However, Neil Robertson had things fairly comfortable against Fergal O'Brien to set up a Last 16 tie with another very tough competitor in Graeme Dott who won his match with Peter Ebdon. Shaun Murphy looked very good in his win against Jamie Jones, and he'll now play John Higgins who made two centuries and won five frames in a row against Michael Holt from 3-1 down. Mark Selby also shone on day 3, finishing off with a century in a 6-1 thrashing of Anthony McGill, and his Last 16 opponent is Michael White who beat fellow Welshman Lee Walker. Zhou Yuelong was perhaps the most impressive player on the day in his 6-0 win over Sanderson Lam and there was little Lam could do. Tian Pengfei is another Chinese player in the Last 16, winning his all Chinese clash against Liang Wenbo and his next opponent is Mark Allen who avenged his 6-1 Shanghai Masters semi-final defeat to Kyren Wilson. David Gilbert also kept his form going by winning all of the last three frames in a 6-4 win against Oliver Lines. Ben Woollaston came through his second decider of the week to beat Stuart Bingham's conqueror Yu De Lu, and he completes the Last 16 draw with Joe Perry, who saw off Dominic Dale 6-3.
Last 32 Results:
Tian Pengfei 6-3 Liang Wenbo
Mark Allen 6-3 Kyren Wilson
Zhou Yuelong 6-0 Sanderson Lam
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5 Mark Williams
Jimmy Robertson 6-4 Barry Hawkins
Marco Fu 6-3 Jack Lisowski
David Gilbert 6-4 Oliver Lines
Ryan Day 6-5 Ding Junhui
Mark Selby 6-1 Anthony McGill
Michael White 6-3 Lee Walker
Graeme Dott 6-3 Peter Ebdon
Neil Robertson 6-3 Fergal O'Brien
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Jamie Jones
John Higgins 6-3 Michael Holt
Joe Perry 6-3 Dominic Dale
Ben Woollaston 6-5 Yu De Lu
We now have a fantastic line-up for the Last 16 of the International Championship and we are now of course down to four tables being on the go in a single session which means we're starting to get to the business end where the cream of the week will rise to the top. Here are my thoughts on the potential contents of that cream:
Last 16 Preview (Picks in Bold)
Mark Allen Vs Tian Pengfei - The top match in the draw will be a good one as Tian Pengfei looks to keep his very good form of late going. His win against Liang Wenbo was one that I fully expected and predicted on here yesterday, after his run to the final of the Ruhr Open and his victories already this week. Tian has had great potential and showed glimpses for a while, but with these recent results he's started to climb the rankings and will be full of confidence ready to play Allen tomorrow and will certainly not fear him. Mark however has gone along pretty well and is warming to another Chinese challenge. He seems to enjoy playing here based on his results, with a semi-final at this years Shanghai Masters, finals in both the Shanghai and International last year and of course his back to back ranking titles at the World Open on the Hainan Island. Allen's well overdue a top run and if he's on top form again tomorrow, Tian will be under a lot of pressure if he's to keep his run going, and while I expect this to be close, my pick if for Mark to edge it.Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Zhou Yuelong - This match is one of the best in the draw between two very heavy scoring, attacking players who I think will be trading in heavy blows here. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has already expended a lot of energy to get to this stage coming through two deciders in his matches, while Zhou Yuelong so far has only dropped a couple of frames and been scoring incredibly heavily. Both of these guys will be confident after some of the results they have had this year. Un-Nooh won the 6 Reds and made the quarter-finals of last weeks Asian tour event, while Zhou won the world cup with Yan Bingtao in June and had a decent run himself a week ago in the Haining Open. Again this is a very close one to call but the way Zhou has been scoring this week you still fancy him to take his chances and with the confidence of youth he's going to take some stopping, so he is my tip to edge this close contest.
Marco Fu Vs Jimmy Robertson - This is a repeat of the first round of this years World Championship, and the only reason I mention this is because I was there at the Crucible for both sessions watching the guys go head to head up close and personal. On that day Marco was just a little too good for him at the back end of the match but that was over a very long format and I expect Jimmy to stay with him over the best-of-11 frames. Robertson has had some great results recently, not only to get to the Crucible in April, but he made the semi-finals at last weeks Haining Open and the semi-finals of February's Gdynia Open also and perhaps he's started to mature a lot more as a player and show off more of his overall potential. Having said all of that, you never get an easy game against Fu and i'm sure that will be the case again tomorrow. Marco so far this week has looked very good in beating Matthew Stevens and Jack Lisowski, both of which could've been made a lot closer if Marco was not on his game so this all bodes well for his overall chances this week. He came into the week with a lot of money to defend having been the runner-up at the International two years ago, and with this possibly on his mind and the fact that he has been in poor form, this may be the carrot that needed to be dangled. Fu is my pick to book his place in the quarters.
