It was not all good news for the Irish at the Crucible yesterday after Dubliner Fergal O'Brien was knocked out in the opening round of the Embassy World Championship by England's Mark King. Although King is ranked at just 22 in the world, he proved a formidable opponent for the ninth seed and deserved his hard-fought 10-8 victory, which included a break of 137. It was the highest break of the tournament at that stage, but was later usurped by John Higgins in his first-round tie with fellow Scot Graeme Dott, when he made a 139.
O'Brien began well, taking the opening two frames, which included a break of 51. However, King sent out a warning when he won the next frame with a break of 68 and then secured the following three frames to set up a 4-2 lead. O'Brien managed to reduce the gap to one before King won three consecutive frames with further breaks of 56 and 79 to lead 7-3.
O'Brien clawed his way back into the match by taking the next three frames to leave it at 7-6 in King's favour. However, King's break of 137 followed in teh next frame to set him up for victory. However, when O'Brien then took the following two frames to level matters at 8-8, it looked as if he might just pull it out of the bag. But the world number 22, who had impressed throughout, ended O'Brien's chances with victory in the final two frames.
Afterwards, King explained how he was disappointed to lose his place at the top of the race for the £20,000 top break prize but was thrilled to have beaten O'Brien to earn his place in the last 16. "I knew John (Higgins) was on a good one and I was willing him to miss. But it actually spurred me on to win my match and I was really pleased to win the last two frames after Fergal had pulled back to 8-8," he said.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
