Golf: Day breaks into second round

Mar 26 2008 Western Mail

RYAN DAY is through to the second round of the China Open after winning his all-Welsh battle against compatriot Matthew Stevens.

Day triumphed 5-3 in a high-quality encounter which saw the Bridgend potter sink breaks of 63, 123, 75 and 83, while former World Championship runner-up Stevens impressed with runs of 70, 66 and 66.

Day plays Dubliner Ken Doherty in the next round.

Stephen Hendry joined Scottish compatriot Graeme Dott as an early casualty at the Beijing Sports Gymnasium.

The seven-times world champion was hammered 5-1 by Englishman Barry Hawkins in their first-round clash

And with defeat the Scot can only salvage a mediocre season by his high standards in next month’s 888.com World Championship.

“I lost because Barry played better than me,” reflected an understandably disappointed Hendry. “I didn’t get many chances after the first frame and he was the better player.

“This doesn’t have any bearing on the World Championship, but it matters because I wanted to do well here. I’ll have to wait until next year.”

Hendry started well enough and won the opening frame thanks largely to an opening break of 41.

But from there on it was Hawkins who was in control, the Beckenham left-hander reeled off the next five frames for victory and a last-16 meeting with another Scottish player, Stephen Maguire.

A cool break of 102 made it 2-1 in Hawkins’ favour, before runs of 35, 64, 38 and 37 followed as Hendry mustered just 52 points in the final five frames.

“I’m delighted, it’s a great scoreline,” said Hawkins, who lost 6-5 on the final black to Stoke’s Jamie Cope in the China Open semi-finals last season.

“I should have been in the final last year, I threw that match away. Hopefully I can keep playing like I did today and take the trophy home this time.”

Dott’s miserable season continued as the defending champion was hammered 5-1 by Englishman Barry Pinches.

And with the defeat Dott has now failed to win his last 15 matches, the worst run of his professional career.

“I don’t know what’s the matter with me, I’m just playing terrible at the moment,” admitted Dott. “I’m still practising hard, but I can’t get my head around it at the moment. It’s difficult to take.”

With Hendry and Dott out there was also disappointment for crowd favourite Steve Davis.

The “Nugget” slipped to an agonising 5-2 defeat at the hands of fellow Londoner Mark King.

The opening two frames both lasted 44 minutes each, with each player winning one.

But despite a break of 42 from Davis, King edged 2-1 ahead and then pocketed a 72 run to lead 3-1 at the interval.

Davis responded with a 43 run to reduce his arrears and should have levelled for a second time, but broke down on a break of 47 and King edged within one frame of victory courtesy of a 62 run.

A run of 42 put Davis on control of the next frame, but King remained composed and compiled a 54 break to progress to the next phase. Next up is a meeting with either current world champion John Higgins or two-time Crucible semi-finalist Joe Swail tomorrow.

Chinese favourite Ding Junhui is through to the last 16, but not without a real fight against Cambridgeshire cueman Joe Perry.

Ding emerged a 5-3 winner thanks to breaks of 62, 68 and 42, but Perry had his chances and pressured with runs of 62 and 47.