There were some surprise quarter-finalists at the Wuxi Classic as only 3 of the top 16 have made it into the last 8, showing us already just what this new Flat 128 draw can produce.
One of the best results of the round was Anthony Hamilton's victory over Mark Williams 5-3, to nicely follow up his brilliant display against Stuart Bingham in the Last 32. Williams did look better in his win against Lisowski and knocked in some good long pots in this match. Unfortunately for him his break building wasn't quite on the mark, and Hamilton played well and did what he had to at the end for victory. This is probably Hamilton's best chance to win his first ever ranking event, the one that everyone in snooker knows that he deserves.
David Morris is another great story of this event. Having come through Q School in the summer, he has now made it through to the quarter-finals of the seasons opening ranking event, showing us that the future of Irish snooker is in safe hands for many more years to come. Morris today had another fantastic victory, probably the best of his career, in a decider against Ali Carter. Morris was up against it early on finding himself 2-0 and then 3-2 down, before turning the deficit around to lead 4-3. Carter took the match into a decider, but it was Morris that took an early lead in it and therefore control of it. He held his nerve and eventually potted match ball blue to take him through to a quarter-final meeting with Matthew Stevens. Stevens had a 5-3 victory over Peter Lines that in a match that, for the first half, was not particularly thrilling or free-flowing but Stevens did what he had to do for the win.
Neil Robertson impressed once again and made himself the huge favourite to make at least the final of this event and probably win it, after his 5-0 win against Mark King. Robertson made breaks of 75, 96 and finished off with a 111, punishing King's mistakes and inability to score heavy himself. He next plays young Chinamen Cao Yupeng who has also impressed on home soil this week. He is now the last player left flying the Chinese flag in Wuxi and proved right my bet of the round, beating Ben Woollaston 5-3. Cao took an early 2-0 lead, with breaks of 65 and 79 Woollaston pegged him back to 2-2 at the interval. Breaks of 60 and 71 soon restored his two frame advantage, before Woollaston made a 75 to keep the match going. Cao finished the match in style though with another good break of 73, to get through to the quarters.
Quarter-Final Draw and predictions:
Robert Milkins Vs Anthony Hamilton - I would love to see either player go on to win the tournament as it would be thoroughly deserved for either player. However, I just think that Milkins is more likely to get through to the semi-final on this occasion, although it will be close.
Cao Yupeng Vs Neil Robertson - Neil is in fine form this week, and when he is on form only very few players can stop. So as well as Cao is playing I don't think he can stop Robertson, if he continues to score as well as he is.
Joe Perry Vs John Higgins - The two winners of the first two PTC events, and both are in fine form. It's really hard to pick the winner of this one as Perry has already beaten Ding in this tournament while Higgins hasn't really had a big test in this tournament. I still expect Higgins to win, but wouldn't be surprised to see Perry win and would recommend him if you are after a good outside bet this could be it.
Matthew Stevens Vs David Morris - Matthew wasn't playing as well today and has come through a couple of scraps against Lines and Wenbo. As for Morris he has played really well and scored well to get to this point and battled hard today against Carter. It might be fair to say that this is a great opportunity for Morris to get through, and i'm sure he'll go into the match with no fear.
I hope to see some more surprises and have enjoyed watching what the new format has given us so far this week.
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