World Championship Day 5

Barry Hawkins eased past world number 1 Mark Selby to
book his place in the last 16 (Picture Sky Sports)

The shocks in the first round of the World Championship continue as current World Number 1 Mark Selby was comprehensively beaten by Barry Hawkins. In fairness to Selby, he is struggling with a neck injury which is clearly hindering his game and already faced a three frame deficit following the first session. Dartford’s Hawkins had no trouble of finishing off the job he’d started on Tuesday by winning the four frames he required to defeat The Jester from Leicester 10-3.

And there was another upset earlier on in the day as one of the favourites Ding Junhui was defeated by Ryan Day. The Welshman has not had a good time of late after falling out of the top 16 and all the way down to 35^th in the rankings. However a good showing from him saw him trail only 5-4 after Tuesday session but things looked bleak for him as he was 6-9 behind. However a monumental comeback, coupled with some sloppy play from the recently inconsistent Ding, saw him force a decider and despite the Chinese, who currently resides in Sheffield, being in the balls, he broke down and Day was able to snatch the frame and an unlikely victory.

The number of seeds knocked out of the championship totalled eight after Graeme Dott was easily beaten by Joe Perry. Perry already held a mighty 8-1 lead after the opening session so it was no surprise to see him take the two frames he needed to record a big victory over the Scot. Meanwhile a much healthier Judd Trump saw off Dominic Dale to book his place in the last 16 after a 10-7 victory. Trump had been suffering from food poisoning on Tuesday but still managed to come out of the session leading 5-4 but The Spaceman took the lead back by winning the first two frames but Trump battled back to make it 6 apiece. Dale won the next but Trump settled into his stride to win four on the bounce to complete the victory.

A semi-finalist last year, Mark Williams kicked off his World Championship against Liu Chang. The pair were tightly locked in the opening stages going in all square at the interval and were 3-3 after 6 frames but Williams got the bit between his teeth and won the final three frames of the session to lead 6-3. Ali Carter v Mark Davis was the last round 1 match to get started and despite not playing much competitive snooker recently, The Captain raced to an impressive 8-1 lead. Carter has been struggling in the last few months with his Chron’s disease but played excellently in the opening session to put himself in a commanding position in the match.