PTC Grand Finals Day 4

Marco Fu will face Tom Ford in the Quarter Finals after beating
Ali Carter 4-1. Image: Monique Limbos

Marco Fu booked his place in the Quarter-Finals of the PTC Grand Finals after defeating Ali Carter on Friday evening. Carter did win the opener thanks to a break of 51 but there was no stopping the man from Hong Kong who won the next three on the bounce, including breaks of 63 and 55.

The other evening session match which ran into the early hours saw Xiao Guodong defeat Alfie Burden 4-2. The Chinese won the first two and kept Burden at arm’s length for the rest of the match despite the Londoner knocking in breaks of 88 and 52 to trail 2-1 and 3-2. But a 56 in frame six sealed Xiao’s progression to the next round.

He’ll face Neil Robertson who put in an impressive performance to beat Barry Hawkins 4-1. Hawkins won the opener and had a good chance to take the next but ran aground on 51 allowing Robbo to fight back and draw level. The Australian never looked back and won the third and then two closely-fought fourth and fifth frames to secure the victory.

The first match of the day saw Ding Junhui squeeze through to the Quarters with a 4-3 win over Anthony McGill. Ding started off in style, knocking in 101 and 133 breaks in the opening two frames although his Scottish opponent did take the third. A break of 54 helped Ding to a 3-1 lead but McGill took the next two to force an equaliser. But Ding’s impressive break building was on display again as he hit a 130 break to win the decider.

Ben Woollaston also needed a final frame decider to come through his match against Joe Perry. The match was a closely fought affair with the two players never separated by more than a frame with Perry hitting high breaks of 86 and 91, the latter fording a decider. Breaks of 43 and 49 in the seventh gave the Leicester man the victory.

He’ll face Norway’s Kurt Maflin in the last eight as he recorded a 4-3 win over Rod Lawler. This was another close affair with Maflin coming good in the closing stages, with a break of 85 in frame six before taking the decider.