Tough day for Robertson at world snooker

Trump holds his own against the defending champion.

SHEFFIELD:

Defending champion Neil Robertson had his back to the wall on the opening day of the snooker World Championship falling behind 5-4 after two sessions to Judd Trump.

The pair were due to return later at the Crucible to complete their first round clash. By the end of the first session, Robertson would have been relieved just to be one frame behind, having trailed 5-3 before finishing with a 100 break.

The Australian fired in two century breaks, 127 in the sixth frame and his closing 100, while Trump had one, 111 in the fifth.

It was a session which began with both players showing indications of nerves. Trump struggled with his long-potting but managed to stay on terms with Robertson at 2-2 by the mid-session interval. The match began to reach the heights which were expected of it when the players returned from their break, with the back-to-back centuries followed by Trump taking consecutive frames to build a two-frame lead.

Welshman Andrew Pagett, made his World Championship debut on Saturday and the 28-year-old gave a decent account of himself against England’s Jamie Cope. He led 4-2 but Cope came back at him to open up a 5-4 lead with the match set to resume today.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2011.