Ding crashes out in York
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, December 7, 2018
Martin O'Donnell scored the best win of his career as he beat two-time champion Ding Junhui 6-4 at the Betway UK Championship.
World number 59 O'Donnell had never won a match in this tournament in five previous attempts, but has got through four rounds this time in York to ensure his biggest career pay-day of £22,500. And he has earned the chance to take on defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals on Friday.
London's 32-year-old O'Donnell has enjoyed a significant improvement this season as he had never previously gone beyond the last 16 of a ranking event, but has now made three quarter-finals, having reached the same stage of the China Championship and International Championship. With the help of former world number 16 Ian McCulloch, his coach for the past three years, O'Donnell has found consistency in his performances and a knack of dealing with pressure on the big stage.
From 3-2 down against Ding, O'Donnell took three frames in a row with top breaks of 44, 49 and 90. China's Ding, who won this event in 2005 and 2009, pulled one back and had a scoring chance in frame ten but ran out of position on 21 and played safe. O'Donnell knocked in an excellent long red to initiate a match-winning run of 41.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)