Doherty eases through as Bond stuns Lee
The Dubliner pocketed breaks of 49, 79, 116, 47 and 84 to progress, although Swail rallied with breaks of 87, 87 and 65 to make life difficult for Doherty, who now meets Scot Stephen Maguire tomorrow afternoon.
Nigel Bond stunned defending champion Stephen Lee. The 41-year-old Derbyshire potter cruised to a 5-2 second round victory to send Lee crashing.
After his comfortable victory Bond revealed he could not be happier with his game.
“I seem to be in a winning bubble at the moment,” said the Old Tupton-based cueman.
“Two or three years ago I got back into the top 32 – and I’ve never lost my desire. I still love the game and I just couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”
Bond started the better and won a scrappy opener, before Lee levelled by winning the second frame.
A match-high break of 68 from Bond saw the provisional world number 25 re-establish his one-frame cushion, before Lee, a quarter-finalist at this season’s SAGA Insurance Masters, squared matters for a second time.
However, from there in on it was one-way traffic as Bond won the next three frames for a deserved victory and a place in the last 16, where he now plays Ali Carter or Stuart Bingham.
“I felt as though I could have won all seven frames tonight,” added Bond, the 1996 British Open champion.
“I still put the hours of practice in and luckily I’ve got plenty of good players around me to practice with. It makes a big difference and there’s no pressure on me, so hopefully I can get a few more wins and pick up some more ranking points.”
English left-hander Ian McCulloch is also through, having battled back from 4-2 down to pip former world amateur champion Mark Allen.
Allen knocked in runs of 45, 64 and 57 as he looked to be heading for a second-round showdown with Masters champ Ronnie O’Sullivan.
But Preston’s McCulloch had breaks of 72, 47 and 74 to progress, although he was far from happy with his performance.
“I was dreadful out there. I feel sorry for Mark that he lost like that,” said McCulloch.
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