Today saw the second half of the draw completed in Poland and with it, the resolution of the outstanding rankings issues ahead of Monday’s cut-off. Click below for a summary of the day’s action…
Beginning the day lying provisionally in 65th place, Joe Swail knew that he would require at least two wins today if he was to move back up into the top 64 at the expense of Welsh youngster Michael White. As has often been the case during Joe’s career, he did not make it easy for himself but with a 4-3 victory against amateur Robbie Williams followed by a 4-1 success against Scotland’s Anthony McGill, he was able to achieve his objective. The icing on the cake came at 1:10am as he completed a tremendous comeback from 3-1 down to defeat Paul Davison 4-3 on the final black to book his place in tomorrow’s last 16 where he will face Stephen Lee.
Also in with a chance of moving up inside the top 64 this morning was Stoke’s Liam Highfield but a 4-0 defeat to Anthony Hamilton ended his hopes early in the day. Anthony himself had a lot to play for as a run to the final would have moved him up inside the top 32 at the expense of Ken Doherty but his run too was to end in the next round as he lost to Stephen Maguire in a decider. The Scot would eventually edge out Michael Holt also to book his place in the last 16.
It was a good day for Maguire’s old rival Shaun Murphy as the Brazil Masters champion reached the last 16 of a PTC event for the first time this season. Victories against Jak Jones, Stuart Carrington (a winner of his first pro match against Matt Stevens earlier), and Adam Duffy were enough to book Shaun a tie with PTC3 winner Ben Woollaston tomorrow morning.
The battle for the top 48 was also concluded today as despite a surprise opening round defeat to Sam Harvey, Joe Jogia hung onto 48th position in the projected seedings thanks to defeats for those below him.
Continuing his impressive start to the season was 2010 world champion Neil Robertson who dug in well to see off the winless Daniel Wells, Gerard Greene and then Peter Ebdon to move into the last 16 of a PTC event for the fourth time this season today. He had looked to be somewhat tired during the early stages of his match against Wells in particular but was eventually able to come through.