Day eight of the world snooker championship saw four matches, played over two sessions, but with no final score. There cannot be many major tournaments, across any sport, that have four matches in progress and no final result produced after a day’s play (other than cricket.) However, one or two days of the 17 days play at the world snooker championship produce just that: a no results day.
Day nine will, however, produce four results, and the play on day eight was sufficiently entertaining. Here the first and second favorites for the tournament (as indicated in bookmaker’s odds) could be going home early. Both Ronnie O’Sullivan, five times winner, and Judd Trump (a former finalist) are behind in their second round matches.
Upsetting the form book, Barry Hawkins leads O’Sullivan 9-7. Ahead 5-3 after the first session, Hawkins and O’Sullivan split the four frames played to leave Hawkins still two ahead.
Although two ahead, Hawkins has been less fluent in the break building stakes than O’Sullivan. While he compiled a break of 102 in the third frame, Hawkins has only registered three breaks over 50 across the sixteen frames played so far. In contrast, when he is in among the balls, O’Sullivan has played very well. This includes compiling three century breaks: 139, 118 and 103, to bring his tally of 50 plus breaks to seven.
Where O’Sullivan has been weaker is with his long potting and through occasional lapses of concentration when the frames have become more protracted. These issues account for Hawkins’ lead and O’Sullivan will need to make the most of the chances presented if he is to progress to the quarter-finals.
Second favorite for the tournament, Judd Trump is 10-6 behind his Chinese opponent Ding Junhui. Unlike O’Sullivan, the score line is less of a surprise. Junhui has experienced an indifferent season but his class is well established, having won eleven major tournament’s in this career. With their first round matches, Junhui was sharper whereas Trump struggled. This run of form has carried over to this second round encounter.
From 2-2, Ding Junhui went to 6-2, helped by breaks of 71 and 112. Trump played a little better in the second session but he was unable to close the four frame deficit. Trump’s cue ball control did not seem as good as normal, and Ding, in contrast, was clipping the ball around the table with greater precision.
In another second round tie, John Higgins appears strongly placed at 10-6 over Ricky Walden. Both players have made a century break, but Higgins’ safety play has been far superior.
In the final match in progress, Kyren Wilson holds an even stronger lead of 11-5 over Mark Allen, his more experience opponent. At one stage, Wilson, the current Shanghai Masters champion, led 7-0 helped by breaks of 93 and 103.
The second session was a bit of a seesaw. Allen came out firing on all cylinders and won four frames in a row to reach 5-7, aided by two consecutive centuries of 122 and 103, plus breaks of 66 and 60. There was then a scheduled 15 minute break. On the resumption Allen faded and Wilson, without doing anything overly special, moved to 11-5 up. Key to this was Wilson winning the sixteenth frame on the final black.
All four matches are played to a finish on day nine.
