Robertson Stars, Williams Out

Day three at the 2012 UK Championship as the first-round came to a conclusion and after yesterday’s shock exit for defending champion Judd Trump, Australia’s Neil Robertson was keen to avoid a similar fate. Click below for a round-up of the results from the Barbican Centre…

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Having lost 6-1 to Neil Robertson at the same stage of this event last year, Leicester’s Tom Ford was powerless to prevent a repeat victory for the 2010 world champion as the Australian produced a stunning performance in York today.

Hitting four centuries and a break of 74 for good measure, Robertson underlined his credentials as the new tournament favourite this week and set up a last 16 tie with Australian Goldfields Open champion Barry Hawkins. Looking to become only the eighth player to have won the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters tournaments during his career, Neil could take some stopping this week.

While Robertson was able to avoid an upset, not so fortunate was two-time former champion Mark Williams, who could have no complaints as he lost 6-3 to qualifier Mark King this evening. Having taken the opening frame, Williams struggled thereafter as his opponent took five frames in a row, King eventually winning the match in the ninth frame.

As Mark explained during his post-match press conference, he has been struggling to find his form for a while now and while he declaration that he ‘can’t beat a man with no arms at the minute’ might be taking it a little too far, the man who was world number one as recently as 18 months ago now finds himself falling away from the top spots.

Take nothing away from his opponent however, King looked to be playing well this evening, particularly as he forged clear at 5-1 and will now await the winner of the match between Ricky Walden and Luca Brecel, which currently stands at 5-4 to the seeded Walden. Having led 2-0 and 4-2, having potted almost twice as many balls as his young Belgian opponent, Ricky has failed to capitalise on his superiority and has work to do yet before he is over the winning line.

The afternoon’s other match meanwhile saw Matthew Stevens record a 6-1 win against an out of sorts Dominic Dale, who is reportedly suffering from shingles, with a noticeable rash on his face today. Next up for Matthew will be a match with Marco Fu, conqueror of Mark Allen yesterday.