Neil Robertson beats Barry Hawkins in the last 32: China Open 2011
Current world champion, Neil Robertson beat Barry Hawkins by a frame score of 5-1 in the last 32 round of the Bank of Beijing China Open 2011 at Beijing Students University Gymnasium in China on Tuesday.
Despite producing the tournament highest break of 128, Hawkins could not register himself in more than one frame. The overall score-line between the players was 69-53, 94-5, 70-16, 124-0, 14-128 and 72-19.
The first chance of the opening frame fell to Hawkins but he only managed a break of 32 and was punished by Robertson, who took a 1-0 lead with a couple of quick fire breaks of 37 and 26.
The second frame turned out to be a scrappy affair. A bout of safety play was seen from the players however, in the end it was Hawkins again who lost his nerve. This time when the chance presented itself, Robertson slotted a magnificent break of 79 to extend
his lead to 2-0.
In the third frame Hawkins had a good chance, as he was the first one to be among the balls but still could not capitalise on the opportunity, breaking down on 16. On the other hand, Robertson produced another classy break of 66 to go ahead by 3-0.
The fourth and fifth frame were over in the blink of an eye, as the players produced back-to-back century breaks of 124 and 128 in both frames respectively.
The first century of the match came from the Neil Robertson in the fourth, which left Hawkins four frames down with five to play.
The match was almost through there, as Robertson only needed one frame to seal the victory. However, Hawkins bounced back in the fifth, and fired up a mind boggling tournament highest break of 128 to trail by 4-1.
It looked as if Hawkins believed he could still pull off an unlikely win by staging a great comeback, but he lost control of his emotions in the next, breaking down on 6. Both players had a few chances afterwards until Robertson finally finished the matter
off with a couple of quick breaks of 28 and 40.
The other winner in the last 32 was seven-time world champion, Stephen Hendry, who had already cruised into the next round earlier in the evening after whitewashing Matthew Stevens by a frame score of 5-0.
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