No play today but there was plenty of drama at the Academy yesterday as three matches went to a deciding frame. Click below for a round-up of the action as well as all the scores…
As readers of my Twitter page will have noticed, for me one of the most interesting second round ties was that between Matt Selt and Jack Lisowski, two players who have enjoyed a strong 12 months or so and are in the process of moving up the rankings. I just couldn’t separate the two at the start of the match and so it was no surprise to see the scoreline progress to 8-8 as the end of the evening approached.
Looking at the livescores, the decider looked to be a scrappy one but eventually it was the more experienced Selt who managed to pull through and record an important win that at the time of writing lifts him up inside the top 48 of my projected seedings list. Next up for him will be a clash with Welshman Dominic Dale, a match that will be far from easy but not impossible either. Jack meanwhile must now wait to see whether he will move up into the top 64 at the next seedings revision as he is currently in 62nd place, but with a few players behind him not yet out of the tournament, nothing is certain yet.
While Jack could not quite overcome a more experienced opponent himself, young Kyren Wilson managed to record an impressive 9-8 victory against Ian McCulloch, the man who just over five years ago was a World Championship semi-finalist. In 2010 Ian is not the force he was back then but with his all his experience in the longer format matches, he remains a scalp for a tour newcomer such as Kyren who despite not having excelled in the PTC so far this season, has recorded some strong results in the major tournaments such as this. Having defeated one experienced pro already, next up will be another in the form of Rory McLeod.
The final man to come through in a decider was David Gilbert, who did so impressively by winning the final frame in one visit against Andy Hicks to keep his run going. It is a strange old game is snooker, having won just one match all season up until this point, David has now won two in three days!
Like David, Mark Joyce was a player who had fallen outside of the top 64 at the last seedings revision but having already defeated Jak Jones this week, yesterday he saw off Alfie Burden 9-7 to move up to 56th place and earn a third round tie with in-form Scot Marcus Campbell.
More comfortable winners however were Jimmy White and Xiao Guodong, both 9-1 victors against Adam Wicheard and Michael Judge respectively. Neither result particularly shocked me if I’m honest, particularly given the form of Judge during the last couple of seasons but both are impressive nevertheless. Michael White too was also a convincing winner, defeating Irishman David Morris by an impressive 9-3 margin. Having managed to retain a position inside the top 64 for the past couple of seasons, David has struggled somewhat recently despite making the TV stages of the World Open and will now drop out of that bracket following the UK Championship.
Finally, well done to Simon Bedford who after coming from behind to edge out James McBain in the first round, yesterday defeated Bjorn Haneveer to book a last 64 clash with Joe Swail. While Swail is always capable of producing an upset, indeed if ever there was a player who wins matches when you least expect him to, Joe would be that player, this is a good opportunity for Simon to get another important win under his belt.
Afternoon
Jimmy White 9-1 Adam Wicheard
Bjorn Haneveer 4-9 Simon Bedford
Anthony McGill 4-9 Patrick Wallace
David Morris 3-9 Michael White
Morning/Evening
Jimmy Robertson 6-9 James Wattana
Andy Hicks 8-9 David Gilbert
Alfie Burden 7-9 Mark Joyce
Michael Judge 1-9 Xiao Guodong
Matthew Selt 9-8 Jack Lisowski
Ian McCulloch 8-9 Kyren Wilson