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Neil Robertson progressed into the second round of the Welsh Open with a relatively comfortable 4-1 win over Jackson Page.
Robertson headed into this tournament needing to win it in order to qualify for the Players Championships, and while there may be a long way to go in that quest, he made the perfect start here.
Page broke a pack of reds nicely, but could not get a good enough position on the black to sway momentum in Robertson’s favour.
The Welshman was left having to negotiate one more red if the opening frame was to turn in his favour, but failed to take advantage. Robertson would subsequently go onto a clearance of 50 to draw first blood.
The Thunder doubled his advantage by slowly but surely getting the job done, potting and engineering some good opportunities to pot a couple of reds.
He would progress to a break of 68, and suddenly the Australian was halfway towards booking his place in the second round.
‘Normal service is resumed’ – Robertson delivers clearance of 103 in fourth frame against Page
Robertson was well on the way to wrapping up a third frame, before missing a routine black to the bottom corner.
After shaking his head in clear disbelief, Page returned to the table sensing an opening and a route back into this contest.
Page took that opportunity with ruthless efficiency on his way to a clearance of 57 to halve the deficit, leaving Robertson pondering a missed opportunity to move one frame away from victory.
The fourth frame began on a cagey note with an awkwardly spread pack of reds, and a lengthy safety battle ensued.
It looked like Robertson had found his flow again after brilliantly potting a long red of his own, but the positioning of the remaining reds proved to be troublesome.
But Robertson’s calm and measured approached was clearly paying dividends, as he made his way through the pack and sensationally cleared the table for a century break of 103.
Robertson looked like cruising to victory, but left a pink over the top pocket to give Page a glimmer of hope.
However, any hope was quickly extinguished after Page missed a simple-looking red to the bottom pocket, and the Thunder did not look back from that point onwards.
He ended with a speculative and ultimately failed shot to sink the pink, but ended with a clearance of 52 on a solid day’s work.
Williams sees off Astley
Two-time champion Mark Williams also moved through to the next round, although he was from his best in beating John Astley 4-2.
The Englishman did the front-running early on as he took the opening frame after taking advantage of a nicely spread table with a break of 57.
He then left an opening in frame two following a safety exchange, as Williams slowly picked off the balls one by one and somehow managed to land a red without realising on his way to a clearance of 72 to take the second frame.
But he soon found himself behind again after over-cutting a red to the middle, eventually conceding the frame when needing to erase a 45-point deficit with only 35 points left on the table.
The home favourite was not going anywhere quickly though, showing his class as , despite missing two pinks, he made delivered an excellent break to take make it 2-2, a trick he repeated in the fifth frame when going ahead for the first time, coming from behind to compile a delightful visit the included a pink along the top cushion.
Williams went in-off in the sixth, before missing a red along the side cushion, handing Astley two chances to put himself in a strong position to respond.
However, he could not deliver on either occasion and that allowed the three-time World Champion with a chance to seal the match, which he looked set to do until breaking down on 46 when missing a green off its spot.
That provided his opponent with an unexpected lifeline, but he failed to convert a fairly straightforward blue, allowing Williams to come back to the table and book his spot in the last 64.
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