Yesterday saw the opening week of the 2010 Premier League Snooker, where the seven best players of the world compete for the title. This year Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Marco Fu, Neil Robertson, Mark Williams and Mark Selby are the competitors. If you are unfamiliar with the process; each player plays the rest of his opponents once they get two points for a win, one for a draw. The top four after all games are played go through to finals night where they will compete in a semi-final and the two winners of the semi-final will compete for the title. On a financial note all players earn £1000 for each frame they win and another £1000 for every century break they get.
The league opened its doors in Southampton this year and up first was reigning Premier League Champion Shaun Murphy up against reigning UK Open Champion Ding Junhui. Each game consists of six frames and the first opened up with Murphy potting a red with his first shot. Ding was given a chance with Murphy in the 4os but he only managed 51 before missing a easy red. This left Murphy to clear the rest and take the first frame 71-51. The second frame went like the first with Ding missing an easy chance and Murphy doubled his lead winning 69-38. Ding secured the first century score and whitewash of the tournament winning 128-0 to pull himself back into the game. However Murphy secured at least a point in the next frame with the first century break and his own whitewash over Ding 124-0. Murphy secured the win in the fifth frame when a wounded Ding again missed chances allowing Murphy to win 86-31. It would be the Magician who won the final frame 111-9 to finalise a second century break and a devastating 5-1 victory over Ding.
The other match of the night saw last year's runner-up Ronnie O'Sullivan take on Hong Kong's Marco Fu. In stark contrast to the previous match it took 16 minutes for the frame to get going, it was a very cagey start with Fu supplying the first foul and miss of the night. But those four points were all O'Sullivan was going to get as Fu took the first frame 70-4 after O'Sullivan conceded. The Rocket fought back in the second frame and took out a 137-0 victory to level the score at one apiece in another tactical affair. The third frame could have gone either way with both players missing chances but it was Fu who came out winner with 71-34 to restore his lead. Again O'Sullivan fought back in style with another century break, this time winning 141-0 with a break of 119 to level to scores again. Fu guaranteed himself at least a draw in the fifth with a 87-0 victory leaving O'Sullivan needing to win the final frame to secure a hard earned draw. He managed to pull it off with yet another century winning 103-36 making the final score 3-3.
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