Wenbo Woes Continue at PTC Finals
Liang Wenbo will be relieved to finally see the back of the 2010/11 season, after losing by four-frames-to-one in the first round of the Party Casino PTC Finals at The Helix in Dublin.
The Chinese player began the season in the top-16 on the world ranking list but thanks to a run of disastrous results and changes to the ranking system, he will start the new campaign outside the top-32.
Walden himself was looking to reverse a losing streak after poor performances at the Welsh Open, Championship League and a minor event in China last week.
So, with both players lacking in confidence, the match got off to a predictably unspectacular start, with Walden taking a scrappy opening frame.
Wenbo responded with a break of 89 to level before the Flintshire man took a two frame lead with runs of 60 and 52.
Both players made thirty-odd breaks early in frame five, but it was Walden who held on to take the match on the colours and set up a clash with number one seed, Shaun Murphy.
Elsewhere, Matthew Stevens recent fortunes couldn’t be further apart. He is still in all three ranking events and looks likely to start 2011/12 season back in the top-16.
The Welshman beat Northern Ireland’s Gerard Greene by four-frames-to-two and will now face his old adversary, Dominic Dale for a place in the last eight.
Michael Holt got the event to a great start after losing the opening frame against Marco Fu, the Nottingham ace made breaks of 66, 110 and 52 to move within one frame of victory which he got in the next and now takes on Barry Pinches in the last 16.
Neither Anthony Hamilton nor Mark Davis will take much consolation after failing in their bids to reach The Crucible last week, but both came out on top of their ties with Tom Ford and Joe Jogia respectively.
Hamilton started like a train with a 133 in the first frame, won a tight second and followed with a further run of 92 in frame three.
Ford rallied by taking frames four and five on the ast few colours. But, any hopes of completing the comeback were dashed in the next as Hamilton clinched the win helped by a 54 break.
Meanwhile Davis managed just a single break over 50, but didn’t drop a frame against Leicester’s Jogia.
