Pinches Claims Victory Over Defending Champion
The Honghe Industrial China Open continued yesterday displaying another round of spectacular matches. The 2007 Champion, Graeme Dott failed to retain his title as Barry Pinches knocked the former champ out of the tournament.
Pinches closed his first match against one of China’s Wild Cards with a successful score of 5-1 and yesterday he replicated the win over defending champ Dott. The Potter from Norwich was pleasantly satisfied with his form as he spoke of the game,
‘I played pretty well, Graeme didn’t play well to be fair but I played some pretty solid stuff. You have to take one match at a time; any player can win any tournament if they have a good week and a bit of luck.’
Unfortunately for Graeme, his hopes of ending his bad run were dashed. The previous China Open winner hasn’t officially won a match since The Roewe Shanghai Masters last August and was disheartened by the result.
‘I was very bad,’ added Dott ‘I wasn’t tired, I just played rubbish. You are disappointed when you lose any game…I need to play better.’
Ken Doherty was another successor in the second day of the tournament. Ken claimed a 5-2 win over Cleveland’s Mike Dunn. Doherty was 2-1 down to begin but progressed throughout the match with runs of 64 and 63 to dominate the final four frames.
The win is a confidence boost for Doherty as he lost his first match at the 888.com world Championships last season. Ken believes that the first round game is crucial.
‘When you lose a couple of first round matches your confidence gets a little low.’ Doherty continued… ‘You come a long way and nobody wants to lose in the first round.’
China’s wonder boy Ding Junhui was impressive in front of his home crowd and performed brilliantly as he was responsible for the win over Joe Perry. Ding was the Champion of this event three years ago and was under the spotlight as he participated in front of the home crowd as well as the Major of Beijing observing his every shot. The match was drawing 3-3 at one point, yet Ding still played in his usual calm manner and potted his way to victory. Ding said of the match,
‘I thought I played well tonight. I was satisfied with both my defence and attack. I have not lost in the first round this season but I am still not sure how far I can go in the tournament.’
It wasn’t a good day for Stephen Hendry either. The former World Champion suffered a 5-1 loss to Barry Hawkins. It looked like Hendry was back on form as he won his opening frame but Hawkins challenged him with runs of 102 and 64 to turn the match to his advantage. Hendry was far from satisfied by his performance,
‘This doesn’t have any bearing on the World championship, but it matters because I wanted to do well here.’
The Honghe Industrial 2008 China Open will continue till March 30th.
Here are the other results so far.
Stephen Maguire 5-3 Fergal O’Brien
Nigel Bond 5-3 Stephen Lee
Ryan Day 5-3 Matthew Stevens
Mark King 5-2 Steve Davis
Shaun Murphy 5-3 Dave Harold
John Higgins 5-4 Joe Swail
Peter Ebdon 5-1 Jamie Cope
Mark Williams 5-1 Marcus Campbell