Liu Song ousts Adrian Gunnell in Qualifying Round 2 of 2011 World Snooker Championship
Liu Song has beaten Adrian Gunnell by a frame score of 10-9 in the qualifying round 2 of the 2011 World Snooker Championship at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
The English professional, Adrian Gunnell, whose consistent performances took him to the world number 36 in the 2008-09 rankings, has crashed in the qualifiers round.
It was a fully stretched battle between the Chinese and the English professional but eventually Liu Song managed to come through.
The overall score line between the players was 81-31, 12-79, 5-71, 18-64, 76-14, 66-53, 42-58, 70-23, 62-7, 19-59, 59-66, 41-86, 55-67, 0-77, 70-20, 74-1, 93-1, 77-20, and 18-79.
Neither player was able to produce any century break but it was a good competition that turned into a nail-biting finish at the end.
In the opening frame, Song was the first one to be among the balls but he broke at 23 giving Gunnell a chance who responded with a classy break of 73 to have the first blood 1-0. However, the Chinese stormed into the next three frames before interval to
lead his opponent by 3-1. Gunnell was only able to pot 31 points in total in these three frames as a wonderful tactical play was shown by Song.
After coming back from the interval it was Gunnell who dominated the first two frames with some quick breaks, 44, 22 in the first and 25, 33 in the second, to level the things by 3-3. He lost the seventh before pocketing the eighth and ninth again.
In the evening session Liu Song, who was trailing Gunnell by 5-4, bounced back with all of his zeal, energy and strength and won five frames in a row to lead his opponent by 9-4. The dominant breaks were of 50, 52, 85, 16, and 52 respectively.
Liu Song was now looking only for one frame to reach the finish line before Gunnell, who was under huge pressure, also clawed back to take four frames in a row and forced the decider. The prominent breaks from the English player were of 31, 74, 59, and 33
respectively.
It was a scrappy last final frame as both players were under pressure. Song got a chance before but was forced to play safe after a break of 39. Bout of safety play was seen afterwards and it was the Chinese star that eventually came on top.
Liu Song has now made it to the qualifiers round 3 where he will face Mark Joyce. 16 players out of 93 will make it to the televise stages. Let’s see if Liu Song, who is looking confident, makes it.
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