Brazil Masters 2011 - Day 2

Murphy and the first whitewash of the tournament

Second day in the Costão do Santinho paradise and things are starting to get exciting. First, Shaun Murphy performed the first whitewash of this tournament, his victim being the Brazilian wild-card Sobradihno de Dues, second, Ricky Walden and Martin Gould fought in the most "I think I saw that frame played before" match, third, the Master Stephen Hendry was made responsible for exiting another Brazil wild-card, Noel Rodrigues and missing to record his 11th maximum break and finally, the Captain Ali Carter has flown over the legendary Steve Davis by 4-2.

If the first day of the 2011Brazil Masters started with a match that saw its fate being decided by the very last frame, I think it was only normal for the second day to have a whitewash. Shaun Murphy found no difficulty in erasing Sobradihno de Dues' dream by hitting in breaks of 49, 81 and 72, this concluding his victory at 4-0. Case closed!

Ricky Walden wins a very strage match

But the fun was just about to start as Ricky Walden and Martin Gould were entering the arena. I wonder how can I describe this match better? Hm ... maybe if I were to tell you that I had a constant feeling of "déjà-vu" beginning to end? Yes, that would be the proper way to start this.

Each of the first three frames started with Walden making his entrance by building himself a nice and steady break, then missing to continue and Gould taking his chances with the remaining balls. Unfortunately Martin did seems to struggle with potting the last red, this giving his opponent the perfect opportunity to return and clear for victory. That's scoreline ended up 3-0 in favour of Ricky.

Gould had some trouble with the last redS

 However, the forth frame saw Gould in first ... but what do you know? As he was reaching a break of 55 points, he missed the red! Yep, again that stubborn little ball put itself between him and the victory. Still, he was fortunate because Walden only managed to score a 28 break before missing the last red on the table - jinx! And so, the scoreline became 3-1.

The pattern seemed to have been put on repeat as the fifth frame began with Ricky potting one ball after another. His break ended on a 47 due to a missed red and so Martin took his turn at the table. Sadly, he only succeeded to collect 40 points as he missed to pot the penultimate red, Walden returning for a 24 that froze the score at 4-1 in his favour.
It is fair to say that although Gouldie had his chances he was also very unlucky, while Walden although a bit inconsistent played better.

Hendry almost made the maximum

The clock was showing us it's midnight in the UK, but back in Brazil the day was still young and Stephen Hendry and Noel Rodrigues were ready to start their cue battle.
The first one to break the ice was the Brazilian player, whose 44 break got him the first frame, but the Scotsman fought back with a 60 to level at 1-1.

It was easy to see that Hendry was not yet in "the zone", but still he successfully took the next frame to put his nose in front at 2-1. And from that moment on, with every ball that he potted he was closer and closer to entering in it.

Captain Carter books himself a place in the quarter-finals

The forth frame saw a very aggressive Stephen that with two visits of 39 and 30 put himself at just one step away from victory, while during the next one, he almost hit a maximum. Unfortunately he missed the black and only scored 113 points, but that was enough to defeat Rodrigues 4-1 and make the audience keep its break in case the magical moment would happen.

The last match of the day had another legendary name written on the scoreboard, Steve Davis taking on the Captain Ali Carter. Though it wasn't filled with fireworks, the match saw both players taking their chances to win it, in the end runs of 70 and 65 flying Carter all the way to the quarter-finals with a 4-2 result.

Unfortunately Steve Davis must leave the competition

And since we are on the "quarter-finals" subject, please check below match schedule:

*all hours are UK time

TV coverage:

Useful link to watch snooker: 
www.liveworldsnooker.tv (subscription required) 
www.sportlemon.tv 
www.mypremium.tv