Shaun Murphy stormed to victory on the first day of the Champion of Champions and keeping up his defence by booking his place in Friday night's semi-final.
Murphy faced European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson on Monday afternoon in the last 16, coming through a tough tie against the in-form man 4-2. Robertson started strongly with a break of 85 to take the opening frame, before Murphy hit back and went 2-1 ahead after a run of 96 in third frame.
Robertson was soon level again after a break of 80 in the fourth, but would only score one more point in the contest, as the defending champion looked to be playing his best snooker of the season so far, with further breaks of 68 and 76 in the final two frames helping him to clinch victory.
Awaiting him in Monday evening's semi-final was Ding Junhui after he was also a 4-2 winner against Shoot-Out champion Michael Georgiou. Ding is one of four players in the Champion of Champions this week based on rankings, as there were fewer than 16 tournament winners on the main tour in the last 12 months.
Georgiou started out with a break of 76 to take the opener, but fell 3-1 behind after contributions of 139 and 85 Ding. Georgiou kept himself in the tie by winning frame five, but Ding dominated the sixth to book his spot in the last eight.
When the evening came, Murphy was in fine form once again on the way to a 6-3 triumph over China's number one. Breaks of 79 and 80 got Murphy off to a flying start and into a 2-0 lead early on before he went off the boil slightly in the next three frames. He lost a tight third on the colours and had chances in the fourth as well, before an excellent snooker on the yellow from Ding in the fifth saw him win that frame on the pink to move 3-2 ahead.
That did not concern Murphy though who quickly regained his form from the start of the match, making the match high break of 118 in frame six to square the scores at 3-3. That was followed by a superb 88 and an even better 110 to move one away from the last four at 5-3. The ninth and final frame could easily have gone the other way. Ding was in first and looked like taking the frame until missing an easy green on 58 and leaving Murphy a chance to make a counter clearance. It was all going well until a poor positional shot from blue to pink cost him good position on match-ball black, before missing the black on the near jaw to end his break of 65. Ding then attempted a tough black from distance, missing and leaving Murphy a shot into the middle and he was not to need a third chance, burying it for the victory.
That means that Ding's first tournament in the UK since the World Championships has ended abruptly on the first day and having not entered next week's Northern Ireland Open, we will not see him again until the first Triple Crown event of this season, at the UK Championships.
For Murphy, the four first round exits that he suffered in Coventry during the first four stagings of this tournament are now firmly behind him and if he continues performing as he did on the first day then he has an excellent chance of lifting the trophy for a second year in a row. His semi-final on Friday will see him take on the winner of Tuesday's play.
Day 2 Preview
First round draw:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Stuart Bingham
John Higgins Vs Ryan Day
Day two sees the entrance of two-time Champion of champions winner Ronnie O'Sullivan and the other player (besides Murphy) to beat O'Sullivan in this event in 2016 champion John Higgins, as well as the inaugural finalist Stuart Bingham.
O'Sullivan has won multiple tournaments since last year's final loss to Murphy, including the invitational Shanghai Masters in September and the only other tournament he has featured in this season saw him make the semi-finals of the English Open in Crawley. In the Champion of Champions he has reached the final on each of the four occasions he has played in it, choosing not to enter the 2015 edition.
His first round opponent is English Open champion Stuart Bingham whom O'Sullivan overcame 10-8 in the 2013 final here in Coventry, as well as then beating him 4-2 at the first round stage the following year. The head-to-head heavily favours O'Sullivan to the tune of 13-3, though the three victories for Bingham have come during the 2015 World Championships and in both the 2013 and 2010 UK Championships. They have played this season at the Shanghai Masters with O'Sullivan winning comfortably there and having skipped the International Championships, where Bingham lost in the last 64, he will come here fresh and raring to bag a third Champion of Champions crown.
The second first round fixture sees Welsh Open champion John Higgins play Gibraltar Open winner Ryan Day. Higgins like O'Sullivan has had two weeks off since a last 16 exit at the English Open, after failing to qualify for the International Championship. The Scotsman has admitted that he has struggled at the start of this season, after taking a while to get over his second World Championship final loss in two years. He did reach the final of September's China Championship but went on to admit afterwards that he was nowhere near the level that should be required to get as close as he did to winning such a big title.
As for Day, his start to the season has been reasonable with a couple of quarter-finals at the European Masters and the English Open, where he played excellently against Judd Trump in the last 16. He did feature in last year's Champion of Champions, defeating Barry Hawkins before losing out to Anthony Hamilton in a match he really should have won. The record he has against Higgins is not bad by any means. Excluding Championship league matches, Higgins leads the head-to-head 11-6 but Day has actually won four of their last six meetings. This will also be their fourth meeting of the year, with Higgins winning 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the Masters, before Day clinched a 4-1 victory during the Romanian Masters, a title the Welshman would go on to win, as well as earning a 6-5 win in the first round of the Shanghai Masters with a gusty 87 break in the decider there.
Overall, you have to say that Day has an excellent chance against Higgins but O'Sullivan given his record and form in the last year has to be the favourite to join Shaun Murphy in the semi-finals.
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