Here are the reports shared by WST on what happened in Manchester yesterday, with some personal comments. Nothing about the evening session itself from me though, as I could not watch it.
Xiao Guodong kept his best ever season going with a 10-8 victory over Wu Yize in the first round of the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship, a result which ends Wu’s hopes of being a top 16 seed at the Crucible.
Xiao has been a pro for 18 years but has made a major breakthrough this season, winning his first ranking title at the Wuhan Open and reaching the final of the Champion of Champions as well as climbing into the world’s top 16. He has also found contentment in his personal life having got married last month in his home city of Chongqing.
And the 36-year-old kept his momentum going with a narrow success over fellow Chinese cueman Wu, coming from 3-0 and 8-7 down. Xiao goes through to a quarter-final with John Higgins at Manchester Central on Wednesday and Thursday, and it’s a chance for revenge as he lost 6-5 to the same opponent – having led 5-2 – at the recent Sportsbet.io Players Championship.
“To do well at snooker you have to be happy,” said Xiao. “I have been in the UK for 17 years and I used to feel a lot of pressure. I was sad when I lost because I was a long way from home. Now I am comfortable, this is my second home. If I win I am happy, if I lose I still have friends to talk to.
“Today I just told myself to enjoy it because I have had a good season, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. Wu is very dangerous, he can pot any ball on the table. But I tried not to put myself under pressure.”
Tied 4-4 going into the concluding session, Xiao took the first frame today to edge ahead, and he looked set to win the next until he missed the final pink to a top corner, leading 50-49. But his opponent also failed to pot the pink and this time Xiao took advantage for 6-4. Wu hit back with breaks of 79 and 100 for 6-6, before Xiao took a scrappy 13th frame to regain the advantage.
Wu’s break of 77 made it 7-7, and he seemed to have the momentum as he added frame 15. But a missed pink to top corner when he led 48-1 in the 16th proved costly as Xiao cleared with 60. That proved the turning point as Xiao took a fragmented 17th frame to lead 9-8, then came from 25-1 down in the 18th to take control with a break of 63, which proved enough to reach his eighth ranking event quarter-final of the season.
Wu had needed to reach the final of this event to climb into the top 16 in the Race to the Crucible, but now his hopes are over. That means Jak Jones, last year’s runner-up at the Theatre of Dreams, hangs on to 16th spot.
On the other table, four-time Crucible king Mark Selby earned a 6-2 lead against Si Jiahui. They return at 7pm tonight with first to ten frames to meet Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals.
Si had chances in most of the frames but missed balls at key moments which allowed four-time Crucible king Selby to take control. Breaks of 61, 72, 63, 57 and 128 helped Selby establish a handy cushion.
This was a good session and I enjoyed watching Xiao and Wu doing battle. They were positive and both played well for most of the session. Wu started to struggle with the pressure towards the end. It’s normal, he’s very young, he’s not been in such situation often and, maybe, the strong media attention he was getting because of the possibility for him to be seeded at the Crucible added to the pressure. Being able to get those things out of your mind during matches is not easy, and it is also part of the learning curve. I don’t think anyone will take him lightly at the EIS.
Evening session
Selby And Ding Into Last Eight
Mark Selby was considering retirement this time last year, but has a spring back in his step this season and started his Sportsbet.io Tour Championship campaign with a 10-6 defeat of Si Jiahui, setting up a quarter-final with Neil Robertson.
Ding Junhui is also into the last eight, as he thrashed defending champion Mark Williams 10-3 to earn a tie with Kyren Wilson.
It was in Manchester a year ago that Selby lost to Gary Wilson in the opening round, describing his performance as “pathetic” and insisting “if I carry on playing like that, that will be it for me, for sure.” Last summer he gave serious consideration to his future, but elected to keep playing, and that has proved the right decision as this season he has already won the Unibet British Open, BetVictor Championship League and BetVictor Welsh Open.
And the four-time Crucible king will set his sights on more silverware this week after a comfortable win over China’s Si. He’ll face Robertson on Wednesday night at 7pm, with the concluding session on Thursday evening.
Si trailed 6-2 after the first session but took the first two frames tonight to narrow the gap to 6-4, before Selby responded with a tremendous 136, the new front-runner for the £10,000 high break prize. Frame 12 came down to a long safety exchange on the final black, and Si cracked first as he left the black too close to a centre pocket and Selby clipped it in for 8-4.
After the interval, Si showed his break-building quality with a 125, missing the pink when he could have eclipsed Selby’s target. The next two were shared then Si had a chance to close to 9-7, but missed the blue to a top corner when he led 58-30, and Selby punished him by clearing from the last red.
“I am practising more now and enjoying it more,” said Selby. “Last year I wasn’t putting the work in because I wasn’t enjoying the game. I feel quietly confident now. To win two ranking titles makes it a good season. There are still some poor performances in there so I need to be more consistent. Overall I was happy with the way I played today but I know I’ll need to improve against Neil, I’ll have to cut out the silly mistakes.”
Ding celebrated his 38th birthday in style with a superb display against Williams. From 3-3, the Chinese ace won seven frames in a row with breaks of 116, 78, 56, 56, 52, 78, 102 and 82 as he set up a quarter-final clash with World Champion Wilson on Thursday.
In November, Ding won the 15th ranking title of his career at the International Championship, and he is now through to the last eight of this event for the third consecutive year.
“I just played the table,” said Ding, who won his first ranking title at the China Open 20 years ago. “The first few frames yesterday I was so bad. I just tried to score more points in each frame. I felt 70% or 80% tonight. Mark had chances at the start of the match. But tonight he was missing balls and left me chances. Hopefully I can play the way I want to against Kyren.”
Williams was playing with contact lenses for the first time but admitted his is still struggling with his game and his eyesight. “The scoreline tells you all you need to know (about the contact lenses),” said the Welshman. “I will stick with them. But whoever qualifies for the World Championship will be praying they draw me in the first round. But Ding was very good, he outplayed me.”
Ding must have improved from the first session otherwise the score would not be that one-sided. Mark was struggling during the first session and it was obvious. Sometimes, when a player struggles badly, their opponent is affected as well and, maybe, that explains Ding’s poor performance during the first session. Obviously he was able to get that out of his mind in the second session, and to just “play the table” as he mentioned in his post-match interview.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 