Round one was concluded with victories for John Higgins and Neil Robertson, the two form players of the season so far.
The afternoon saw an incredibly high quality match between Higgins and Wenbo. Higgins hit three centuries and could have had one in each of the six frames he won. He was deadly in the balls and never looked like missing. Wenbo was making his debut and showed no nerves, he may be missed two balls the entire match and his long potting was incredibly consistent. This and his UK Championship performances bode well for the rest of his season and he can feel unlucky to lose with a 93% pot success.
For John Higgins, he will be very happy with his continued high level of play this season and he looks very confident. His next opponent Stuart Bingham will have to improve to have any chance on Friday night, if Higgins plays like this again it will take an incredible performance to beat him.
The evening session saw Neil Robertson win 6-0 against an ill Marco Fu – who later apologised to the fans for his performance. A pot success of 69% and only 29 shots made marked an uncomfortable night for Marco. Robertson was very clinical despite his opponent not being at the races but there wasn’t too much to take from this match.
Today see’s two very interesting matches, Selby v O’Sullivan will be a big headline act in the afternoon and I fancy O’Sullivan to raise his level of performance and beat Selby today. I also think that Allen will have too much for Hawkins in the evening; I’ll be taking my profit from the last few days’ doubles and putting it on O’Sullivan/Allen @ 1.8/1
The afternoon saw an incredibly high quality match between Higgins and Wenbo. Higgins hit three centuries and could have had one in each of the six frames he won. He was deadly in the balls and never looked like missing. Wenbo was making his debut and showed no nerves, he may be missed two balls the entire match and his long potting was incredibly consistent. This and his UK Championship performances bode well for the rest of his season and he can feel unlucky to lose with a 93% pot success.
For John Higgins, he will be very happy with his continued high level of play this season and he looks very confident. His next opponent Stuart Bingham will have to improve to have any chance on Friday night, if Higgins plays like this again it will take an incredible performance to beat him.
The evening session saw Neil Robertson win 6-0 against an ill Marco Fu – who later apologised to the fans for his performance. A pot success of 69% and only 29 shots made marked an uncomfortable night for Marco. Robertson was very clinical despite his opponent not being at the races but there wasn’t too much to take from this match.
Today see’s two very interesting matches, Selby v O’Sullivan will be a big headline act in the afternoon and I fancy O’Sullivan to raise his level of performance and beat Selby today. I also think that Allen will have too much for Hawkins in the evening; I’ll be taking my profit from the last few days’ doubles and putting it on O’Sullivan/Allen @ 1.8/1