The top names made light work of their matches on day 1 of the International Championship in Chengdu, with the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Allen all gaining comfortable victories to put them into the last 32.
So this is what happened on an action packed first day:
John Higgins 6-2 Joe Swail - John Higgins started his International Championship campaign very brightly in a 6-2 win over Joe Swail. Higgins made a 105 to take the opener, before doubling his lead in the next with a nice break of 85. Higgins took the next frame as well, and was soon 4-0 ahead at the interval with a break of 62 helping him to the fourth frame. Swail began to show signs of a fight back after the break though, getting on the board in the fifth frame, and then making a 107 (the highest break of the match) to make it 4-2. But in ruthless Higgins fashion he controlled the next 2 frames of the match and took the 6-2 victory, and a nice platform to build on for the rest of the tournament.
Mark Allen 6-1 Tian Pengfei - Mark Allen started his tournament in style, playing incredibly well in his 6-1 win over China's Pengfei. It was Pengfei that took a tight opening frame, and as soon as Allen levelled up in the 2nd frame, his high scoring dominance began. It was a break of 70 that gave Allen the lead for the first time, and break of 60 in the next gave him a 3-1 lead at the mid-session break. The Northern Irishman then came out and knocked in a very nice 111 break to increase his advantage further at 4-1. Allen needed 2 visits in the sixth frame, but he made them count as breaks of 64 and 51 put him one away from the 2nd round. In true winners style Mark finished with his highest break of the match, a 123, to seal victory and his place in the last 32 against Dave Harold.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-2 Anthony McGill - Ronnie O'Sullivan was hardly at his best, but did enough to beat Anthony McGill 6-2, as McGill consistently failed to close frames out after making starts. O'Sullivan needed a couple of chances to take the first frame, after McGill failed to close out the frame, and let Ronnie back in. The Scot levelled up in the next with a good break of 72. In the next McGill made an early break of 51, but O'Sullivan managed to get in and made a magnificent break of 73 to steal the frame from McGill's clutches. Ronnie took another tight frame to lead 3-1 at the interval, with McGill knowing he should've at the very least been level at 2-2. O'Sullivan then seized on this and made a lovely break of 80 to put himself 4-1 up and in full control of the match. Anthony fought back with a well constructed 81 to reduce the deficit to 4-2, but couldn't take his chances in the next as Ronnie went one away at 5-2. He needed a couple of visits in the next, but a break of 52 eventually sealed the match and a 6-2 win for the World Champion.
Graeme Dott 6-4 Michael White - I expected that this match would be close, and I wasn't wrong as this match ebbed and flowed before Dott took out a 6-4 victory. Dott took out the first couple of tight frames to give himself an early 2-0 lead before the Welshman took the next 2 to level the match going into the mid-session interval. A break of 68 (Dott's highest of the match) re-gave him the lead at 3-2, before he took the next to put him on top again. White hung on in there though with a timely 74 reducing the gap to 1 once more at 4-3. Dott dominated the next to put him 1 away from the last 32 at 5-3, before White fought back, shutting Dott out of the ninth frame to make it 5-4. However, it was Graeme that held his nerve with a break of 65 helping him take out the match at 6-4, and book his place in the next round.
Joe Perry 6-5 Jamie Jones - Joe Perry found himself 5-1 down against Jamie Jones in this last 64 encounter, with top breaks of 96, 69 and 59 giving the Welshman a commanding lead and putting him 1 frame away from the second round. However, Perry had other ideas dominating the next 4 frames, helped by breaks of 82 and 107, to take the match into a decider. The decider was close but Perry did enough to book his place in the last 32 and complete a very good comeback.
Today's other results:
Dave Harold 6-4 Pankaj Advani
Martin Gould 6-3 Matt Selt
Matthew Stevens 6-4 Rory McLeod
Kurt Maflin 6-2 Robert Milkins
Mark Davis 6-4 Oliver Brown
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Michael Leslie
Liang Wenbo 6-3 Li Yan
Wildcard Round:
Alan McManus 6-5 Zhou Yuelong
Jimmy White 6-4 Yuan Sijun
Zhao Xintong 6-1 Steve Davis
Kyren Wilson 6-1 Lin Shuai
Tomorrow sees the remaining 18 Last 64 matches taking place with the likes of Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire amongst those in action. It should be another enjoyable day of snooker, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to reporting on some more entertaining matches tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment