German Masters 2012 (Day 1) - Williams whitewashes Doherty

Williams still in the race for defending his crown

Defending champion, Mark Williams took a very good start against his first opponent, the legend Ken Doherty getting whitewashed by the Welshman in his way to the Last 16 round. 

It was also a good day for current world champion, John Higgins who hammered Mark Davis 5-1, while this year's Masters runner-up Shaun Murphy beat the fresh winner of the Shoot-Out tournament Barry Hawkins after quite a tense match ended on a decider.

Although Doherty begun his day with a 5-1 victory over Patrick Einsle, the evening would prove not to be as lucky. Defending champion, Mark Williams, even if not at his best and clearly very unlucky to get one kick after another, managed to crash him 5-0.
Runs of 51, 107, 30 and 28 were enough so the Welshman could get a place in the next round as well as hopping he can defend the German crown he so proudly won last year.

Kenny goes home

The Scotsman with no less than four World Championship titles in his bag, John Higgins proved to be in quite a good form hammering a very dangerous member of the Pink Army, Mark Davis.

The Englishman only succeeded to cash one frame as the mid-session interval was kicking off, after it, Higgins firing in breaks of 41 and 42 to secure himself of playing at least one more match during the German Masters.

But Scotland had another brave ambassador that was without any doubt on fire - Stephen Maguire. With a bit of help from a series of 88, 82, 66 and 57 Maguire didn't give the slightest chance to his opponent, Ryan Day who went home defeated 5-1. Look out for this guy ... especially if your name is John Higgins because that's who you're meeting in the Last 16 round.

Shaun Murphy and Barry Hawkins engaged in a very tense snooker encounter that saw all its frames being put into action.

Murphy wins a very tough decider against Hawkins

The winner of this year's Shoot-Out tournament broke the ice with a great break of 113, but Murphy responded with a 77 to draw level and with a 93 to put his nose in front. And so they’ve continued sharing frames until the last one, a frame that Murphy took under his belt in order to book himself a place into the next round.

On winners' wall at the end of Day One we also found the names of Ricky Walden, who saw off Martin Gould 5-1, "Bulldog" Stephen Lee who impose himself in front of Adrian Gunnell by 5-2, but also the one of Stuart Bingham who from being lead 3-1 by a very determined Peter Ebdon perfomed a great comeback with runs of 50, 64 and 75 to win 5-3.

Below you can check Day One list of results:



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