Defending champion Peter Ebdon was dumped out of the British Open in emphatic fashion in Newcastle today. Ebdon was trounced 5-0 by Mark King in their quarter-final tie, managing to score just 59 points in the entire match.
"I came here expecting to win the tournament again, so it's something of a shock how I played," said a dejected Ebdon. "Every time I missed a ball I seemed to stick something up for Mark. But even at 4-0 down I thought I could still get back into it. Now it's back to the drawing board for the LG Cup in Preston. I'll work even harder for that one and hopefully this kind of result won't happen again."
King will now play either John Higgins or Stephen Lee for a place in Sunday's final. The Essex left-hander was understandably excited by his demolition of Ebdon. "Peter is one of the hardest fighters in the game so to come out with a 5-0 victory is unbelievable," he said.
In another quarter-final today, Scotland's Graeme Dott ended the giant-killing run of Ali Carter with a 5-2 victory. Dott will now face either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Alan McManus.
Filed by Tom Grealis