Ryan Day Vs David Gilbert - Again this is another big opportunity for two players outside of the present top 16 to progress into this weeks quarter-finals as the draw has been opened up for them. Of course, Day did the bulk of that work by knocking out Ding Junhui today and that's a great win for him against someone who he always comes close to and takes the game to really well. If he can keep that up against everyone else this week there's no reason why he can't keep on climbing and have one of his best weeks for some time. David won't be a pushover for him though as he's also in great form at the moment. Gilbert is one of my favourite players to watch but he does not produce the snooker we know he's capable of very often. His run to the semi-finals of the Ruhr Open was so close to being even better and that will spur him on for the future. At the end of the day, I believe that Day just has a little bit more of the cutting edge that's going to be important at the back end of this match.
Mark Selby Vs Michael White - As we move into the bottom half, it's time to have a look at the world number 1 and my tournament tip for the week Mark Selby. Selby was in impressive form against McGill today and I truly believe that with all of his experience that he loves playing in China, so he's still a great shout to win the whole event with the form he's shown. Michael White hasn't quite showed the same form this week or in recent events, and his struggles against much weaker opposition than Selby in Daqing so far do not present a pretty picture for his chances tomorrow against Mark. Personally, I think if Selby continues to score well, he's more likely to win the safety exchanges too and he's certainly my pick from this one to enter the quarter-finals.
Neil Robertson Vs Graeme Dott - The last two days matches from Neil Robertson against Martin O'Donnell and Fergal O'Brien finally saw the Australian start to show some form this season. His scoring looks to be sublime as usual and there haven't been as many sloppy mistakes as he exhibited in the summer and early Autumn. You cannot keep a player of Robertson's class down for very long and that's why you feel he may have a big week in him this week given his early results but tomorrow is another day. Graeme Dott has also looked impressive in the opening part of the week in wins against tough match players Jamie Burnett and Peter Ebdon and he will give Neil a run for his money in this game I expect. When Graeme is in form he's a very tough player to beat because he has the scoring to match his gritty safety play and overall match play. Neil in form is a different animal altogether and that's why I think he will make it to the quarter-finals and possibly well beyond that too.
Shaun Murphy Vs John Higgins - For guys of the class of Murphy and Higgins, the first thing to point out is that this is their first "major meeting" since the Masters in January 2013 and if this match is anything like that one, we will be witnessing something very special. Murphy came back from 4-1 down on that occasion, but it was Higgins making the comebacks today failing to lose another frame after going into his interval against Michael Holt 3-1 down, and making two centuries in there. As good as John is, he's not quite the same these days and he will offer Murphy enough chances to win the match if Shaun is at the top of his game. This is already the furthest Murphy has gone in the International Championship since 2012 and now that he's played himself into the tournament he has to be classed as a massive danger. His match against Jamie Jones today on the TV table was very impressive and I thought that Murphy looked like he was back at the very top of his game cueing sweetly and making a fortune when amongst the reds. Yet again this has the makings of a very close match and another classic between the pair, but I do not think that I can tip against Murphy having seen the way he's cueing this week.
Joe Perry Vs Ben Woollaston - The final game in the draw for the Last 16 looks like being yet another tightly contested one between Perry and Woollaston. This appearance for Ben is his best since losing in February's Welsh Open final, so perhaps he's finally starting to regain his confidence and get back close to the top of his game. It's not been easy for him either this week coming through two deciders, from 5-4 down against Robbie Williams and 3-1 down against Yu De Lu. Obviously playing Perry is a different match to those two that he has faced, but we know that Woollaston is very much capable of winning it. Joe hasn't been on his best form of late either and he didn't really have to do anything particularly special to beat Wang Yuchen. Against Dominic Dale he improved on that, but he still gave enough chances to Dom for him to have made it a much closer game and Ben will have his chances tomorrow. This was the tightest call in the draw for me, but I've chosen to go for a continued return to form for Woollaston after the hard graft he's already put in this week.
The TV matches for tomorrow are Shaun Murphy Vs John Higgins and Neil Robertson Vs Graeme Dott in the morning, whilst the afternoon sees Mark Allen Vs Tian Pengfei and Mark Selby Vs Michael White as the televised matches. That makes for some fantastic snooker viewing and I really look forward to watching the bits of it that I can do throughout the day.
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