World Cup 2011: Ireland Survive, Seeds Progress to Quarters

So after 200 frames of snooker which saw 10 century breaks during the first five days of the 2011 World Cup, the tournament has seen all eight of the seeded teams make it through to tomorrow’s quarter-final stage. That said though, some had it harder than others…

Having seen Pakistan take a 3-2 victory against Egypt beforehand, Republic of Ireland duo Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brien knew that they would have to win at least two frames against an in-form Welsh team today but did not get off to the best of starts as they lost their opening two singles matches to trail 2-0.

A narrow victory in the doubles match however gave them fresh hope before defeat for O’Brien against Mark Williams meant that Doherty would have to defeat Matthew Stevens in the last frame of the match or else it would be Pakistan joining the Welsh in the last eight stage.

He might not have played close to his best snooker so far this week but Ken has always a strong under pressure and with a good record against Stevens down the years was able to come through and ensure that Ireland will progress to the quarter-finals tomorrow.

There they will meet Ding Junhui’s China after they were able to get the frames that they needed against Thailand 1 today to qualify at the expense of the unfortunate Malta team. Following Australia’s 4-1 win against the UAE earlier in the day which put Neil Robertson’s team through to play Wales in the quarters, China required three frames from their match if they were to join them there.

It was not to be however as Ding and Liang won four frames to put Malta (who had played their final match yesterday), out of the competition.

Elsewhere, there was little to see in Group C as England and Northern Ireland had already secured their places in the last eight, though Mark Allen and Gerard Greene did notch up an impressive 110 break during their doubles frame against England today.

The Northern Irish duo will now meet Scotland who edged out Hong Kong 3-2 today, while England will come up against Marco Fu’s men who progressed at the expense of Thailand 2 despite an impressive performance from the home team against Poland.

To look at the final tables, please click here.

To view the individual match results so far please click here.