Maflin Books Chinese Cracker
Kurt Maflin won his fourth match in as many days with an impressive performance in China Open Qualifying, beating Mark King by five-frames-to-one at the English Institute for Sport in Sheffield.
The Norwegian is the prized tie with China’s number one, Ding Junhui in his own ‘back yard’ and in front of a potential TV audience in excess of 100 million.
It was King who made the better start, firing a break f 134 in the opening frame before Maflin levelled with a 55 in the second.
Maflin, who despite recording a 147 maximum break in the Players Tour Championship has failed to impress this season then unleashed his full potential on his higher ranked opponent.
King, ranked 72 places above Maflin in the latest rankings, was outscored by 385-33 in the next four frames. The 2006 IBSF world champion recording breaks of 117, 103 and 52 to seal the biggest win of his professional career and keep alive his hopes of staying on tour next season.
Elsewhere Welsh duo Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day continued their recent of results by both winning 5-1 against Anthony Hamilton and Tom Ford respectively.
Former world number three, Stephen Lee won a tight math in the deciding frame against Londoner, Alfie Burden.
And Stuart Bingham kept alive his hopes ofbreaking into the coveted top-16 for the first time at the end of the season with a comfortable 5-2 win against UK Championship quarter-finalist, Mark Joyce.
