Top seeds made to battle on day 3

Day 3 of the Welsh Open from Cardiff saw all of the top seeds being made to work hard in their matches, with many matches going to deciding frames, while Ronnie O'Sullivan lost out to Matthew Stevens, Mark Allen lost out to Ben Woollaston, Joe Perry lost out to Gary Wilson and the likes of Neil Robertson and Mark Selby had to come through deciding frames in their matches, and Trump and Williams were also pushed hard but did at least make it into the today's Last 16. Ali Carter was also pushed hard by the much improved Matt Selt from 3-1 up to win 4-3 and Graeme Dott was beaten 4-3 by Michael Georgiou. The Scottish charge of Stephen Maguire, John Higgins and Alan McManus had things pretty comfortable in the evening session and Bingham beat Michael White convincingly despite losing the opener.

Last 32 Results:

Matthew Stevens 4-3 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Marco Fu 4-2 Ashley Carty
Mark Williams 4-2 Jamie Jones
Judd Trump 4-2 Michael Wasley
Ben Woollaston 4-3 Mark Allen
Ali Carter 4-3 Matt Selt
Gary Wilson 4-2 Joe Perry
Neil Robertson 4-3 Jamie Cope
Michael Georgiou 4-3 Graeme Dott
John Higgins 4-0 Liang Wenbo
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Sam Baird
Alan McManus 4-0 Aditya Mehta
Stuart Bingham 4-1 Michael White
Ricky Walden 4-2 Martin Gould
Luca Brecel 4-0 Oliver Brown
Mark Selby 4-3 Peter Ebdon

Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Marco Fu Vs Matthew Stevens - It would be easy to say after the tough matches and the way he's made easy enough matches on paper into very difficult ones that Marco Fu would lose to Matthew who comes off of the back of a win over O'Sullivan. However, Fu has had to battle back hard in those games and has really started to play good stuff when he's been put under pressure and if this one goes close Matthew is more likely to crumble while Fu will do what he does and grind out the win with some good match play snooker. Another thing to point out with Matthew is that he's played well in patches of all of his first three games, but in others he's played very badly, and was lucky that Ronnie was totally poor yesterday otherwise he could've been knocked out of this tournament at any stage so far, and I don't think his run will continue.

Judd Trump Vs Mark Williams - On paper this looks like a very close match between two players who have played some good stuff this season and in patches so far this week. They may have both struggled at times in their Last 32 matches last night, but equally they both played very good stuff at times too, and Judd responded to the pressure Michael Wasley put him under very very well which could be the difference in this match. Mark is much less consistent through a match, and if he has a bad 3 or 4 frame spell today the match will be over, while if Judd does that you still feel he'd get chances and put some of them away. Judd's recent record against Mark is good and all of the pressure to perform is on Mark who of course is battling for a top 16 place at the Crucible and wants to win for his home crowd, while Judd can relax and play his own game.

Ali Carter Vs Ben Woollaston - Both of these guys played very well against very good opponents yesterday and will be relishing the opportunity to get into another ranking quarter-final. Ben is very good over the best of 7 frames and can beat anyone on the circuit over a short format if he gets a decent start and that's what he did with Allen yesterday. Ali had to battle back hard yesterday after seeing Matt Selt play tough match snooker to take away Ali's 3-1 lead and force a decider, and Ali will be determined to have a big run here and really announce his return after struggling to properly get back into snooker after his treatment for cancer and a couple of early round exits. Carter's shear determination and that little bit of extra experience in the latter stages of full ranking events could play a part here as Ben seems like he feels a lot more pressure at these stages of events against the big players.

Neil Robertson Vs Gary Wilson - As good as Gary Wilson's run has been this week to get to the Last 16 and beat Joe Perry, I honestly can't make a case for him beating Neil Robertson here, as strong as Neil's game is in these best-of-7 frame matches against lower ranked opposition. However, he didn't have it all his own way against Cope yesterday and when he starts to struggle and get a bee in his bonnet about the conditions, it can de-stabilise his concentration and if that happens today Wilson needs to play well and take advantage. If it goes close though, it all comes down to experience and of course Neil has a lot of class and experience in those situations in the back end of big events.

