World Championship 2011 - Day 6 - One more Robertson out, Selby in

Selby gets closer of his Crucible dream

It was a very important day for the players as two more spots were waiting their names for the Last 16 round to be completed.
Mark Selby, the player who wants so badly to lift that shiny trophy by the end of this tournament, hammered his first opponent, the outsider and first-time ever Crucible participant Jimmy Robertson 10-1. It wasn’t a spectacular battle, Selby himself acknowledging it, but a win it’s a win, no matter what.

At the second table, Mark Williams and Jamie Cope were starting their first session of the Last 16 round, where the main rule is "the best of 25", session that was ended in favor of the Welshman who’s leading Cope 7-1.

Jimmy Robertson, at his first Crucible experience

First time on the Crucible can be a real drama, but Jimmy Robertson took the best out of it. He played against one of the best men we have on the circuit and although he lost in the end, the experience is more valuable than anything. With a first session ended in favor of Selby 8-1, the last one was not going to last too long as only two more frames were to be played.


A break of 107 was bringing "The Jester from Leicester" closer to the finish line, while a 49 was concluding his dominancy and his victory at 10-1.


On table number two the game was on for Mark Williams and Jamie Cope, this being the first match that marked the start of the Last 16 round. It was almost a one-way traffic for the "Welsh Potting Machine" as it ended up on a 7-1 partial result.
Still, it has to be mentioned that Williams wasn’t performing at his beast (so he wasn’t running around the snooker table :-) ), but he did Wales proud as we all know that this man can win scrappy affairs and keeps his head clear even when things aren’t looking so great for him.

Mark Williams takes the lead over Jamie Cope

However yesterday things looked pretty good for Williams as he entered the mid-session interval leading Jamie 4-0. This was possible by hitting breaks of 49, 51, 72 and 33. But as the second interval started the Welshman went on missing a pink on 49, Cope taking plenty advantage of this mistake and winning his first frame of the day. Unfortunately for him, that was going to be also the last one, for Williams took control with runs of 54, 22, 38 and 44 as to set the scoreline at 7-1 in his favor.


Jamie played good, he pot some really cracking long balls, but still he failed to keep it together and have a fluency in his game. He missed easy balls more than once and his focusing seemed not to be there. Meanwhile Williams although, not at his beast, won the first battle, but if both players will give it 100% the next time, I’m sure we’ll have a real cracker in front of us.