Shock exit for Fu while Carter flies high
Martin Gould produced the first shock of the snooker world championship to beat Marco Fu 10-9.
Qualifier Gould was trailing 5-4 going into today’s second session and Fu had opened up an 8-6 lead as he looked to have the better of his opponent.
However, Gould, a former croupier at a casino in north London, found the strength to take the next three frames and go within one of producing a shock, and led for the first time in the match.
Fu used all of his experience to take the match to a deciding frame, but Gould held his nerve and made a superb break of 90 to stage the first shock of the championships.
Gould said: “I want to move up the rankings now. The win was in my top three, and it’s my biggest pay day so far.”
Gould will now take on either Neil Robertson or Fergal O’Brien in the last 16.
Ali Carter into second round
Ali Carter progressed to the last 16 with a fairly comfortable victory over Jamie Cope, 10-4.
On paper this was potentially the tie of the first round. However, Cope failed to live up to his explosive reputation. Carter dominated, and only allowed his opponent to claim two frames.
Carter lead 7-2 after the first session’s play, and was 7-1 up at one stage of the match, with Cope looking out-of-sorts and his game not turning up at all.
Carter virtually had the match in the bag, and when it became 8-4, he took the last two to progress.
The Captain recorded breaks of 55, 57, 75 and 83, and continued his fine form from his semi-final appearance at the recent China Open, and has desires on a top four place in the official world rankings.
Carter said: “It was job done for me. It was one of the toughest draws of the first round. I didn’t play that great, but I nicked a lot of good frames, which helped me get the advantage.”
Carter will now play Joe Perry in the last 16.
Mark Williams also through
Mark Williams booked his place in the last 16 with a 10-5 win over Marcu Campbell.
Williams had a 5-4 lead going into the evening session, and ulitmately had too much for Campbell.
Williams did not play to his best, but it was enough to see off the challenge.
The China Open champion will now play either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Liang Wenbo in the next round.
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