Ebdon escapes on final black

Peter Ebdon pulled off a dramatic escape today to clinch his place in the third round of the Welsh Open in Newport.

The 2002 world champion recovered from 4-2 down to edge Joe Perry 5-4 on the final black following a superb colours clearance in the decider.

Perry, beaten 9-8 from 8-6 up by David Gray in the UK Championship semi-finals two months ago, compiled breaks of 92 and 132 but Ebdon contributed runs of 108 and 93 to leave the contest poised at 2-2.

At 4-2, Perry was on the brink of victory but he failed to close out the match and Ebdon claimed the seventh frame with his second century of the match, 123, before clinching the eighth to force a decider.

Perry had two clear chances to take it but eventually left a chance on the yellow after a snooker and Ebdon coolly cleared the colours to secure a last-gasp victory.

“You’d be hard pressed to play better snooker than we did before the interval,” Ebdon said.

“I’m delighted to have won a match of such high quality. I’d imagine Joe will be devastated to lose having played so well himself.

“It just shows you how high the standard is these days. I got a bit of luck at the end but you get that sometimes.”

Ebdon practises with two of the game’s rising stars, 17-year-old Chinese Ding Jun Hui and the newly crowned world amateur champion Mark Allen, and has been impressed with their progress.

“I think the future of the sport is in good hands with players of their quality around,” he said.

“It’s part of the challenge for me to get my own game in gear so that I can live with them.”

Gray, beaten 10-1 by Stephen Maguire in the UK final, beat Liverpool’s Rod Lawler 5-1 to reach the last 16.

The Londoner cleared the colours to win the fifth frame on the black and rounded off the contest with a run of 103.

Ali Carter, the world number 19 from Tiptree, secured a second round-meeting with twice world champion Mark Williams by defeating Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell 5-2.

Leading 3-1, Carter lost the fifth frame after being called for three successive misses but compiled breaks of 56 and 42 to wrap up victory.

Mark King, a UK Championship semi-finalist in November, beat veteran Steve James 5-3 to book his second round place.