PTC Grand Finals 2011 - Day 3

15:57:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Michael Holt won over Barry PInches
Yesterday, the last matches were played in order to have the quarter-finals line-up ready to go for today. We had some really close encounters, like the ones between Marcus Campbell and Stuart Bingham and Barry Pinches who faced Michael Holt, but also matches in whom the winner was dominant from the start.


Scotland was on its feet, applauding Marcus Campbell’s performance, the Scotsman succeeding to defeat Stuart Bingham 4-3 after quite a battle. If Stuart began the fight by taking over the first frame, Marcus` runs of 34 and 38 were sufficient enough as to draw. The boys shared frames until the match was finished, a beautiful and strategic 126 break hit by Campbell crowning him as the winner.
A few minutes after that Barry Pinches took on Michael Holt in a match that had too many tactical shots and too little adrenaline. Still, the start of it was a real cracker, as Holt hit a steady 102 to take over the opening frame. Then Pinches draw with a bit of help from a series of 41 and 31 and then is when it happened “the scrappiness" :-))), the fluency of the game disappeared and both played seemed to be struggling to get their nose in front.
It was 3-2 in favor of Holt, when Pinches decided to put all his strength in the match, so he hit cleared the table with an 83 break to force the match into a decider. Things were starting to move and Holt`s runs of 44 and 31 were the ones who "moved" him into the quarter-finals, as he ended Pinches run with a 4-3 scoreline.


Stephen Lee wins another match
Stephen Lee has proven once more that he means serious business as he hammered Mark Davis 4-1. He won the first two frames by hitting in breaks of 46, 26 and 30, only to see Mark pulling one back with runs of 64 and 31. But Lee wasn’t stopping there, no Sir! He hit a marvelous 103 as to go 3-1 up and a 58 to consolidate his dominance at 4-1. "The Bulldog" Lee was eliminating one more Davis from a serious competitions (see Steve Davis in the World Championship qualifiers).


To watch Mark Selby v. Andrew Higginson match was almost like I was having a déjà-vu. :-)) It had some many resemblances with Mark Williams v. Anthony Hamilton’s match from the other day, although Selby didn’t hit century breaks in the first and last frame, like Williams did; and yet the scoreline was the same: 4-0. The funny thing is that Selby will meet Williams into the quarter-finals, his opponent from the German Masters final (from the beginning of February). If Selby will succeed in winning over the Welshman, it’s only a matter of "wait and see" :-P

Mark Selby sets a snooker date with Mark Williams
The last match of the day was the one between Judd Trump and Martin Gould, a match that gave us the last name to set the line up for the quarter-finals.
Martin was the one who opened the score with a 77 break, but Judd replayed with a 61 to set the score at 1-1. One more time Martin was going to take the lead, but this time was a "two frames lead" as he hit in runs of 83 and 42. Judd hit a stunning 113 to stage the fact that he was going to comeback in the game, but "Gouldie`s" 63 ended the match on a 4-2 final result.


Today the quarter-finals are on and here is the schedule:


10.00 am - Michael Holt v. Martin Gould
NB 1.00 pm - Matthew Stevens v. Marcus Campbell
6.00 pm - Shaun Murphy v. Stephen Lee (British EuroSport 2 from 6.10pm)
NB 7.30 pm - Mark Williams v. Mark Selby (British EuroSport from 7.30pm)
*all hours are UK time


Best of luck to all the lads and let’s play snoooooooker! :-))

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