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Doherty took the first frame today but Wenbo was unfazed and soon rattled together four frames on the spin with breaks of 40, 76, 58 and
38. Doherty clawed one back only for Wenbo to extend his lead to 7-2 at the interval with breaks of 68, 51 and 95.
Tonight's session saw Wenbo stretch his lead to 8-2 before Doherty took two of the next three frames to stag a small comeback. Wenbo
however closed out the match with a 41 break in the final frame to progress and become the 2nd Chinese player into the last 16.
Doherty now falls outside the Top 16 having need to win the match to put himself back in and will now have to face Prestatyn next season
along with several other top players.
Although many might not have given Wenbo a chance against Doherty they certainly will not have given Liu Chuang one against O'Sullivan.
However such is the strength in depth of Chinese snooker at present that we can now see the likes of Chuang reach the crucible in his first year and give the most gifted player ever a run for his money. China is full
of young players many have not heard of and Chuang certainly stunned Ronnie today fighting back from 3-0 down to draw level at 3-3. Ronnie eventually finished off the session leading 5-4 but now needs to find his top
form to shake off this talented youngster who has already beat Lee Walker, Joe Delaney, David Gray and Dominic Dale to reach this point. With more and more Chinese players qualifying each year watch out for the likes
of Anda Zhang and Li Hang
in the coming seasons.
On Fire Maguire certainly lived up to his nickname today as he brushed off the challenge of Anthony Hamilton to take a 8-1 lead after
the first days play. McGuire had breaks of 118, 83, 82 and 76 in a commanding performance with Hamilton saving himself from a whitewash by winning the final frame of the day.
Ken Doherty 5-10 Liang Wenbo
75(66)-40(40), 0-105(40), 23-85(76), 14-67(58), 55(50)-66(38), 71-25, 22-73(68), 0-83(51), 13-112(95), 55-71, 59-14, 67-74,
73(69)-0, 15-61(41)
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-4 Liu Chuang
76(76)-32(32), 99(87)-0, 66-47(33), 0-107(92), 52(42)-60(42), 59-68(31), 69(57)-63(59), 24-63(55), 57-40
Stephen Maguire 8-1 Anthony Hamilton
85(42,43)-41(33), 122(118)-0, 70-53, 83(83)-0, 89(82)-0, 63-50, 79(39)-4, 76(76)-0, 0-74(48)
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