China Open 2011 - the quarter-finals (part II)

One must never mess with The Jester

The last two matches to take place in Beijing in order to have the complete line-up for today’s semi-finals were a true delight to watch. Tremendous cue action, some really interesting surprises all spiced up with a bit of pressure, were the main ingredients that picked Mark Selby as a winner over Ali Carter, Ding Junhui being the next to follow as he defeated Stephen Lee.


There’s no doubt that Selby is back in business, because how an Earth can he be playing so damn good?! :-)) The match against Ali Carter was mostly played by "The Jester from Leicester" the 5-1 scoreline and those three tons that he hit during the match being a genuine statement of who dominated the match.
However the first frame of the match was a very scrappy one, both players having a bit of problem in keeping the fluency of their game, but in the end Selby succeeded in taking it, this giving him more confidence as to hit un runs of 78 and 129 for a 3-0 lead.

Ding Junhui reaches the semi-finals

As the boys were entering their mid-session interval, Carter pulled one back with a break of 67, but after the break Selby came to hit some incredible breaks of 130 and 139 as to seal his victory and book a place in today’s semi-final. Sounds as easy as 1, 2, 3 when he plays that well :-))


A very entertaining show was going on at the near table as well, only that it was a bit frustrating to see that Stephen Lee was missing huge opportunities all the time. This was going to cost him the match, as Ding won it with a 5-2 final result.
Although the opening frame was taken over with a beautiful clearance of 98 by Ding, its debut was quite a scrappy one and the next to follow was going to be even a scrappier one. Still, Lee draw at 1-1, only to see Ding taking the next two frames with a series of 45, 44 and 134 as to go 3-1 up.

End of run for "The Bulldong" Lee

After the interval was over, the little Chinese continued his good run, taking advantage of the fact that Lee was stopping at 69 and transforming the scoreline in 4-1. The next frame was a crucial one for Lee and after quite a battle he managed to win it. The suspense was in the air as "The Bulldog" Lee won that frame, but Ding was going to take care to be his last one, as he hit a 54 to end the match with a very well deserved victory.


Today we have the semi-finals, the rule at hand being now "the best of 11" and you can’t say that the line-up is not a terrific one, by all means! So please, clear your schedule for a very entertaining snooker Saturday :-))


From 07:30 (UK time)


From 12:30 (UK time)


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