Robertson v Robertson at The Crucible?
Jimmy Robertson produced a stunning comeback to win the last seven frames and deny 1997 champion, Ken Doherty a return to the Crucible next month with a ten-frames-to-six win in the final qualifying round of the 2011 Betfred.com world championship at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
The victory means that Robertson’s name will be in the hat for the draw where he will face of the game’s top-16 ranked players and possibly defending champion and namesake, Neil.
Robertson survived a final frame shoot-out to win his opening match against China’s Xiao Guodong before seeing off Tony Drago by ten-frames-to-eight in another hard fought battle.
Against Doherty, the first session saw both players scoring freely.
The Irishman made five breaks over fifty including back-to-back breaks of 109 and 102 in frames five and six. Robertson might have trailed by more than three but manage to keep himself in touch with breaks of 53,91 and 78.
In the evening, Doherty would normally be delighted at being associated with the number 147. However in this case, that was the total number of points that Englishman restricted him to in seven frames.
Robertson made three further runs in excess of fifty but his all-round game was enough to secure his Crucible debut alongside stable-mate, Andrew Pagett.
Both players are managed by Gloucester-based On Q Promotios who will also have Barry Hawkins, Dominic Dale in Sheffield.
Hawkins, is becoming a regular at the Sheffield venue beat Anthony Hamilton 10-5 while Dominic Dale, who once played at the Crucible in a white suit, repeated Robertson's performance by winning the last seven against Michael Holt to win 10-6.
Elsewhere, Stoke's Dave Harold, boosted by the news that his team were in the FA Cup semi-finals, beat Gerard Greene in a nailbiting deciding frame.
Wales will have five players in hte draw with Mark Williams seeded and Pagett and dale being joined by Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens.
Day will be delighted to have beaten China's Liu Chuang by ten-frames-to-seven, and continue to move in the right direction on the lates ranking list.
Stevens' passage was less comfortable against Ireland's tough cookie, Fergal O`Brien. The match went down to a 19th frame with the Irishman looking good, with a 42 break ealry on. Stevens though, managed to cement his chances of regaining a top-16 spot for next season by responsing with a 52 before winning the match on the final black.
Stuart Bingham and Stephen Lee were comfortable winners by ten-frames-to-two against Alan McManus and Steve Davis respectively.
Martin Gould pushed Neil Robertson the hardest last year, leading the eventual champion 11-5 before losing 13-12, and will be looking forward to his third trip to the Crucible in as many years afer beating Robert Milkins by ten-frames-to five.
Mark King was the first man through with a 10-5 win against Mike Dunn and he will be joined in the draw by Scotland's Jamie Burnett who ended a season horibilis for Liang Wenbo who started in the top-16 and is unlikely to finish in the top-32.
There were also wins for Judd Trump (10-4) against David Gilbert, Rory McLeod (10-5) against Mark davis and Marcus Campbell (10-6) over Matthew Selt.
The tournament breaks off in Sheffield on April 16 and runs until May 2, with full coverage here...
