Welsh wagon rolls on

Another day in Newport and yet more domination from the Welsh lads.

Stephen Hendry may be the man hitting all the newspapers in the morning for his 10th career 147, but make no bones about it, today belonged to Welsh snooker.

Sensational Mark Williams was on top of his game again as he registered his second 4-0 win in succession. This time it was poor Jamie Cope on the end of this battering.

Williams is playing so well he doesn't even look like losing a frame, let alone a match.




It's difficult to be too critical of Cope, because after all, it looks like no-one can get near Williams right now. But you can't help but feel the young potter has reached a point of his career when he needs to start beating the big boys in ranking events.

The game of the day was also brought to you by the Welsh. Matthew Stevens against Ryan Day had all the hallmarks of a classic, and so it proved.

Stevens ran out an eventual 4-3 winner, but he nearly threw it away. After establishing a 3-1 lead, he let Day back to level terms. Then in the decider, it looked like a break of 66 wasn't going to be enough to clinch the match as he missed a tricky frame ball. After some nice shots, Day had the balls at his mercy but played a poor positional shot from yellow to green to blow his chance.

Stevens moves into the quarter-finals, and just one more win could see him regain his place among the sport's top 16.

This wasn't the only match which went the full distance. Ding Junhui needed all seven frames to see off Mark Allen. You always felt this was going to be a tight match, but the Norther Ireland man suffers more frustration, as his first ranking event title continues to elude him.

Rejuvinated Ali Carter is crawling back to form. He saw off Peter Ebdon 4-1.

Two Scots also advanced to the last eight. Graeme Dott waved goodbye to world champion Neil Robertson's chances of lifting the trophy with a 4-1 victory, while Stephen Maguire beat maximum-maker Hendry 4-2.

Quarter-final draw: (to be played tomorrow)

John Higgins v Matthew Stevens
Ali Carter v Ding Junhui
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby v Graeme Dott