponent.
Rather amusingly, Rod Lawler is still on the table at the time of 7:45pm in his first round match, it’s going to be a late one folks…