Wuxi Classic Day 3



Rod Lawler's execllent run continues after he beat Stephen
Maguire 5-4 in the evening session.

The upsets continued at the Wuxi Classic today with a further four seeded players being knocked out of the competition by their opponents who reached the event via the qualifiers. The first to go today was Shaun Murphy who was comprehensively defeated by the experienced Ken Doherty. Ken won the opening three with Shaun securing a lengthy fourth frame before the interval but Murphy, who had earlier tweeted that he was suffering the effects of jetlag, was unable to fully stop the rot as the Irishman claimed the next two frames. Also in the afternoon session, Andrew Higginson crashed out 5-3 against Robert Milkins. Widnes’ Higginson led 2-1 at one point but Milkins took the lead after the interval and saw the match out safely to secure a spot in the last 16 tomorrow.

Then in the evening session, Rod Lawler continued his excellent run of form to beat world number 5 Stephen Maguire, 5-4. Liverpudlian Lawler, who has had to win five matches to reach the first round, led 4-2 until the Scot put in a late revival to force a decider but Rod kept his cool to seal his progress to the second round. Then Stephen Lee was knocked out of the competition, after a 5-1 defeat against, Marcus Campbell.

There were no such problems for Mark Williams who whitewashed a disappointing Tom Ford, whilst there was an identical scoreline as Ricky Walden defeated 16-year-old wildcard player Zhu Yinghui by the same scoreline. There were also easy wins in the evening session for Judd Trump who performed a resolute 5-1 win over Dominic dale whilst Graeme Dott also defeated his opponents, Zhou Yuelong 5-1.