Robertson cruises through

Mon, 28 Mar 15:24:00 2011

World champion Neil Robertson cruised through his opening match of the China Open, beating Barry Hawkins 5-1 in Beijing.

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The Aussie edged a tight opening frame on the pink, but then took charge of the encounter with breaks of 79, 66 and 124 to build a 4-0 lead.

Hawkins hit back with an outstanding 128, but in a tight sixth frame it was the reigning world champion who came through to make the last 16 of the tournament.

In one of the afternoon's wildcard matches Li Hang produced excellent snooker to beat former world champion Ken Doherty 5-1.

Hang took a scrappy opening frame then opened up a 4-0 lead with breaks of 68, 78 and 63.

The Irishman dug in to pull a frame back after Hang slipped up, but then Doherty faltered in the next to let the Chinese player wrap up the match.

In the morning matches, Stephen Hendry whitewashed Matthew Stevens in their last-32 clash.

The Scot opened the match with a century and added further breaks of 93, 75 and 65 on his way to a 5-0 win over the Welshman.

Stevens scored just nine points in the entire match as Hendry wrapped up victory in little more than an hour.

Joe Perry, Nigel Bond, Kurt Maflin and Marcus Campbell all came through their wildcard round matches on Monday morning to make it into the last 32 as all three Chinese players failed to reach the main draw.

Perry beat Li Yan 5-2, Bond beat Jin Long 5-3, Maflin beat Cao Yupeng 5-3 and Campbell beat Mei Xi Wen 5-3.

Eurosport

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  1. go hendry

    From Michelle, on Wed 30 Mar 20:26

  2. Not the best snooker I've seen and Robertson will­ need to raise his game a good 50% to compete with the­ best, but, a win is a win, all a player can do is beat­ whoever is in front of him. Robertson played good in­ parts, but the unforced errors were numerous, luckily­ for Robertson he wasn't punished by Hawkins, who­ played very average.

    From edward, on Tue 29 Mar 19:13

  3. *Stevens scored just nine points in the entire match*­ Would this be close to a record in best of 9 match???

    From You shouldve worked that out!, on Tue 29 Mar 7:02

  4. Well done to Neil but he's not the same player as­ last year. Unfortunately, the pressure of world­ champion status has got to him a bit. I strongly fancy­ Selby for the world's this year. I think he has had­ close calss and guys like Ronnie and Higgins are­ possibly going to struggle to contain a younger guy­ with that desire that they will not have to the same­ extent.

    From Dizzy -, on Tue 29 Mar 2:00

  5. is stevans dead?

    From Donney Mcclain, on Mon 28 Mar 19:53
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