John Higgins Vs Michael Georgiou - This match could go either way, and really which way it goes depends entirely on John Higgins performance. Michael Georgiou is likely to maintain his base standard like a lot of players in his position would do, and play a similar game to that of what he produced against Dott yesterday and play a decent standard. That standard will get him over the line if Higgins plays some more of his inconsistent snooker that he has over the last year and miss a few easy balls when in amongst them, because I've been impressed with the results Georgiou has been producing this season so far, and that will him a lot of belief. However, Higgins played fantastic snooker yesterday to barely give Liang Wenbo a look in, and when you do that not many players are going to beat you. While he hasn't been able to follow those sorts of performances up as much in the latter stages of events over the last year, Higgins will also have it in the back of his mind that he could do with another couple of wins to secure his top 16 seeding for the World Championships.

Stephen Maguire Vs Alan McManus - This match is another very close one on paper, especially as McManus thrashed Maguire 5-1 when they last met in the Shanghai Masters earlier this season. What has changed since then? Stephen has gotten his belief and confidence back is the simple answer. He knew he needed a good week this week to maintain his top 16 seeding for the World Championships, especially as he won this event two years ago and needs to do something close to that in order to defend that money. Maguire is also in top form having made the latter stages of all the recent tournaments scoring well on a consistent basis and taking his chances against all players. We all know that his temperament is a little suspect though, and if Alan can keep it tight like he usually does, he could frustrate Maguire, but as I say Stephen is taking his chances and scoring well at the moment with his good form, and he's sure to get quite a few openings in this match.

Stuart Bingham Vs Ricky Walden - Stuart Bingham and Ricky Walden are very evenly matched on paper. In the rankings there isn't more than a couple of places between them and they are both multiple ranking event winners. On the head to head Ricky has beaten Stuart in a major final, but Stuart has whitewashed him twice since, including on a very poor day for Ricky at the UK Championships two months back. Stuart had a slow start this week being taken into a decider by Chuan Thor, while Walden has played pretty nicely all week and did well to come through a very tough game yesterday against Gould. When Ricky lost to Stuart at the UK's I think he'd just ran out of steam a bit after a hectic period for Walden having won the International Championship just a month earlier. However, Stuart has had a very hectic month or so with the Championship League and of course the German Masters where he lost out early doors, whereas Ricky has had a month or so off, and is fresh and raring to go for this week and having not really expended as much energy as Bingham this week, he'll still be very fresh and ready for this match. I certainly expect that this game will go at least 6 of the 7 frames.

Mark Selby Vs Luca Brecel - On paper this looks like an incredible miss-match between a complete player in Mark Selby who has both the scoring parts to his game as well as the best tactical game in the modern game. Luca meanwhile is an incredible player when given the chance in and amongst the balls, but what he needs to work on his tactical game and creating more of these chances, because against the top players he knows with his tactical game he may only get one opportunity a frame and that adds the pressure to Luca to make the most of it. Luca may be back working with Chris Henry which is great news for him and his fans, because you only have to look at the transformation of Shaun Murphy that Chris has played a large part in to see that he could create a monster in Luca Brecel, and we may be starting to see some of the early fruits of this reunion this week. Although, I think it will be about a year until we really see a transformation and a much more complete player in Luca because it takes time to change a players mind set and then for that player to get used to these changes in practice and competition, as it did with Murphy. As for today then, if Selby keeps it tight from the start he could really end up tying Luca up in knots and that should see Selby run out a comfortable winner.


It's been a busy week of snooker so far this week, but things settle down a bit from now that we're down to a two table set-up, and even though today's games are over the best-of-7 frames, the quarter-finals are up to best-of-9's tomorrow and we can finally start to watch some snooker matches of a decent length, and hopefully the close games can keep on coming.