Donaldson bows out in battle with Stevens

Perth’s Scott Donaldson bowed out of the Welsh Open in Cardiff yesterday after losing a highquality second round match to home favourite Matthew Stevens.

Donaldson reached the semifinals in Cardiff last February, but the draw paired him with the former UK and Masters champion and two-time World Championship runner-up.

Stevens, 40, took the opening frame with a 57 break before the 23-year-old Scot kept him off the table as he levelled at 1-1.

The Welshman took the next two frames and led in frame five, but Donaldson avoided defeat with a match-high 89 break. He then looked set to take the game to a final-frame decider, only for Stevens to clinch his 4-2 victory on the black.

Judd Trump and Ding Junhui both crashed out with surprise second round defeats.

World No 3 Trump, last year’s runner-up, was beaten 4-1 by Noppon Saengkham of Thailand, who is ranked 58th in the world.

And it was the same score as Ding, China’s world No 4, was beaten by Liam Highfield.

Trump told worldsnooker. com, said: “I got what I deserved, I played terrible in both of my games here (in round one he beat Duane Jones 4-3).

“This is one of the tournaments I wanted to do well at, so it’s disappointing to lose. I tried until the end today but the confidence just wasn’t there.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan progressed to the last 32 in comfortable fashion as he saw off Graeme Dott 4-0.