Chinalife Xingpai Hainan Classic 2011 - Day 1

Great start for Stephen Hendry

Lately I seem to be having all sorts of problems when it comes to update my blog. It first happened when the Welsh Open was on and my internet was dead for more than three days this making me absolutely crazy. Now, when this new Chinese competition is on and when the World Championship qualifiers are in their last days. Anyway, the good thing is that this time things got fixed more rapidly than before, so on with the show! :-)


The Hainan Arena was full with fans, most of them little Chinese ones, who came to see, most likely, for the first time, their favorite snooker players. Too bad that the "best of three" rule makes a match so short, for I’m sure they would have loved to see more of their beloved players; but here come the semis (on Saturday) and with the "best of nine" rule at hand, they can spend more time with them :-P
What I’ve really hated was the fact that the organisation team permitted the photographers to come so closely to the arena where the table was on and the players were doing their business. I’ve seen so many flashes from the cameras and that’s very annoying and distracting for the players who came such a long way to entertain the crowds as well as win something. It’s not like they do this because they haven’t got anything better to do, it’s their job and they should be allowed to do it in proper conditions. At least this is how a think.

Higgins and Ebdon having a chat before their match

I was telling you yesterday that we have four groups, each group having four players and that the first stage was a round robin one. So with no further introduction, here’s how things went during Day 1 ;-)


I have no doubt that Stephen Hendry was the star of the day, as the Scot won two matches. First he whitewash Li Yan 2-0 and second he ended on a decider with Peter Ebdon, whom he defeat 2-1. The golden rule is that with three matches won, a player can reach the semis. So let’s see what happens today with the seven-times world champion. ;-)
Jamie Cope followed his footsteps, him winning the battle against Jin Long 2-0 and hammering the current world champion Neil Robertson 2-1, as well as Graeme Dott, the last year World Championship runner-up, crashing both Ricky Walden and Ding Junhui 2-0 and performing a beautiful clearance of 141 as to beat the last named player.


The one and only Dennis Taylor, the special guest of this event, was defeated 2-0 by Ali Carter and although he declared he doesn’t hope for much to happen (for him) in this tournament I must admit I really fancy him to win at least one match. He is such a dear, dear person to me, although I have never met the guy, but he seems like such a cheerful and kind man. Not to mention he is a legend in snooker, that’s obvious the main reason why I just love the guy :-))


But here’s the complete list of yesterday results:


Group A:


Group B:


Group C:


Group D:


Today’s programe:


From 6am and 11am (UK time) - British Eurosport 2
Group A:
John Higgins 2-0 Stephen Hendry




Ali Carter 2-1 Shaun Murphy
Dennis Taylor 0-2 Tian Pengfei


Ding Junhui 0-2 Yu Delu


See you later on today for the second day`s comments and inside stories! ;-)