PTC Grand Finals 2012 (Day 1) - Lisowski returns to spotlight

Is Lisowski back for good?

The second edition of the PTC Grand Finals made its debut with a pretty revived Jack Lisowksi, the 20-year-old lad managing to dominate the match played against the Shoot-Out champion, Barry Hawkins and also win it by 4-3.

Also in a good form the Pink Army's soldier, Mark Davis hammered PTC 11 winner, Tom Ford 4-1, while Ricky Walden didn't offer any chance to survive for Matthew Stevens the Welshman capitulating at 4-0, a treatment that was applied by Joe Perry on his Irish opponent, Fergal O'Brien as well.

Though not taking the best of starts, the first day of the tournament being totally forgotten by EuroSport as well as World Snooker TV, in terms of cue action the situation was entirely different. 

Barry the hawk was knelt down

One of the biggest surprises of today was to see a pretty revived Jack Lisowski coming back and taking his chances against a player that has improved his game considerably in the latest months, Barry Hawkins.

Although it was no bed of roses, Lisowski used breaks of 37 and 35 to go 2-0 up, before Hawkins fancied a comeback.

Runs of 78 and a 32 were enough to establish a bit of balance on the scoreboard at two apiece, but Jack wasn't very fond of the way things were going and took a scrappy 5^th frame to put his nose back in front.

Hawkins fought back with a 68 to force the decider, but his opponent didn't hive him any chance and cruised to victory with a perfect 99 break.

M. Davis has his eyes on the prize

A very interesting battle of cues was expected to be performed by Mark Davis and Tom Ford, both players being in a very decent form lately. 

However, the final scoreline of 4-1 in favour of Davis showed us that the Pink Army member did his best to keep Ford away from the table; it's true though that a nice and steady series of 64, 84, 51, 72 and 47 helped also in the process.

With a big bandage on his broken hand, the Chinese Xiao Guodong fought like a lion for victory and he obtained it. And if in the previous match we had a pink soldier playing the winner role, now it was time for another pink member to enter the stage, but starring as the defeated one. 

A broken hand doesn't stand in the way of victory

Dominic Dale is his name, the Welshman being beat by 4-2 after Guodong flew at 3-1 with breaks of 71, 40 and 80, while Dale found himself in the position of only prolonging the suspense as he took the 5^th frame with a 72 break, the Chinese player closing with a great 89.

Recently returned from China's Haikou where he reached the final of the World Open tournament, "The Bulldog" Stephen Lee was in a "revenge" mood and "bit" the first player to appear in his face, Martin Gould. 

Back for revenge - Stephen Lee

The bite was under the form of a 4-1 scoreline, carefully established with runs of 65, 70, 58 and 79. And so Lee set a snooker meeting with the PTC10 champion, Michael Holt for tomorrow after-noon.

Last session of the day saw Ricky Walden cueing like a dream by firing in breaks of 66, 130, 95 and 131 to leave his Welsh opponent, Matthew Stevens almost speechless at 4-0. 

Speechless on the green baize as well, for Stevens saw himself kicked out of the competition after no more than 45 minutes of playing. We have a lion in Galway!

You don't mess with "the Walden"

Also winning by the same scoreline, but not quite in the same way Joe Perry saw off the only local star that qualified for the tournament, the Irishman Fergal O'Brien. 

Perry used tiny breaks of 24, 21, 28 and 20 to take the first two frames, while the third one was conquered by using a very smart snooker on the blue and potting the last black. 

Minutes later, "The Gentleman" of snooker was sealing his 4-0 victory with a 75 clearance, victory that is putting him face to face with Scotland's Graeme Dott in tomorrow’s round two.

Below you can check Day 1 list of results:

10am
5 Barry Hawkins 3-4 Jack Lisowski
7 Mark Davis 4-1 Tom Ford
1 Xiao Guodong 4-2 Dominic Dale
4 Martin Gould 1-4 Stephen Lee

7.30pm
8 Ricky Walden 4-0 Matthew Stevens
6 Fergal O'Brien 0-4 Joe Perry
Tomorrow's match schedule:

12pm
3 Ben Woollaston v. Ding Junhui
2 John Higgins v. Jamie Jones
12 Michael Holt v. Stephen Lee
7.30pm
13 Neil Robertson v. Jack Lisowski
14 Graeme Dott v. Joe Perry
*all hours are Ireland time

TV coverage: