Gilbert gets monkey off his back
David Gilbert sighed a huge sigh of relief as he reached the last 16 of the Welsh Open in Newport.
“I have reached the last 32 a million times before and always find a way of blowing it”, said Tamworth’s Gilbert.
“I had the game in the bag at 4-3 and on a fifty. I have lost matches in the past playing risky shots, so decided to play safe on the black. Somehow I managed to knock the green in and leave Joe a free-ball and before I knew it was a decider”.
“I have lost so many matches like that in the past so it is a relief to finally get through one”.
Gilbert was one of World Snooker’s Young Players of Distinction programme in 2001. He has so far failed to emulate the success of fellow YPD’s, Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy and Ricky Walden in winning world ranking titles, but has the ability to do so.
“There is no point going over the top and starting to talk about winning tournaments. I am just glad to get over ‘last 32-it is’ and with that monkey off my back, let’s see what happens”.
“I played the best I have ever played against Mark (Williams) last night and just wanted to get a result today, I would have stayed there until midnight if I had to”.
“It is no secret in the game that I haven’t had the best attitude and maybe that has held me back.”
“But I have realised that I was taking it too seriously and being hard on myself, the game used to be fun so I am trying to get back to that”.
Gilbert will now play Mark Selby in the last 16, after the defending champion beat Cardiff’s Paul Davies.
