World Championship Day 10 round part one

Following a good old fashioned day of drama at The Crucible theatre we now know the identity of the last eight players who will play out over the next 7 days to be crowned 2012 World Champion next Monday night but more about them later.Firstly we'll deal with todays action.

Those coming to this afternoon session knew that with Judd Trump leading Ali Carter 9-7 and the Matthew Stevens v Barry Hawkins level at 8-8 that they were potentially in for a treat and they were not to be disappointed.

The Trump v Carter match had swung both ways during the first two sessions with both players constructing some fine breaks.This continued into this afternoon where they shared the opening four frames ,the highlight of which was an attempted maximum from Trump which ended on 96 after he failed to judge a cannon correctly.This sent them to the interval at 11-9.That became 12-9 in the next and it seemed that Trump had maybe done enough to see things out,but you write off Carter at your pearl though and.in the next he was unlucky with his a maximum attempt of his own.With the break on 81 he was unlucky to see a red rebound blocking his way to the black,Never the less this made it 12-10.That became 12-11 and 12-12 after couple of drawn out frames that had a bit of everything in them. but seemed to suit the experienced Carter more.

Onto the decider and both players were clearly feeling the pressure as they each let early chances go begging.The first real chance to claim victory though went to Trump and he seemed well in only to miss the easiest of reds with the rest.Carter took his chance and  left Trump needing four snookers with one red remaining. Trump showed great fighting spirit to get three of these and if the white had rolled another half inch following the third foul from Carter he would have a free ball and a chance to win. It didn't though and Carter potted the red to seal a famous victory.

It's been a poor season for Carter where he at one stage contemplated retirement but this will surely give him a boost to keep going and he'll fancy his chances no matter who he plays.

Trump on the other hand will be left to wonder where it all went wrong. Earlier in the season he was on the crest of a wave lifting the UK Championship and seemed to carry this form onto the Masters up until his semi final meeting Neil Robertson.By common consensus Robertson did a number on him in that match and it has seemed for me that since then he has struggled to finish matches out losing to Mark Allen in China and Stephen Maguire in Germany from commanding positions.It will be interesting to see how this affects him into next season.

Meanwhile on the other table Stevens and Hawkins were putting on quality match of their own. Starting at 8 -8 Stevens won the opening two frames to make it 10-8 only for Hawkins to win the next two to level again 10-10 at the interval.When play resumed Stevens again opened up a two frame lead to make it 12-10 and although  Hawkins closed to within one again,The two tome Crucible finalist won the next to win 13-11.He now plays fellow Welshman and practice partner Ryan Day in the Quarter final..

Tonight as expected Ronnie O Sullivan completed the job to see off Mark Williams by a scoreline of 13-6.The real damage in this match was done by Ronnie in yesterdays amazing session and tonight he gave the impression of just going through the motions to finish the match off and set up a fascinating Quarter final with Neil Robertson.

The last of the second round matches to complete was the clash between Jamie Jones and Andrew Higginson,Following the second session Jones held a 10-6 lead but this was wiped out by Higginson before the interval as he won the first four frames to level at 10-10.It might have been expected at this stage that the pressure would begin to mount on the young Welshman but he showed great character to see out the match in style winning the next three which included a superb 135  break sealing the victory by 13-10 ..