The Masters - Day 5
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| Ding put quite a show hitting three century breaks |
Cool stuff happening at The Masters these days with the quarter-final rounds that have kicked off. I won’t say it’s not a bit strange not having the top seeds players in here doing what they do best, but it’s still a very interesting tournament with some really cracking matches going on. Yesterday we had 50-50 top class snooker, in my opinion, for the opening match was the best one I’ve seen so far in this competition, but the evening one was...well, let’s say a bit boring; not as bad as Murphy v. Cope was, but not a very entertaining one either.
First match of the day was the clash between China’s golden boy - Ding Junhui and one of Scotland’s jewelries - Graeme Dott. It was such a great pleasure to watch them perform, although I wasn’t able to see the whole match (some traffic problems). The man in charge of the match order was the tallest ref ever (I think :-P) Jan Verhaas.
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| Not a happy day for Graeme |
Ding made a remarkable start taking over the first two frames with two outstanding century breaks of 124 and 108. Dott had some really good opportunities during these two frames, but missed them (this meaning he missed some pretty important balls), but recovered during the third frame. Not to be fooled by it, it wasn’t an easy task to do, as the frame was filled with safety shots, but in the end Ding missed the yellow this leaving Dott with a great opportunity to break the ice and take over the frame.
But his luck didn’t last too long as the next frame was conquered by the little Chinese with another break of 124. This wasn’t looking very good for the Scot as the score was 3-1 and the mid-session interval was kicking off (I’m saying this because it’s good for your mental state to enter into the second session with a leading advantage or at least a draw).
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| Jamie secured himself a place in the semis |
After a short break Dott reduced the gap between him and Ding at 3-2, but it was too late, for the "Chinese Sensation" rushed in to hit in runs of 74, 72 and 52 to end the match on a 6-2 final result. Dott made quite a few mistakes there and missed some really good opportunities that would had put him in the lead, so Ding came in to take his share of the victory. After the match, Graeme said that Ding did what he had done in the match played against John Higgins, and with that kind of performance the Chinese can win this competition. Well, I second that.
The evening brought with it the second match of the day with the likes of Mark King and Jamie Cope playing for a place in the semi-finals. Eirian Williams was the referee of the two boys who were very eager to start their battle.
The match started with Jamie taking the lead... 4-0!!!! Now that’s something you don’t see every day at The Masters! King had such a great chance to open the score during the first frame as he hit a very nice and steady 48, but lost position so Cope came to the table to hit a 52. The boys snookered themselves, in the end the 11 break made by Jamie also meaning he won the frame. After that, it was a very easy road for Cope to take the lead, as runs of 33, 66, 36 and 53 were constantly hit.
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| King missed his chances of this year`s trophy |
After the mid-session interval Mark made an incredible 102 to win his first frame, but was going to be his only one, as young Jamie took over the next frames. In this session besides King’s century break and Jamie’s 52 from the 7th frame, it didn’t rain heavy breaks and the standard wasn’t a very high one, to be honest. A lot of mistakes were made and the rhythm of playing was sooo slow most of the time. King didn’t succeed in deliver that same performance he put into the match against Selby and Jamie’s way of playing the balls was an average one, a bit better than he played against Murphy a couple of days ago, so drawing the line the match wasn’t a outstanding one. Final score 6-1.
With one semi-final set up (Ding Junhui v. Jamie Cope), the battles continue as two more quarter-finals matches are still to be played:.
13:30 (UK time) - Mark Allen v. Neil Robertson
19:00 (UK time) - Peter Ebdon v. Marco Fu
TV coverage
13:30-16:30 Masters Snooker (British EuroSport 2)
13:30-17:15 Masters Snooker (BBC 2)
19:00-20:00 Masters Snooker (BBC 2)
19:00-22:00 Masters Snooker (British EuroSport 2)
23:50-00:40 Masters Snooker: Highlights (BBC 2)
00:40-02:40 Masters Snooker: Extra (BBC 2)
Online: www.fromsport.com
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