Grace’s aggressive approach pays dividends with victory

DAVID GRACE reckons putting the lessons learned from his German Masters qualifying defeat into practice lay behind his first round scalp against world No. 13 David Gilbert at the Northern Ireland Open.

The Leeds potter lost against Soheil Vahedi last week but bounced back in style in the second Home Nations event of the season to topple Gilbert, a 2019 World Championship semi- finalist, 4- 1.

World No. 67 Grace rued a lack of aggression against the Iranian and says a newfound attacking approach was what propelled him to victory in Milton Keynes.

“I’m absolutely delighted – I lost in the first round of the German last week and was a bit disappointed with that one,” the 35- year- old said.

“I really wanted to come here and put on a good performance going into the UK Championship, so I’m delighted to still be in.

“I didn’t feel like I played too bad but there were just a few things about the way I went about the match [ at the German Masters]. I didn’t attack it enough and I played a little bit slow.

“I knew I had to play to a good level today against a top 16 player so I tried to attack the balls from the start. You want to do well in every tournament – they’re all good tournaments and I’m trying to do well again.”

Grace, who required a final frame snooker to get over the line, constructed breaks of 71, 60 and 56 at the behind closed doors event to inflict an out of sorts Gilbert with his second consecutive defeat.

Fellow Leeds player Peter Lines was unable to replicate Grace’s giantkilling heroics, however, going down 4- 1 against world No. 13 Yan Bingtao in his first round match.

Lines, who was forced to withdraw from last month’s English Open after testing positive for coronavirus, made no breaks of note and watched Bingtao, 20, compile efforts of 80, 69 and 64 from the chair.

The world No. 89 said: “It was a little bit frustrating – obviously he’s a great player but when you play these players in the top 16 you need things to go your way.”

Elsewhere, Rotherham’s Ashley Carty shocked world No. 16 Jack Lisowski with a brilliant 4- 1 victory while Pickering’s Paul Davison surrendered a 3- 0 lead and went down 4- 3 against Andy Hicks.

Watch the Northern Ireland Open live on Eurosport, Eurosport app, and stream on discovery+