China Open 2011 - Day 4 (part II)

02:49:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Ding Junhui, making China proud
The forth day of the China Open tournament was ended with another four great matches, John Higgins succeeding in defeating his opponent after a very rough start, Mark Selby performing like in the good days against Robert Milkins, Ding Junhui winning over the seven-time world champion, Stephen Hendry and Ali Carter putting an end to Marcus Campbell’s run. The quarter-finals line-up is now complete.


Ricky Walden seems to be cueing rather well lately and to be honest it’s a real pleasure to see him perform on the telly. He had a very good start in the match played against John Higgins, takings the first two frames with some really beautiful breaks of 71 and 39, but Higgins wasn’t going to be kept too much in his seat, the Scotsman succeeding in leveling the match up 2-2, by hitting in runs of 107 and 96.
After the break, things were starting to look up for "The Wizard of Wishaw", as he took over the remaining frames, with a series of 65, 89 and 51 to set the score at 5-2 in his favor.


The match between Robert Milkins and Mark Selby was going to see the On Q Promotion’s lad out of the competition, as "The Jester from Leicester" was mercilessly hammering him 5-1.
The first two breaks were cashed by Selby with a set of breaks formed by a 102 and a 65, but Milkins succeeded in hitting an 84 to reduce the gap. Still, Selby was entering the mid-session interval with a 3-1 lead, after winning the following frame.

End of run for Stephen Hendry
Some problems with the live scoreboard provided us with the same scoreline after the break was ended, but it’s a real fact that Mark Selby booked himself a place into the quarter-finals after taking over the last two frames.


One of the matches that we’ve been waiting for, the re-match between Ding Junhui and Stephen Hendry was yet to start and the public was buzzing with excitement in wait for the two players.
Some really nice shots played by Hendry brought him the first two frames, but after that all was lost for the proud of Scotland, as Ding draw at 2-2, but also won all the remaining frames.
Breaks of 120, 81 and 31 were responsible for the little Chinese win, but it must be said that he wasn’t as his best. He seems to be struggling too much lately and although he made that remarkable comeback in the previous match played against Kurt Maflin, he didn’t play very well at the beginning of it.


John Higgins cashed one more victory
As for Hendry, I think he can be quite happy with his performance here at the China Open. Of course that he would have preferred to win this battle was well, but to have beaten Matthew Stevens 5-0 is absolutely extraordinary and I hope this victory will build up a bit his confidence for the Crucible. In the press conference, the Scotsman seemed sad about his lost, but he smiled and made a few jokes, suggesting that he had enjoyed himself and that he’s quite pleased with his run. Better luck, next time Stephen! :-)


The last match to be ended was the one between Ali Carter and Marcus Campbell, the Captain winning 5-3 over his opponent.
Although Campbell took the first two frames, with a top break of 44, the mid-session interval was going to see the score being 2-2, as Carter won the following two frames with a top break of 75. Two more were to come after the interval, the scoreline being now 4-2, but Campbell succeeded in pulling one back, looking pretty dangerous for his opponent. Still, Ali didn’t panic and decided to go for it and so he won the 8th frame, by hitting a 22 and a 46.


The quarter-finals round will start today, so here’s the schedule:


From 07:30 (UK time)
John Higgins v. Shaun Murphy
Judd Trump v. Peter Ebdon


From 12:30 (UK time)
Stephen Lee v. Ding Junui
Ali Carter v. Mark Selby


TV coverage:
07:30 - 10:30 British EuroSport (live)
12:00 - 12:30 British EuroSport
12:30 - 15:45 British EuroSport (live)

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