Peter Ebdon hails Ding Junhui as he goes against him in semi-finals of 2012 China Open
After playing for three hours and 41 minutes at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium arena, England’s Peter Ebdon was able to grab the quarter-final victory against the former World Snooker Champion from Australia, Neil Robertson by the score line of
5-3. The former World Snooker Championship winner now plays China’s Ding Junhui in the semi-finals.
Ebdon’s quarter-final clash against the Australian was a long lasting match that almost bored the spectators who were there to watch the action. The pair went neck-and-neck until the end of the first session of the match and finished the session at 2-2 level.
The early two sets of the Session 2 were also tussling and the duo moved 3-3 level at the end of the sixth frame.
The Englishman made a positive comeback into the game and took two straight frames to clinch the quarter-final victory and set up semi-final clash against Junhui. Robertson was a bit disappointed after his loss in the game but at the same hand he reckoned
that the match was quite tough. Meanwhile, Ebdon was not happy with his own performance because he was expecting better from himself.
Speaking to World Snooker in his post match interview, Ebdon said, “It got a bit bogged down and there was a lot of safety, and in parts we played some very good safety. I'm delighted to win but disappointed with the way I played.”
He added about his game against Junhui, “We both know each other very well. Ding is a good friend of mine. In a nutshell, he is one of the very best players I've ever seen. I always enjoy playing him because you know you have to play exceptionally well.
I can imagine most of the crowd will be wanting him to win, but I will be trying very hard anyway.”
The 41-year-old has played Junhui five times before but did not win any of these matches. The odds here are favouring the Chinese but by the looks of Ebdon’s current performance in the tournament, he might have a good chance to win the game because the tournament
has already witnessed a couple of major upsets.
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