Snooker

Day Ten: FIVE TIME CHAMPION O'SULLIVAN CRASHES OUT

Afternoon session:
Mark Allen produced another four frame blitz just like he did in session two. Breaks of 86, 103 and 64 saw him roaring back to within two at 9-11 down.
But just like in session two the unflappable Kyren Wilson responded with calm assurance and saw the job through delivering two frame winning contributions to finally see off the brave Northern Irishman 13-9.
Wilson goes on to face Mark Selby in the last eight.

Over on table one Ding Junhui made hard work of seeing off Judd Trump. Ding got in first in the opening frame of the session with a 65 but broke down and Trump stepped in to win with a 70 to go 7-10. All looked well again for Ding as runs of 72 and 91 took him to the brink of victory at 12-7.
But Trump gamely battled on as the man from China missed opportunities to get over the line.
Breaks of 61, 56 and 88 saw the Bristolian claw his way back to just two behind at 10-12.
However Ding finally put the match to bed in frame 23 to set up a clash with Mark Williams.

Evening session:
John Higgins completed a 13-8 victory over Ricky Walden to keep his hopes of a fifth World Title alive.
Starting the session with a 10-6 lead an assured 59 break helped the Scot to 11-6. Walden hit back with a 62 to peg back to four frames adrift. He then won the next with a run of 84.
But breaks of 92 and 99 were to seal progress for Higgins to a match with Alan McManus in the quarter finals.

Five time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is out of the tournament after a resolute and determined Barry Hawkins admirably repelled everything the Rocket threw at him to claim a famous 13-12 victory. The Rocket powered in a 93 to start the evening.
Hawkins scrapped through a tight next frame........10-8 Hawkins.
Ronnie hits a 70 break, back to one behind.
Brave Hawkins knocks in a 54 followed by a 94 to go three up with four to play.
O'Sullivan on the brink........... BOOM 124 break.
BOOM again 88 break and its 11-12.
Frame 24, Hawkins chance and a HUGE kick, out of position, awkward cueing. Red missed. O'Sullivan with a 63 and it's a decider. So into the final frame and the reds go awkward.
Prolonged safety battle............Hawkins first chance.
56 break with loads of reds safe. Surely enough.
Ronnie gets in with a long red. Opens up another red and all of a sudden maybe a miracle clearance is on..........but no.
In off, four points away, cue ball in baulk. Easy red there too.
And at last Hawkins has his first win in 14 years against the Rocket. WHAT..............A...............MATCH!!

Quarter Final Draw:

John Higgins (8) v Alan McManus
Mark Williams (13) v Ding Junhui
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Barry Hawkins (11) v Marco Fu (14)
Mark Selby (2) v Kyren Wilson

Presumably Pob Hawkins will KO Fu I hope Selby gets through. Ditto Mark Williams. Then there's just two old Scottish sweats

Day Eleven: DING THRASHES WILLIAMS TO REACH SEMIS

Quarter Finals:
Ding Junhui has trounced Mark Williams 13-3 with a session to spare to book his place in the semi finals.
Early on it was honours even as the first four frames were shared.
Ding with runs of 74 and 55, Williams hitting a break of 70.
But the man from China produced a four frame surge after the mid session interval to go 6-2 up heading into the evening session. Runs of 58, 53, 54 and 74 proved invaluable in establishing an early advantage.
Ding powered on in the evening combining superb safety with more accomplished breakbuilding.
Breaks of 109, 52, 95 and 73 saw him stretch his lead to 10-2 as Williams looked like a beaten man.
The Welshman won frame 13 but Ding pulled away again to complete the rout and give himself a day off before the start of the best of 33 semi final on Thursday.

Mark Selby justified his world number one tag against Kyren Wilson early on in their opening session. After winning a couple of frames against the odds to go 2-0 up the Leicester man stormed into a 6-0 lead with breaks of 61, 101 and 99 to leave Wilson reeling.
Wilson bravely hung on to clinch the last two frames of the morning though to reduce his arrears to four.
Wilson continued his fightback in the evening winning three of the first four frames to peg back to 7-5.
Selby won the next to go 8-5 before Wilson replied to narrow the gap to two once more.
The former World Champion clinically took frame 15.
Crucial final frame of the day then.
Selby in first and breaks down.
Wilson gets in but has a fearful kick on the last red - so unlucky. Selby misses the red to middle but leaves Wilson partially snookered on the red over the middle pocket.
Wilson needing a brown or better to win the frame with the last red plus all the colours swerves the cue ball to pot the red but cruelly finishes pinned to the blue with no chance of blue or brown. Wilson decides to pot the yellow and go for snookers.
Selby escapes the first two snookers laid and ultimately wins the frame to head into the final session 10-6 in front of a thoroughly dejected opponent.

After a herculean effort in beating Ronnie O'Sullivan eleventh seed Barry Hawkins had the look of an exhausted man as he suffered a Crucible calamity in his opening session against Marco Fu.
Fu knocked in breaks of 73, 76, 81, 66, 50 and 57 but also produced some excellent safety play in making life difficult for Hawkins. The 'Hawk' needs something special to turn things around tomorrow as he trails 7-1.

Alan McManus started well against John Higgins in all Scottish tie. Higgins took the opener with a 63 but McManus responded with runs of 114, 78 and 56 to build a 3-1 lead.
After the interval though McManus accrued a mere 24 points in four frames as Higgins surged to a 5-3 lead aided by contributions of 51 and 75.

No mention of Williams' tip troubles? Shame on you!

Sure Ding did well, but the total collapse of his opponent is surely more than just "oh he was crap all the time"!

I was aware of the tip problem but I don't recall saying Williams was crap all the time. I emphasised the quality of his opponents play which seems only right. Ding did hit 12 breaks over 50 in the match in the 13 frames he won and had Willians consistently in trouble with excellent safety.
I understand that some players carry around some worn in tips with them as brand new tips do take time to bed in.
Williams seemingly did not do that and paid the penalty.
John Parrott mentioned in commentary he used to carry some worn in tips for such eventualities.
I like Mark Williams, he is a top bloke and a lot of fun but I am not going to make excuses for him.
Part of being a professional sportsperson in my opinion is to be prepared for such eventualities and although the split tip was unfortunate he should have had some worn in replacements especially seeing as it was the World Championship.

At the highest level of sport you need to be prepared imo.

Kyren Wilson may be about to lose his match but for the time being he has the consolation of scoring the highest break of the tournament so far, his 143 break surpassing the 141 scored by Barry Hawkins.

Yes credit to Wilson.
He hasn't given up and the 143 was excellent.

Mark Selby has defeated Kyren Wilson 13-8 to reach the semi finals.

(27-04-2016 09:54 )snookered147 Wrote:  I was aware of the tip problem but I don't recall saying Williams was crap all the time.

My bad, I didn't mean to appear to be quoting you directly, just generalising I didn't know it was a problem until whichever Eurosport person mentioned it, but then they seemed to ignore it as a factor. Again, Ding did very well, but if your opponent blows themselves out in this way, it's a bit deceitful not to pay more attention to it. Ding may well have beaten Mark had he not had the trouble, but the coverage seemed to be that 13-3 was a natural result, rather than a fluke.

Well done to Selby too