Last weeks International Championship runner-up Ding Junhui and semi-finalist Judd Trump could not keep their good form going, as they both lost in the first round of the inaugural China Championship.
Marco Fu overcame Ding 6-3 in their Last 16 match which (along with Trump Vs Ali Carter that was going on at the same time) was played in front of a packed crowd in Guangzhou, and involved two vital black ball frames that went the way of Fu. The man from Hong Kong stopped his opponent getting on the scoreboard in the first two frames with breaks of 74 and 83 to storm into an early two frame lead. That became 3-0 when he took the first of those black ball frames, despite an earlier 51 break from Ding. The International finalist was on the board before the interval as he took what was another closely fought frame and a break of 58 helped him close the gap further to 2-3 following the intermission. Crucially, Fu took a tight sixth frame to stop Ding from squaring the match and then capitalised to stretch his lead back to three and go one away at 5-2. A run of 56 kept Ding in it, but when it came down to the black once more in the ninth both had chances before Ding left it in the jaws of the pocket and that was the match and a much needed win for Fu who has struggled in the first half of this season.
Meanwhile, Judd Trump lost out to Ali Carter in a very closely contested match that Carter eventually edged 6-4. Only at the end of the contest was there more than a frame in it as Carter kept battling to keep in the match at certain points. He won two straight frames after losing the opener to a run of 64 from Trump, who also made a 63 in the fourth to square the match at 2-2 going into the mid-session break. A tight fifth went his way to make it consecutive frames and lead at 3-2. Carter's match high break of 92 squared things again but he soon found himself behind once more at 4-3. This time he managed to get on a roll though winning all of the last three frames aided by breaks of 77 and 53 along the way.
However, last weeks International Champion and World number 1 Mark Selby has kept his fantastic form going with a very comfortable against Anthony McGill. McGill exited in the first round of the International Championship in Daqing and received another early bath here as he simply did not get going early on. Selby took a 4-0 lead into the intermission helped by breaks of 74 and 52. The Scotsman did have a run of 50 to get on the board following the break but any hopes of a comeback were short lived when Selby made 72 to move a frame away from the quarter-finals at 5-1. Despite the Indian Open champion keeping it going for a frame at least, Selby soon had things finished with a match high break of 81 to clinch a 6-2 victory.
Selby will play Mark Allen in Thursday's quarter-finals after the Northern Irishman overturned a 1-3 deficit against Ricky Walden with two centuries in an eventual 6-4 victory. The 3-1 interval lead for Walden was after losing the opening frame to Allen and despite the left hander having chances to steal both the third and fourth frames. A break of 106 hauled Allen back into it and he was soon level at 3-3. Walden did take the lead again with a 63 to make it 4-3 but breaks of 140, 74 and 70 saw Allen win all of the last three frames and book his place in the last eight.
The remaining four Last 16 matches will be played tomorrow with Shaun Murphy playing Joe Perry and Stuart Bingham taking on Liang Wenbo in the session at 6.30am UK time, while John Higgins meets Mark Williams and Neil Robertson is up against Michael Holt in the 11.30am UK time session.
You can still read my thoughts on those matches and all sorts of other things in my two preview blogs.
This is my combined "Stat Attack" and "Tournament Top Ten" blog:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/china-championship-stat-attack-and.html
While my full tournament preview with match by match analysis is here:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/china-championship-preview.html
I'll be back tomorrow with a round-up of the final wave of first round play and all the information you need before the quarter-finals.
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