International Championship 2012 - Day 3

Ding Junhui breaks the bad luck chain

The third day of cue-crossings held in China's Chengdu saw local star Ding Junhui putting his bad luck when-playing-at-home aside as he recorded a great 6-1 victory against fellow countryman Zhou Yuelong, at the same time Mark Davis sending home one of the favourites to win the title, Mark Williams with a 6-4 scoreline.

It's no longer a secret the fact that when Ding Junhui plays on home ground things get ugly. Maybe is the pressure of knowing so many people are watching you, maybe are the nerves of performing in front of your home crowd. But the result is the same, Ding hasn't been able to record any notable victories in China, in recent times.

Still, there seems to be signs of improvement, as the reigning Welsh Open champion recorded a 6-1 victory by playing fellow country man Zhou Yuelong, two tons of 128 and 103 reassuring his dominance thought the match. He now faces Shaun Murphy in his quest for a place in the quarter-finals.

A brilliant day of Mark Davis, as the OnQ Promotion "pink soldier" managed no only to erase the name of Mark Williams from the Last 16 line-up, but also to secure himself a place next to "la crème de la crème" (aka. TOP 16), right after the cut-off point due to take place at the ending of the International Championship.

Although Williams has cashed marvellous winnings in Asia and he's known for being a playing-abroad lover, today wasn't his day and he suffered an early exit after a 6-4 scoreline.

Mark Davis put his cue to work early in the game and flew easily at 3-0 up, Williams trying his best to catch up with him. He got closer at 4-2 down, but Davis continued to cruise towards victory and even when he missed the green that was going to end the match at 6-3, he didn't let his guard down.

Aditya Mehta - the player to watch out for

A beautiful 138 clearance was the way he wanted to end the snooker encounter, as the scoreboard was pointing him the winner of the Welsh-English clash.

History has a funny way of repeating itself and after Mark Allen's undoubtedly victory of 6-2 obtained by playing Robert Milkins, he's due to face the player he didn't have a lot of good things to say about after losing to him in the first round of the World Championship back in May, the Chinese Cao Yupeng.

In a similar situation is Scotland’s Stephen Maguire who after beating his friend and fellow countryman Jamie Burnett 6-3, is facing an old time rival Peter Ebdon, in a re-make of this year's China Open final. One thing is for sure, Maguire will do all he can to change the final result.

Martin Gould and Marco Fu got together in a thrilling battle of cues that saw both players putting their hearts and soul on the table. The circumstances and the motives were all there, so it was no surprise to see the lads going all the way until the last frame, with Fu in the winner's role.

Also involved in a game that compressed a lot of energy and terrific shots, were Ricky Walden and China's wild card Lu Ning, a match that ended in favour of the first named one, at 6-4.

Judd Trump assured his place in the Last 16 round by defeating Fergal O'Brien 6-3, while India's Aditya Mehta put on another spectacular show and beat Stuart Bingham 6-4 to set up a snooker meeting with no other than ... Judd Trump.

Tomorrow's match schedule looks something like:

6.30am
25 Lu Haotian v Dominic Dale
26 Matthew Stevens v Neil Robertson
28 Marco Fu v Mark Davis
31 Stephen Maguire v Peter Ebdon

11.30am
27 Shaun Murphy v Ding Junhui
29 Judd Trump v Aditya Mehta
30 Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng
32 Ricky Walden v Mark Selby
*all hours are UK time

TV coverage:
06:30 - 09:30 British EuroSport 2
11:30 - 14:30 British EuroSport 2
11:30 - 14:30 British EuroSport 
16:30 - 17:00 British EuroSport 2
19:00 - 21:00 British EuroSport 2