Australian Goldfields Open 2011 - Day 3

20:54:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The Welsh Potting Machine needs to get back in form
One after another the heavy names fall Down Under. Today it was Stephen Maguire’s turn, the Scotsman being eliminated from the tournament by the legendary Ken Doherty, while Matthew Stevens experienced an ingrate defeat, losing the decider to a very revived Liang Wenbo.


The day started slowly, with the matches between Mark Williams v. Barry Pinches and Stephen Maguire v. Ken Doherty. And if the second one was going to finish rather quickly, Kenny putting Stephen to his corner with a magnificent 5-2 scoreline, the one given between the "Welsh Potting Machine" and Pinches, would take a lot more.

It was clear that the Welsh Machine needed some repair to do to get back in form, for as he admitted after the cue battle was over, if he keeps on playing like that he won't win his next match. In the end he managed to defeat Barry by 5-2, but it was a very hard obtained victory and unfortunately the Welshman was struggling all the way through the last frame.


Joe Perry had a great start, but ended badly
Soon after the first two matches were over, we were going to be spoiled with some great snooker, for both Selby v. Perry and Stevens v. Wenbo have been great ways to entertain the snooker lovers.


At first, it didn't seem like Selby's lucky day, for the Englishman lost the first three frames to Perry and it was horrible to see the Jester not being able to find some rhythm in his playing. On the other side, Joe Perry was on fire and with breaks like 45, 98 and 52 the victory seemed to be his for sure. But just before the interval, Selby succeeded to win his first frame of the day on the black (69-68).
That was going to mark the return of the Jester, for after the interval, he managed not only to draw level at 3-3, but to also take the lead 4-3 with a break of 48 and win the following frame with one of 44 for a sport into the Last 16. A wonderful comeback and a great performance from Selby, but still I can't avoid to feel sorry for Perry, whose start deserved another result.


Mark Selby, delighted with his victory
At the near table Matthew Stevens and Liang Wenbo were consuming all the possible frames of their match and although the Welshman was the one who took the first two frames of the match, Wenbo fully responded before the mid-session interval kicked in to draw level at two a piece.
After a few minutes the boys were entering the arena to see Stevens take the lead with a break of 82. However, the replay came right away, under the form of an 111 break. Once again the lads were all square, this time at 3-3.


A glorious maximum attempt was going to be made by Wenbo, but unfortunately it ended up only on a 120, the little Chinese missing the yellow ball. But still, he was leading and that happened for the first time since the match has started. It was 4-3, when Stevens forced a decider, a decider that he sadly didn't manage to win, Wenbo's 51 break putting an end to the Welshman's run.


Stu Bingham takes revenge on Ding Junhui
The first match from the Last 16 round was the one given between Matthew Selt and Stephen Hendry and after this result I must submit to your attention my proposal for a nickname for Selt. He didn’t seem to have any problems in winning 5-1 the match against Hendry, so that makes two world champions that have been defeated by the guy from Romford (Higgins first, Hendry second). Maybe we should call him "The World Champions crasher" :-)) That might work! Right now, he’s set to meet with another world champion, Shaun Murphy so let’s see how that match will evolve.


Ding Junhui out of the Australian tournament
Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham were the ones to close the third day of the Australian Goldfields Open, and their match had "revenge" written all over it :-)) Because Bingham took revenge for losing his second round 2011World Championship match 13-12 to Ding.
The Englishman practically stormed in as to take the first two frames with a top break of 60, while Ding was responding with a solid 104 to win his first. However, when the mini-break kicked in, Bingham re-made the two frames gap, by winning the forth frame.


It was 3-1 in favour of Stu, when all Ding could do was to hit another century break. This time it was a beautiful 124, but it didn't matter. It didn’t matter, because Bingham was determined to win and breaks of 60, 107 and 86 were bringing him a 5-2 victory. The revenge was his!


Tomorrow the Last 16 matches will take place as it follows:


From 04:00 (UK time)
26. David Gilbert v. Mark Williams
21. Marcus Campbell v. Mark Allen
followed by
23. Mark Selby v. Mark Davis
22. Tom Ford v. Stuart Bingham


From 10:30 (UK time)
25. Neil Robertson v. Dominic Dale
24. Liang Wenbo v. Ken Doherty


TV coverage:
09:00 - 10:00 British EuroSport 2
10:30 - 13:30 British EuroSport 2
21:30 - 23:10 British EuroSport

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