World Champions Fall at PTC
Former world champions Mark Williams, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis all lost in the opening round of the first Players Tour Championship at Sheffield’s World Snooker Academy.
The trio who have won 15 world titles between them struggled to find their form early on and despite Williams and Hendry recovering to force final frame deciders in their respective matches, all three came out on the losing side.
World number one Williams lost the opening three frames against Q School graduate Li Yan.
Yan, another product of the Chinese snooker revolution took advantage of numerous Williams errors to open up a three-nil lead against the Welshman.
The two-time world champion made breaks of 70 and 66 to reduce the deficit to just one before adding frame six on the colours and look like he might avoid an early season slip.
He had the three scoring chances early in the decider but could only manage 20 points and when Yan made 56, his highest breaks of the match, Williams required a snooker, which he failed to get allowing Yan to record a famous win on his professional debut.
Hendry faced English youngster Kyren Wilson, who despite falling off the tour last season, successfully negotiated Q School to have another crack at the big time.
The 20-year-old from Northampton got off to a flier with breaks of 70 and 73 to take a tw0-nil lead against the seven time world champion.
Hendry looked good in the next two frames and levelled the match with runs of 109 and 65.
Wilson went one-up with two to play in frame five before Hendry rallied with a break of 56.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity of beating the most successful player in the modern era, Wilson took his chance when it was presented making a 56 of his own to put the match beyond his illustrious opponent.
Six time champion, Davis faced one of his old adversaries in Thailand’s James Wattana.
The former world number three raced into a three-nil lead with breaks of 66 and 52 before ‘The Nugget’ rolled back the years with an impressive 85 to give himself hope.
The recovery was short-lived though as Wattana made an 81 of his own in the next to seal the win and book himself a match with Williams’ conqueror Yan.
