Posts tagged Andrew Higginson

Champion Carter through to second round

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742 days
by in Uncategorized

The current holder of the Welsh Open title, Ali Carter, comfortably beat Mark Davis in the first round of this year’s tournament with a convincing 5-1 victory.

It was an ominous start from the 30-year-old, who hit a 120 break in his first frame to put Davis firmly on the back foot.

Carter’s opponent did equaliser in the second frame, but this would be as good as it got for the 37-year-old, as the champion broke into his stride and began to exert his dominance.

And although Carter never truly hit top gear during the remainder of the match, it was still a reasonably impressive performance from the man nicknamed “The Captain”, as he sealed further breaks of 57 and 64.

Whether or not he will be able to replicate the form of 2009 during this week remains to be seen, but he now faces a major test in the form of Australian Neil Robertson in the second round of the competition.

World No. 9, Robertson, sealed a 5-2 win against China’s Liu Song. Although it might look like a routine victory on paper for the Australian, Song managed to hold the 27-year-old to two frames a piece before the interval.

Song admitted he was nervous at first, but soon settled into the match. However, Robertson proved too strong for the 26-year-old, who will now concentrate on qualifying for the China Open next month.

Meanwhile, there was a shock result involving Peter Ebdon, as he was hammered by Barry Hawkings. The 2002 world champion, Ebdon, was whitewashed by the world number 17 in a result which no-one in their right mind would have predicted before the tournament started.

There’s now a strong possibility that Ebdon will lose his place in snooker’s top 16 after this defeat – if he does, it will be the first time in 16 years that he has slipped out of the elite bracket.

And finally, the third Englishman to advance to the second round was Andrew Higginson, after he beat Marco Fu by five frames to two.

The result leaves Ding Junhui as the sole Chinese competitor left in the competition; while Higginson will now face either Mark Williams or Fergal O’Brien in the last 16.

The first round action will resume this afternoon, with the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Stephen Hendry all vying for a place in the next round of the Welsh Open.

Rob Swan

Preview: 2010 Welsh Open

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747 days
by in Uncategorized

Hot off the heels of last weekend’s epic Masters final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby comes the first rankings tournament of the year. The Welsh Open is regarded by some players as one of the best in the snooker calendar despite a winning prize which pales in comparison to that of the World Championships.

Hosted in Newport, south-east Wales, the 2010 Welsh Open gets underway on Monday and will finish the following Sunday. The winner of the rankings tournament will receive a cheque for £35,000 – still a decent sum of money, but well behind the £250,000 given to the winner of the World Championships.

Before 1992, the event was a prestigious amateur one and designed for Welsh players only; but its popularity ensured interest from the rankings circuit in the early 1990s, and since then the tournament has flourished into one of the most exciting of the season.

The event’s home is the Newport Centre; however, it has been played away from the 2,000 capacity venue in the past. The Welsh Open was known as the Regal Welsh Open until 2003 but then lost its main sponsor. Between 1999 and 2003, the event was played at the Cardiff International Arena, before a year at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff in 2004.

But the Welsh Open was brought back to its spiritual home in 2005, where it has remained ever since.

Ali Carter is the reigning champion after beating Joe Swail 9-5 at the Newport Centre last February. It was the 30-year-old’s first rankings title and he secured it in thrilling fashion after coming back from 5-2 down to win 9-5. And 12 months earlier, the current Masters champion, Selby, recorded his first world-ranking title with a brilliant comeback against the Rocket in the tournament’s final – now, where have we heard that one before?

Meanwhile, Stephen Hendry is the only player to have three Welsh Open titles to his name. The Scot sealed his third title in 2003, having won the inaugural event eleven years earlier and his second in 1997.

The likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davis, Mark Williams and the late Paul Hunter trail just behind on two titles – a clear indicator of how highly the top players regard the rankings event.

Unlike the Masters, the Welsh Open starts with 32 competitors in the first round – all of whom have qualified for the tournament via the Welsh Open qualifiers, which have been played all this week, apart from the reigning champion Carter, who qualified by default.

Most of the sport’s big guns have now qualified and are poised to find out who they’ll be facing in the last 32. Hendry, O’Sullivan, Selby, Higgins etc are all present and correct and will be among the favourites to seal the first rankings title of the decade.

But as seen in previous years, this event does have a tendency of producing one or two surprises.

Back in 2007, unranked Andrew Higginson made it all the way to the final of the tournament, scoring a quite brilliant maximum break along the way, and only just lost out to Neil Robertson in the final by a single frame.

“The week has been beyond my wildest dreams,” Higginson said after his 9-8 defeat.

Just two years later it would be Swail’s turn to revel in the limelight cast upon him by the Newport rankings tournament. Aged 39 at the time and without a rankings win to his name, he was presented with his best opportunity at last year’s Welsh Open, but eventually allowed Carter back into the match and was punished for it.

Despite the final results, these two examples offer hope to the lower-ranked players qualifying for this year’s Welsh Open that they can reach the latter stages of the event.

So soon after the high-quality Masters it’s hard to look past the top-ranked players. O’Sullivan will be out to avenge his defeat in Sunday’s final, Selby will be looking to continue his impressive recent form, while Carter will be desperate to retain his title; but there’s something special about the Newport Centre and snooker which allows those less-fancied to shine.

Once again, the action starts next Monday, and will certainly be one not to miss.

Rob Swan

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