HOME favorite Ding Junhui had to come from 4-1 down to beat Jin Long 5-4 at the Roewe Shanghai Masters on Wednesday night, as Stephen Hendry crashed out in the first round.
| Ding Junhui in action against Jin Long at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday. SD-Agencies |
Wuxi’s Ding struggled in the early stages against Chinese wild card Jin, who won four of the first five frames with a top break of 62. The Ding of 18 months ago may have crumbled, but he is made of tougher stuff now and he rallied superbly with runs of 53, 93, 45 and a 67 in the decider to set up a last 16 meeting with Jamie Cope.
There was no such fight-back from seven-time World Champion Hendry as he went down 5-2 to Martin Gould. It’s his second consecutive defeat to Londoner Gould, who beat him 5-3 at last year’s Welsh Open.
After falling 2-1 behind, Hendry made a 33 clearance to win the fourth frame on the black. But Gould dominated after the interval with 56, 73 and 83 as Hendry scored just 17 points in the last three frames. The Scot must now be wary of dropping out of the top 16 in the rankings during the season, which would leave him needing to qualify for the Crucible.
Shaun Murphy recovered a 3-1 deficit to beat Stephen Lee 5-3, flying through the last four frames with 51, 114, 86 and 68.
Mark King saw off Joe Delaney 5-3, winning a crucial 61-minute seventh frame on the pink to go 4-3 up and adding the next with a 72.(SD-Agencies)
Source： Shenzhen Daily Editor： 洪志科