Aussie Takes Commanding Lead
As England went one-nil up in the Ashes down under, Neil Robertson took control of his match with England’s Andrew Higginson at the 12Bet.com UK Championship in Telford.
The world champion opened with 299 for 0 as Higginson failed to break his duck until the fourth frame.
Breaks of 136, 78 and 70 gave the world number one a commanding lead which was extended in the next with a further run of 113.
After the interval, the onslaught continued as breaks of 82, 66, and 62 made a whitewash a distinct possibility.
In the final frame of the session, Robertson got in first but uncharacteristically failed to pot a colour and it was the Englishman who had the last laugh with a superb century of his own to reduce the overnight deficit to six.
It will take an almighty effort to stop Robertson in his tracks as he continues his bid to claim all three BBC ranking titles having already won the World Championship and World Open earlier in the year.
Elsewhere, Scotland’s Stephen Maguire looked more like his old self as he took a 5-3 lead against Masters champion, Mark Selby. Going into the match the bookmakers made the four-time ranking event winner second favourite against the ‘Jester from Leicester’, but he showed his class making back-to-back to breaks of 134 and 122.
The past couple of years have seen Maguire have been more about holding steady in the rankings rather than moving up, as the investigation into his match with Jamie Burnett in 2008 dragged on.
He seems more comfortable this week though, and as a former champion here, could pose a serious threat come Sunday.
Ryan Day managed to get the result he has been searching for all season, but not quite in the style he would have preferred. He needed to pot green to black to snatch a tense 9-8 win against Romford’s Mark King.
Having overnight, the Welshman slipped 8-7 down in the second session. A timely break of 80 forced the deciding frame shoot-out which became a typical final frame affair with both players making mistake in a battle that lasted over half an hour.
It was Day who fell over the line and will now face Shaun Murphy for a place in his first quarter-final for over a year.
