2015 UK Championship - On today's menu: drama & upsets

01:27:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The regular Tuesday turned into a genuine display of dramas and upsets as the 2015 UK Championship marched on with its matches and players in the quest for a place in the Last 16.

The day started with Shaun Murphy's 6-2 victory over Ben Woollaston, a victory that "The Magician" had to work for, despite the scoreline.

Although he was the one to break the ice with a solid 83 break, Ben was sure to draw level in no time at one apiece and start his attack for leadership.

However, his 62 break was suddenly stopped by a missed brown, this allowing Shaun to come at the table and steal the frame on the black, plus add a top break of 45 to end the first session 3-1 up.


As the match re-started two consecutive frames were carefully cashed by Murphy (funnily enough thanks to a double 72 break), while Woollaston only managed to pull back a scrapper.

The victory was sealed with a perfectly cued 106 break, thus Murphy goes into the Last 16 where he'll meet Marco Fu who beat David Gilbert 6-3.

A more dramatic match was developing at the near table, where Martin Gould was being made responsible for Mark Allen's exit.

Although the match started on a pretty balanced note, the mid-session interval finding the lads stuck at 2-2, Gould was sure to fly away with just a top break of 66. It was 4-2.

As expected, Allen fought back with a brilliant 102, but Gould replayed with a 59 to go one away from victory.

The final result was still developing, so Allen took his chances with a 67 to dream of a possible comeback, but Gould proved too strong as he closed with a 98.

The evening brought Neil Robertson and Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to our attention, in what is definitely a strong contestant for the most dramatic match of this UK Championship.

Despite Un-Nooh taking the opening frame, Robertson was sure to fight back with runs of 53 and 76 (which completely overshadowed his opponent's 53 break) to go 4-1 up.

Frame six came like any other frame, only that it wasn't going to be an ordinary one. Theppy started potting ball after ball, carefully positioning himself to take reds with blacks until the 147 was a sure thing.

Or wasn't it? Unfortunately, like many others in his shoes he probably felt the pressure taking over and missed what in my opinion is the cruellest thing ever - the FINAL BLACK!

Clearly devastated Un-Nooh had to put out with his opponent having a sudden revival and hitting a perfect 145 in the following frame!

The last frame smelled of victory as Robertson was on a 67 break, but a missed red was bringing the Thai player back to the table. And once again, the snooker Gods weren't there as the lad missed the final black.

After a few safety exchanges, Robertson potted the last black to book a snooker meeting with the man who defeated Mark Davis 6-4 earlier today, the Scot Stephen Maguire.

But the day wasn't over so more drama was coming our way: Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo were disputing their place in the Last 16.

Trump started on a more than positive note, breaks of 112 and 75 giving him a 3-0 lead, while his opponent responded with a 78 just before the interval.

15 minutes later Judd was extending his lead at 4-1 thanks to a solid 67. And then it happened ... the Wenbo-comeback!

But what's more interesting is that he didn't just performed a perfect 4-4 comeback, but he also took the lead for the first time since the start of the match, thanks to a top break of 62.

Sadly for Judd it was clear that his focus was looong gone, the Chinese player taking his chance to close the match by winning a scrappy 10th frame. Final scoreline 6-4 and a heartfelt "YES!" screamed from the top of his lungs! 

The Last 16 select lounge also welcomes Tom Ford, who hammered Kyren Wilson 6-1 but also the winner of Dechawat Poomjaeng v. Mark Joyce match - which is still going at this moment.

For the full list of results, click here.


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