World Championship 2011 - Day 1 (part I)

Juddy makes a good start

Interesting, catchy and partially slow start for the first day of the most important competition that snooker has in its agenda, both of the matches that were firstly played ending up their morning session on the same scoreline 5-4. The main actors were Jamie Cope, who faced Andrew Pagett in what was quite a thrilling match and Neil Robertson who’s trying to defend his world title, playing against Judd Trump.


It was really no surprise to see that Robbo v. Juddy match had quite a slow start, with a lot of tension in the air. We all know that opening the World Championship is not an easy task and more since you are the defending champion. On the other hand, Trump has something to prove - that his recent China Open title was no coincidence and that although this is his first real appearance on the Crucible, he wants to make a good impression in front of the whole world.

Neil Robertson, the defending champion

The boys shared frames until the score reached three a piece, but please note that the first part of the session was a really slow one. Both played seemed to be struggling in "getting in the mood" and Robertson had some problems with the new table (too slow).
Neil took the opening frame with a break of 72, while his opponent took plenty of advantage of a missed red and won the following frame but also of a poor safety shot that Neil played on the blue ball, and cleared the table for a 2-1 lead. However the mid-session interval was going to find the boys at 2-2, for Robbo hit a 79 to draw.
After the break things got a bit more speedy as Trump made the first century break of this year’s World Championship (122) and Robertson responded with a 127. Things were just starting to move. Unfortunately they were moving only in one way, as Trump cashed the following two frames with a top break of 54 to set the score at 5-3 in his favor. Still, the "Thunder from Down Under" pulled one back with a 100 break as to end the first session being lead 5-4.


More or less, the second match, the one between Jamie Cope and Andrew Pagett was played on the same note, as the scoreline was two a piece as the mid-session interval kicked in and ended up on a 5-4.

Jamie Cope is holding on

The one who broke the ice was Cope, who took over the opening frame, only to see Pagett replaying with the same speed and leveling the match at 1-1. A series of 19 and 49 was putting Jamie back in the lead, but not for long as runs of 23 and 35 were equalizing the situation.


After the mid-session interval Pagett stormed in as to take over the first two frames with breaks of 42 and 61, but Cope wasn’t going to sit in his chair for long although his confidence was a bit shattered (the fact that he conceded one of the previous frames getting him a warning from Eirian Williams). However Jamie succeeded in putting himself back together as to draw at 4-4 and even take the lead as the first session was coming to an end (5-4).


Snooker will be back from 14:30 (UK time) with two more matches:


TV coverage: