Comeback king Swail four frames down against O'Sullivan
Thursday, 3 May 2001 22:47Joe Swail will have to bring out another famous comeback if he is to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan who leads 6-2 in the World Championship semi-final match. In a fast flowing match, the first six frames of the best of 33 frame match took only 75 minutes to complete. Northerner Swail got off to a great start with a dashing 107 break, but O'Sullivan quickly replied in the next frame. Swail then edged into the lead before O'Sullivan tied the match going into the mid-session interval.
After leading 2-1, Swail only totalled eleven points in the following three frames. The world number 16 has failed to impress so-far, particularly with his safety play, and O'Sullivan reeled off the last five frames of the session on the trot to establish early dominance. Although Swail is carrying a sizeable overnight deficit, he has proved to be a fighter by coming back in all three of his other matches in this year's tournament. The match resumes at 10am tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, John Higgins has opened up a 5-3 advantage over Matthew Stevens in the opening session of the other semi-final. However, Stevens showed that Higgins could expect to be pushed to the limit when he clawed back from a 56-0 deficit to win the final frame with a superb 70 clearance. This game will recommence tomorrow afternoon at 2.30pm.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
