Williams battles through

Former world champion fights back to down Walden

Last updated: 7th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Williams battles through

Williams: Won from behind

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Mark Williams fought back from behind to defeat world number 21 Ricky Walden in the first round of the Shanghai Masters.

Williams, who is hoping for a double in the Far East after winning the China Open, reeled off four straight frames to secure a 5-3 win over the 2008 champion.

The Welshman compiled breaks of 72 and 82, to add to his 91 in frame three, as he came back from 2-0 and 3-1 down.

"It was tough today, Ricky has won a tournament here. I played well after the interval and I'm happy because it was a big match for me," he said.

Williams will face Graeme Dott in the last 16 after the Scottish player notched a crucial break of 70 in the deciding frame to defeat Ken Doherty 5-4.

The Asian contingent had a disappointing Tuesday, with Liang Wenbo and Marco Fu both crashing out of the tournament.

Bad start

Liang reached the final last year and was unable to mount a successful comeback after a disastrous start had seen him slip to a 4-0 deficit against Matthew Stevens, who would go on to win 5-3.

Fu was eliminated at the hands of in-form Mark Davis, who raced into a 3-1 lead before Fu rallied and a break of 101 in the seventh frame put him 4-3 ahead.

But Davis levelled with breaks of 59 and 41 and a 105 break sealed the decider for him.

Elsewhere, world number five Stephen Maguire had few problems against Judd Trump as he beat the youngster 5-3.

Mark Allen was a shock casualty, the Northern Irishman going out 5-2 at the hands of Englishman Stuart Bingham - whose total clearance of 142 in the first frame set an early mark for the tournament's high break prize.

Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal left only one further match to take place in the evening session, and Andrew Higginson scrapped his way to a sloppy 5-3 win over Ryan Day.

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