Ding Junhui celebrates his win

World Snooker Championship: Ding Junhui made to fight by Anthony McGill; John Higgins builds lead

By Sporting Life

Snooker

Sun April 21, 2019 · 6y ago

A review of the action on day two of the Betfred World Championship as Ding Junhui and Neil Robertson progressed to the next round.

Ding finishes job after McGill fight

Ding Junhui reached the second round of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield with a 10-7 win over Anthony McGill.

Ding, the 2016 finalist, resumed 6-3 up against the 28-year-old qualifier and fired three breaks over 90, including a 134, as he moved within one frame of victory.

McGill rallied to win two in a row before Ding finally got over the line in style with his third century of the match, a 106.

Robertson wraps up routine victory

Neil Robertson completed a comfortable 10-1 defeat of qualifier Michael Georgiou.

Having turned in a flawless display on Saturday, Robertson resumed with the chance of completing a rare Crucible whitewash but Georgiou finally got on the board when beginning Sunday's session with a break of 90.

Robertson soon had the match wrapped up, though, a break of 64 enough to seal his 10-1 victory.

Wilson prevails in edgy finish

Gary Wilson claimed one of the biggest wins of his career when coming from 7-5 down to beat number fourteen seed Luca Brecel.

Breaks of 106, 85 and 55 helped Wilson win four frames on the bounce to put himself within touching distance of victory at 9-7 before the players were pulled off the table to allow the evening session to begin after Brecel had stopped the rot in frame 17.

When play resumed later in the evening, Brecel levelled the scores at 9-9 to force a deciding frame, a nervy one which would last some 79 minutes as Wilson scraped through to the second round.

Wilson said afterwards: "It was hard-fought, there was not a lot of quality and it was absolutely draining.

"I tried my best to get over the line. It wasn't snooker - I don't know what it was - but it was me getting to 10 and that was the main thing."

Maguire edges epic

Stephen Maguire overcame Tian Pengfei 10-9 having looked down and out when trailing the qualifier 8-5.

Breaks of 131, 105 and 75 got the Scot back into the match and in a final frame full of drama, Maguire held his nerve and enjoyed his run of the cue ball to book his place in the second round.

Higgins off to strong start

2017 and 2018 runner-up John Higgins made a strong start to his bid for a fifth world title when taking a 6-3 lead over Mark Davis at the end of the opening session of their first-round encounter.

Higgins arrived in Sheffield in the midst of a poor season but looked much more like his old self here, contributions of 100, 61, 75, 84 and two breaks of 63 in frame nine showing his game to be in good working order.

Davis will have it all do when they play to a finish on Monday afternoon.

Murphy masterclass on day two

2005 champion Shaun Murphy turned in a fabulous display to lead Crucible debutant Luo Honghao 9-0 after the first session of their round-one match.

Murphy stroked in four centuries on a hazy afternoon in Sheffield, beginning with a fabulous total clearance of 138 in frame one, as he dominated proceedings throughout in a performance to better anything he has produced all year.

Breaks of 102 and 101 in frames two and four saw Murphy race into a 4-0 lead at the mid-session and the one-way traffic continued upon the resumption as he added further contributions of 76, 62 and 123 to put himself on the verge of a whitewash.

The pair will play to a finish on Monday morning.