2017 World Snooker Championship (Day 11) - Ding & Higgins take the lead

Yesterday marked the start of the much-waited quarter-final stages of the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship and it was a real treat.

One of the strongest favourite for this year's title (as he is for every snooker title out there), Ronnie O'Sullivan had to face an old pal, Ding Junhui, in his quest for a semis place.

And although the match started on a very balance note, the first session ending on a tight 4-4 result, everything changed during their second snooker meeting.

Ding was the first to put his nose in front with a top break of 63, which got a beautiful 84 clearance from the Rocket to bring the scoreline back to a draw.

However, the next four frames bared Ding's signature as the "Chinese Sensation" fired in breaks of 64, 120, 59 and 58 to practically fly at 10-5 up.


O'Sullivan responded by taking the last frame of the session with a typical 104 break, but he has a lot to do today from 2.30pm, when they will return for their third and last session.

John Higgin has also taken a serious lead over Kyren Wilson (11-5) after a first session that saw young Kyren damaging his cue-tip, thus the match being briefly interrupted so he could sort it out.

The first session ended on a 5-3 partial result, in favour of Higgins, the second one seeing the Scotsman taking the first two frames in order to extend his lead (solid break of 129 involved in the process).

Wilson pulled one back, but the next two were again cashed by Higgins thanks to contributions of 74 and 135 points.

The pattern continued as Kyren won frame 14 and his opponent took the last two frames, to end the session in a comfortable position. He is now just two away from a place in the semi-finals.


The reigning champion, Mark Selby is also in a favorable position as he leads Marco Fu 6-2.

Selby was 5-0 up after hitting in breaks of 82, 70 and 94 and keeping his opponent in the chair enough as to score 370 unanswered points.

Still, Fu managed to pull back to frames in a row and stop the root, while Selby closed the session by taking the last one.

Barry Hawkins holds the upper hand over Stephen Maguire, 5-3 after a great start that saw him going 5-1 up.

Wednesday's match schedule:

10am
Mark Selby 6-2 Marco Fu
Kyren Wilson 5-11 John Higgins

2.30pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-10 Ding Junhui
Barry Hawkins 5-3 Stephen Maguire

7pm
Mark Selby 6-2 Marco Fu
Barry Hawkins 5-3 Stephen Maguire

*all hours are UK time

Photos credit: World Snooker