Chinalife Xingpai Hainan Classic 2011 - Day 2

John Higgins has reached the semis

Back to China on the magnificent Island of Hainan, where the mighty snooker players are minding their own business and doing their best to get a place in the semis. For some of the groups invited (players groups I mean) it was a real challenge to pick a winner, that one going straight to the semi-finals, because more than one of them ended up at the end of the day with two points. So, the organisers had to see the number of frames they’ve won and/or lost and of course if that wasn’t relevant enough which player had the highest break of his group. All that being set, we do have the names of the four players who reached the semis, but until I shall reveal their names, here comes the shot story of what happened today ;-)


John Higgins and Stephen Hendry, a genuine battle of giants, were the first to open the day for Group’s A matches, and if Stephen would have won this match, his name would have been on the semi-finalists list. Unfortunately, his countryman John was wise enough as to take full advantage of the fact that Hendry missed frame ball when he was on 49 points and to clear the colors in order to obtain a break of 35 and win the opening frame (he hit a 23 previously in the match). Regarding the second frame, there was really no wonder why Higgins won it, because Hendry made a big mistake (aka. a poor safety shot), this allowing his opponent to hit a 62 and cash the victory 2-0. The seven-time world champion was soooo close as to reach the semis...so, so close.
Later on that day, John Higgins also crashed the national star, Li Yan 2-0 after hitting in runs of 62 and 91.

Ali Carter wins a place in the semi-final

Jamie Cope continued his good run and scored another whitewash, this time against Yin Long as to book himself a place into the next round, along with John Higgins.
Next to follow was the Scot Graeme Dott, who hammered Yu Delu 2-1 as to add one more victory to his collection and also reach the semi-finales.
But for Group C things weren’t so easy to figure the out, for at the end of the day Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy and Tian Pengfei were all on two points, so we needed to take a closer look at their winnings through the tournament. What do you know? All three of them had won five frames and lost three, so a closer look had to be done in order to establish the winner. It was picked the player with the highest break and that player was the Captain Ali Carter.


Unfortunately for the local super-star Ding Junhui, this competition hasn’t been a very good one, him losing two matches: first to Graeme Dott (0-2) and second to his fellow-country, Yu Delu (0-2). Still, he succeeded to beat Ricky Walden 2-1 and hit a marvelous 113 break in order to close the match. Walden was hospitalised with food poisoning and he was most likely not to play the match against Ding, but he decided to give it a shot, in the last minute. Pale but still kicking those snooker balls, Walden is a true competitor and he deserves our consideration and congratulations for choosing to play although he was clearly feeling unwell.


Here are Day’s 2 results:
Group A:


Group B:


Group C:


Group D:


Tomorrow’s programme for the semi-finals:


From 6am and 11am (UK time) - Brittish EuroSport 2


Bets of luck to the remaining lads and see you tomorrow for the latest nex from Hainan, China. ;-)