Proving that Digital Journal’s (thankfully temporary) snooker correspondent is not the person to follow if you are of a betting persuasion, Ali Carter unexpectedly beat the defending world champion Stuart Bingham in the opening round of the world snooker championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, U.K.
Looking ahead to the game I wrote: “I think Bingham will edge it, but expect a tight 10-7 or 10-8 finish.” As it was, Carter triumphed 10-9.
Carter started the match in fine form, going 5 frames to 1 clear. This was thanks to solid breaks of 78 and 50. However, two big breaks of 96 and 90 helped Bingham end the first session just one frame in arrears at 4-5. I thought Carter could have gone to 6-1, but he missed a relatively straightforward red ball in the seventh frame.
Undeterred by his lead being eroded, Carter won three of the opening four frames in the evening session to lead 8-5. This was largely due to breaks of 69, 52 and 58. Following a short break, Bingham cam firing back with breaks of 88, 68 and 113 to lead 9-8. Had Bingham shown this form in the the somewhat prosaic first session he would surely have won the match. Carter, however, powered in a century of his won – 103 – to level, and then came through a scrappy decider by the score of 67 points to 34 and moved into the second round.
On losing, Bingham told BBC Sport: “I’m gutted to be going back home.”
With the second result on day one, I was also wrong. Very wrong. Predicting Peter Ebdon to grind down Marco Fu, the player from Hong Kong romped to an easy 10-2 win, compiling a break of 138 (and another century, 111). Fu made eight breaks over 50 in the 12 frames to Ebdon’s one (a run of 67 in wining the second frame.)
Day two sees crowd favorite Ronnie O’Sullivan in action. Cautious of making another bad tip, O’Sullivan is sure to finish ahead in his session (this match concludes on day 3.)
