Jimmy Robertson edges Xiao Guodong out of Qualifiers Round 2 of 2011 World Snooker Championship
The world number 63, Jimmy Robertson, has beaten the Chinese star, Xiao Guodong, in the qualifying round 2 of 2011 world snooker championship at English Institute of Sport Sheffield, England.
The Robbo, Jimmy Robertson, couldn’t quite reach the level of Xiao’s first match against Kurt Maflin. However, it was also a high quality match with prominent breaks of 106, 74, 74, 108, 68, and 92. The level of game that was being presented, the decider
was already written all over it from an early stage.
The overall score line between the players was 24-106, 81-0, 74-0, 36-74, 2-77, 37-68, 66-39, 82-27, 36-60, 91-19, 0-108, 68-0, 66-68, 93-0, 44-88, 56-40, 4-91, 65-8, and 60-1.
The star of the first round, Xiao Guodong, was off with a flying start in the opening frame as he produced a mind boggling century break of 106 in it. Robertson, on the same note, showed no reeling effects and responded with a couple of quick fires, 44 and
37, in the second followed by another classy break of 74 in the third.
Robertson was again on the run in the fourth but he broke at a break of 36 bringing his opponent on the table and Xiao, who couldn’t score anything in the previous two, compiled a decisive break of 74 to level the things by 2-2 before the interval.
After the interval, the frames played were relatively slow and old fashioned. First two frames were dominated by Xiao with the breaks of 33 and 53 before Robertson clawed back to win the next two and scores were again levelled by 4-4. Ninth frame was also
scrappy like seventh and eighth but Xiao was able to pocket it eventually after a bout of safety to end the first session with a 5-4 lead.
Starting the evening session with a 5-4 deficit, Robertson took the first one with a superb break of 80 but his confidence was shuttered badly when Xiao completely dominated the eleventh with another century break of 108.
With the scores 6-5, the players traded the next five frames with back to back breaks of 68, 58, 92, 26, 45, and 51 until Robertson surpassed Xiao in the seventeenth and forced a decider. Xiao tried pulling the frame but a decisive break of 46 from Robertson
was enough finish the matters off by 10-9.
Jimmy Robertson is now only two rounds away to reach the most prestigious stage of snooker with Tony Drago and Ken Doherty standing in his way.
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