Ricky Walden
Mumbai, March 13, 2015: While India’s Aditya Mehta bowed out
in the second round, Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh kept the Asian challenge
alive by advancing to the quarter-finals of the 300,000 pounds Indian Open
Snooker World Ranking Tournament, organized by the Billiards and Snooker
Federation of India (BSFI), and being played at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Kalina.
The 29-year-old Mumbai cueist, Mehta, ranked 50th in
the world was no match for England ’s
Ricky Walden going down rather tamely by a 4-2 margin in a second round match
late Thursday night.
The 29-year-old Thai Un-Nooh, ranked 61 in the world, played
without any pressure but with loads of confidence, as he came back after losing
the losing the first frame to sideline 45th ranked Welshman Jamie Jones
4-1, finishing with a neatly compiled break of 123 and for the first time
reaching the first quarter-final of a ranking event.
The 32-year-old Englishman, Walden ranked 8 in the world,
showed awesome touch and quickly got down to business by comfortably taking the
opening three frames before the Indian delayed his march to victory by winning
the next two to narrow the lead. Walden, who had earlier compiled breaks of 63
and 42 in the first two frames, produced another decent effort of 43 in the
sixth to complete a 70(63)-0, 78-27, 77-13, 18-73, 0-76, 81-1 victory.
The Mumbai pro was not too disappointed with the outcome and
quite modestly admitted that he was beaten by a better player. “He (Walden)
started better than me and played well in the first few frames. He potted some
great balls, great balls and scored and I missed and he punished me every
time,” said Mehta.
The Indian pointed out that his performance did not have any
bearing on his loss. “There was nothing wrong with my game. I am number 50 in
the world and he is ranked 8 so you could see that at the end of the day,”
Mehta further stated.
“I have to think about what I could have done
differently. Obviously he’s one of the top players in the world I could not
afford to let him off to a good start, “ lamented Mehta who will now shift his
focus to the World Championship, starting in about two weeks in Sheffield , England
Thepchaiya is now the only player from Asia
remaining in the tournament after the two remaining Chinese players, Li Hang
and Tian Pengfei lost their last 16 round matches, to Michael White and Walden
respectively.
The young 23-year-old White, world ranked 22, enjoyed a good
run of the balls piling up runs of 94, 109, 62 and 77 in dispatching off 64thranked
Chinese Hang, who is a year older by a 4-2 margin, while Walden, who had killed
the Indians interests in the tournament when he put an abrupt end Mehta’s run
blanked Pengfei 4-0.
Mark Davis of England, world raanked 18, extended his
winning streak against former four-time world champion and 12th ranked
John Higgins, coasting to a 4-0 win for a a sixth consecutive victory over the
39-year-old Scotsman.
Results - Round II: Ricky Walden (England ) bt
Aditya Mehta 4-2 (70(63)-0, 78(42)-27, 77-13, 18-73, 0-76(46), 81(43)-1).
Round III: Mark Williams (Wales ) bt Judd Trump ( England ) 4-3
(92(68)-23, 20-112(104), 108(108)-4, 4-73(55), 1-67(67), 59-25, 70(63)-21).
Chris Wakelin (England )
bt Nigel Bond (England )
4-1 (70(50)-52, 73-48, 96(96)-0, 24-69(69), 68(41)-56(55).
Robert Milkins (England )
bt Graeme Dott (Scotland )
4-2 (24-81(69), 67(60)-6, 63-24, 73(68)-6, 5-76(47), 79-7).
Michael White (Wales )
bt Li Hang (China )
4-2 (94(94)-0, 8-102(50), 118(109)-8, 36-89(41), 89(62)-23, 77(77)-0).
Mark Davis (England )
bt John Higgins (Scotland )
4-0 (77(72)-4, 87(87)-1, 62-32, 66(66)-1).
Ricky Walden (England )
bt Tian Pengfei (China )
4-0 (64(46)-17, 65(45)-12, 53-40, 75(75)-20).
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand )
bt Jamie Jones (Wales )
4-1 (17-63, 73(55)-10, 69-58, 79(51)-1, 123(123)-4).
Joe Perry (England )
bt Kyren Wilson (England )
4-3 (81(66)-40, 16-63, 42-71, 63(55)-61, 78(38,40)-0, 25-55. 79(55)-0).
Press release
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