Jamie Cope beats Ricky Walden in first round of 2012 Australian Goldfields Open
Leading potters of the professional snooker line-up battled against the challengers who came through the qualifying session at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. The first round clashes of the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open snooker tournament are underway
at the Bendigo Stadium arena in Victoria, Australia featuring some tremendous snooker competitions at the baize.
In the recent first round encounters, England’s Jamie Cope produced some outstanding snooker display at the venue and was able to beat the winner of the 2012 Wuxi Classic snooker event, England’s Ricky Walden by the score line of 5-4 after facing a strong
resistance from the Chinese event winner. The Englishman had to dig deep to beat the in-form Walden, who performed brilliantly in the recently finished Wuxi Classic.
The first session of the match was a difficult session as both players went neck-and-neck trying to unsettle each other with their snooker genius. Cope claimed the first frame with a superb break of 95 to put pressure on Walden. However, Walden did not take
any pressure at all and replied back in the next frame. The fourth frame finished in Walden’s favour again to take the scores at 2-2.
The real competition began in the second session where Walden grabbed one-frame lead after pocketing a tremendous clearance of 52. Walden took the next frame to move within two-frame lead at 2-4 which was a problematic situation for Cope. However, he bounced
back brilliantly in the next three frames and fired some tremendous shots of 103, 93 and 73 to push his compatriot down by 5-4.
Cope has set up Stephen Lee in a second round clash. The winner of the 2011-12 Players Tour Championship (PTC) Grand Finals winner, Lee, was up against compatriot Rory McLeod. This clash was also one of the most tussling encounters of the first round matches
as it also finished in the decisive frame where Lee prevailed over McLeod to grab the victory by the score line of 5-4.
The Lee-Cope clash will definitely be one of the interesting matches because both players seem in good form and can produce fireworks at the Bendigo Stadium arena in Victoria.
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