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Day two from a very humid Academy in Sheffield and it has so far been a day for the experienced players with several youngsters crashing out. Without doubt though the match of the round was that between Kurt Maflin and Jack Lisowski…
Day Two Results:
Alfie Burden 5 – 1 Zhang Anda
Liu Song 5 – 0 Adrian Gunnell
Joe Jogia 5 – 2 Xiao Guodong
Kurt Maflin 5 – 4 Jack Lisowski
Joe Delaney 5 – 3 Jimmy Robertson
Barry Pinches 5 – 3 Liam Highfield
David Gilbert 5 – 0 Ian McCulloch
Jimmy White 5 – 3 Liu Chuang
Bjorn Haneveer 5 – 3 Kuldesh Johal
James McBain 5 – 2 Jamie Jones
Issara Kachaiwong 5 – 1 Andy Hicks
Rod Lawler 5-1 Kyren Wilson
Stuart Pettman 2-5 James Wattana
Anthony McGill 0-5 Ben Woollaston
Matthew Couch 5-4 Paul S Davison
Joe Swail 5-3 Michael White
Click here to view the drawsheet.
Norway’s finest Kurt Maflin came out on top this morning against boy wonder Jack Lisowski in a thrilling match to book his place in the third qualifying round of the China Open.
Early on there appeared to be little to get too excited about, Maflin taking a scrappy opener by three points. Suddenly though the match exploded into life with two breaks of 116 from Lisowski either side of a 95 from Maflin who but for a missed long red down the cushion could have made his first century of the match.
He was not to have much longer to wait however as he capitalised from a missed long blue from Jack on 17 with a break of 115 after the interval before Jack again drew level following a scrappy sixth frame.
It looked as though frame seven would be the major turning point of the match with his break moving to 61, Kurt missed a straight frame ball pink to a middle pocket to let Jack in to steal it with an excellent clearance of 56.
Kurt though was not finished and bounced back with what under the circumstances was a brilliant total clearance of 140 and with the momentum with him he pounced on a missed long red from Jack in the decider with 76 to send Jack crashing out.
It is a tough way to lose for Jack but having come out on top against Martin Gould in similar circumstances recently, it just shows how good the standard in the game is at the moment. Well done to Kurt though, prior to this week he had shown little form this season but that is two very good wins now and he will play Dave Harold next for a place in the final qualifying round.
Strangely enough, Jack going out seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day as soon after, fellow youngsters Zhang Anda, Xiao Guodong and Liam Highfield all followed him out of the tournament in the morning session.
I say morning, the match between Barry Pinches and Highfield proved to be a bit of a marathon as from 3-0 down, Liam took three of the next four frames to give himself a fighting chance at 3-4. With Barry short on wins recently, the comeback looked on but the Canary Cueist has seen it all before and took the match with a break of 40 to move into the third round and up four places to 35th in my latest provisional rankings. Next up for him will be a match with Rory McLeod. Could be a long one…
Meanwhile, Xiao lost out 5-2 to Joe Jogia tailing 2-1, Joe upped his game with breaks of 80, 64 and 66 on his way to taking the next four. Zhang after his impressive win against Patrick Wallace could do little about PSB blogger Alfie Burden as the Arsenal fan won 5-1.
So far there have been two whitewashes, both suffered by two seeded players who are really struggling at the moment, Ian McCulloch and Adrian Gunnell. There was at least good news for the ever popular Jimmy White who came through a potential banana skin against Liu Chaung as a 5-3 winner to book a clash with Peter Lines tomorrow.