Ding Junhui of China plays a shot during his first-round match against Mark Williams of Wales at Wembley Masters in London on Monday.SD-Agencies
CHINESE snooker star Ding Junhui scored a vital morale boosting win at the Wembley Arena in London on Monday as he edged out former world champion Mark Williams 6-4 in their Masters first-round match.
Ding, 23, had gone into the clash badly out of sorts having lost both his Asian Games title — to Marco Fu — and then his U.K. Championship crown last month, bowing out in the second round.
Neither Ding — ranked four in the world — nor Williams played great snooker in what is the sport’s leading invitational tournament, but the Chinese star managed to have the better of the opening exchanges and gained a 5-2 lead in the best-of-11 match.
Williams, ranked a place above Ding in the world rankings and who reached the U.K. Championship final in December, fought back in typically dour fashion to win the next two frames but when he made an error in the 10th frame it was game over.
Ding will play another former world champion in the second round after Scotsman Graeme Dott defeated compatriot and world number one John Higgins 6-4.
Dott, the 2006 world champion, led 2-0 with breaks of 115 and 65 but friend and playing partner Higgins leveled at 3-3 after knocks of 68, 55 and 73.
Higgins lost a mammoth seventh frame but hit back again before Dott kept his nerve to edge the next two for victory.
Higgins beat Dott 9-8 in the U.K. Championship second round en route to his memorable triumph in December, capping a highly successful comeback from a six-month ban.
“I never feel comfortable here, it’s such a vast arena and I feel edgy on every shot,” Higgins said. “It’s terrible because it’s such a great tournament.”
Dott, runner-up in last year’s World Championship, said: “In the Championship League last week I was worse than diabolical, so I practiced day and night after that to work on a few things, and today I was much better technically.”
(SD-Agencies)
Source:大运官网 | Editer:王佳