Ding goes through to the quarter finals in an amazing fashion beating Stuart Bingham in the decider. Ding was 9-12 down at one point in the match but somehow he managed to climb his way up to 12-12, thoroughly assisted by a nervy Englishman clearly unhappy with his finishing-off performance. It has to be said that Stuart did not have the run of the balls in the last frames, snookering himself at at least one occasion, but in summary Stuart can only knock his own head against the wall – knowing he should have won the match. Surely he must be dissapointed, you don’t get much better chances than that for going into the quarter finals in the world championship. But one man grief is another man’s gain. I’m excited Ding won it. I knew he was capable of turning it around, remembering that magnificent comeback against Kurt Maflin in China Open this march, winning 5-4 when 4-0 down. Basically Ding winning made me 18$ richer as I betted 8$ in the second last frame when Ding was leading 64-0 or something. Not too bad odds with 1.90 on Ding at that point, seems the live odds bookies still had faith in Bingham wrapping up the match.
Anyway, moving on. Ronnie O’Sullivan knocked out Shaun Murphy this evening with a semi-solid performance. He missed some sitters but then again made 2 centuries (I think it was 2) on the path of beating Shaun Murphy 13-10. It’s a thrill to see Ronnie back and marking his position in the snooker world again. He will be facing John Higgins in the quarter finals which surely will be much more exciting than the match he (John) played to get there. Funny enough the bottom part of the draws looks like the road to the final on its own with John, Ronnie and Mark Williams in it. So who will win the draw of death, let’s enjoy our snooker and find out.