The Nugget Heading East
Steve Davis continued where he left off at the end of last season by rolling back the years to book his place on the plane to Shanghai.
After his run to the last eight of the Betfred.com world championship in Sheffield in April, it was no surprise that he comfortably saw off the challenge of Liverpool’s Rod Lawler to claim a place in the last 32 of next month’s Shanghai Masters.
It was Lawler who made the early running with a break of 48 in the first frame. The six times world champion dug in though and made a telling 44 clearance to steal a 1-0 lead.
The Nugget doubled his lead in the next and when Lawler let slip a lead in the third after making a break of 51, Davis finished off in style with breaks of 75 and 63 to complete the whitewash.
Matthew Stevens also scored a win for experience over youth as he beat Chinese teenager, Anda Zhang by five-frames-to-two.
The highlight of the match was a break of 101 from the former Masters and UK champion in frame six before sealing the win in the next.
2007 world champion, Ken Doherty won an all-Irish battle against Fergal O’Brien.
There was never more than one frame between Dublin’s finest with lead changing hands four times in the match.
O’Brien made a break of 92 to level at the mid-session and won the first on returning to lead 3-2.
Doherty made breaks of 78 and 71 to move within one frame of victory before O’Brien levelled with a superbly timed 86.
The decider, as expected, was a long drawn out affair with Doherty potting blue and pink to secure the important 42 minute decider and put his name in the draw in China.
Elsewhere, 2008 Shanghai Masters champion, Ricky Walden booked a return to the Far East, winning his first match in a ranking event since last November.
Walden won four frames in a row to beat Anthony Hamilton by five-frames-to-two, making breaks of 75,74,58 and 54 in the process.
Elsewhere, Martin Gould and Dave Harold won final frame deciders against Barry Hawkins and Ian McCulloch and Judd Trump made easy work of beating Tom Ford.
Welsh youngsters, Jamie Jones and Michael White had won six matches between them but failed to book their place losing out to Stephen Lee and Peter Ebdon.
Ebdon making breaks of 91 and 86 to secure the win despite a less than perfect preparation, after getting married last weekend.
The final stages will be played in Shanghai next month when the likes of world champion, Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan open their 2010/11 account.
