2015 World Championship (Day 3) - Robertson unleashed

After such a tremendous display of snooker and drama kindly offered by Barry Hawkins and Matthew Selt (more about that match here) it was time for Neil Robertson and Jamie Jones match.

And since the lads ended their first session (more about that here) with the same scoreline as the aforementioned players (aka. 7-2), we were seriously thinking if this wasn't going to turn  into another twisted and dramatic snooker encounter.

But the Australian had other plans, a beautiful 133 clearance paving his way to the Last 16, to which additions of 37, 25 and 31 proved quite enough (10-2) for a place into the next round where he'll meet the winner of Ali Carter v. Alan McManus match.

In the press conference after the match, Robertson said: "I have put the hours in for this event, more than any other in my career. I have even done more practice than Joe Perry, he has been leaving the club before me."

So you better keep in eye on this one, for I reckon he's got an eye on the trophy.

Stuart Bingham and Robbie Williams (yes, haven't you heard? he gave up music and took on snooker) met for a pretty interesting snooker cues-crossing, in the end Stuart just squeezing pass his opponent, 10-7.

Interestingly enough the first session was a very balanced one, the lads not being separated by more than a frame.

Bingham hit in breaks of 68, 61, 82 and 82, while Williams responded with a set composed of breaks like 68, 51, 59, 67 and 33 to go 5-4 up at the end of their first encounter.

The second and last session kicked off in a pretty similar way, the players respecting the same pattern of sharing frames, but that changed when Bingham took off and installed a three-frame gap helped by runs of 36, 51 and 39. It was 9-6.

Despite all that the quality of play was reduced dramatically, Bingham being far from his best but still managing to clinch frames.

The match was kept alive thanks to Williams’25 clearance from frame 16, but in the end Bingham wrapped things up to win 10-7 and set a Last 16 meeting with Graeme Dott.

Ding Junhui and Mark Davis disputed their first session, or should I say most of it, for they surely took their time into playing the balls around the table. Pretty unlikely for them, but it happens to the best of us, so probably today was their day.

Davis was to one to fly 4-0 up with a top break of 66, Ding response being breaks of 66, 109 and 76 to end the session trailing 4-3.

The crowd was delighted to welcome back "The Captain" as Ali Carter took on Scotland's Alan McManus (yes, he was wearing those tartan trousers and yes this time he put on a matching waistcoat to look apart from miles away).

Ali opened with a prefect 127 to which he added a 46 in frame three, while McManus used runs of 66 and 40 to make the scoreline go 2-2 at the interval.

At returning into the arena Carter airlines decided it is time to prepare for taking off, breaks of 57, 63 and 53 guaranteeing a 5-2 lead.

McManus fought back and managed to win the next frame with a 52 break, but Carter replayed with a 63 to end the first session with a comfortable 6-3 lead.

Both of these matches will resume on Tuesdays, as it follows (mind you that there’s also a certain five-time world champion who’s playing his first session):

10am
Ding Junhui v. Mark Davis (3-4)
Mark Allen v. Ryan Day

2.30pm
Ali Carter v. Alan McManus (6-3)
Ronnie O'Sulivan v. Craig Steadman

7pm
Mark Allen v. Ryan Day
Mark Williams v. Matthew Stevens

* all hours are UK time