Ingham and Thulborn among 3rd round casualties
As dawn broke over the third day of the 2014 Australian Open, expectations of the men’s singles third round delivered in spades with entertaining matches played across the rinks.
The ‘master versus apprentice’ matchup between Queensland young gun Sean Ingham and his National Training Centre coach Brett Wilkie has seen experience triumph over youth as Wilkie ran away with a 21-8 win.
The former world number two and current Australian representative showed his class as he eased into the fourth round in a little over an hour – but it took until the tenth end for Wilkie to truly stamp his authority on the match.
From 9-8, Wilkie won the last seven ends to secure his place in the fourth round as he looks to win the title for the second time, following his 2009 triumph.
He will now take on Sam White, who battled for nearly three hours to secure a 21-19 win over Wayne Long.
Across the rinks, Wilkie’s fellow past champion Leif Selby faced a tougher encounter against Des Cann Jnr, coming out victorious 21-16.
After going down 9-20, Cann Jnr worked his way back into the match to get to within four shots of Selby, who is looking to win an unprecedented third men’s singles title at the event following successes in 2008 and 2011, but Cann Jnr unable to continue his charge with Selby securing the final shot required for victory on the twenty-sixth end.
Other big names to secure their places in the fourth round include NSW’s Matthew Baus, Victoria’s Barrie Lester, Queensland’s Nathan Rice and South Australian gun Wayne Ruediger.
Lester’s two hour 21-10 win over Peter Ellul keeps his dream of an Australian Open title alive as the Bowls Australia Community Development Officer looks to move past the fourth round of the men’s singles for the first time.
A five-time finalist across the disciplines, Lester got his nose in front on the sixth end and was unbeatable from here, winning in 21 ends.
He will now take on Australian Jackaroo and Club Helensvale star Nathan Rice in what is set up to be an most intriguing match-up of this afternoon’s fourth round.
Rice, the men’s singles runner up in 2012, needed an hour and a half to beat Trevor Aitchison, but eventually took the match 21-15.
It took Raymond Terrace’s Matthew Baus only 71 minutes to secure his fourth round berth in a 21-7 domination of 17-year-old Queenslander Joel Andersen.
Andersen, a previous state junior champion in pairs and fours, fought hard but was unable to gain ground on Baus, who was named in Australia’s Development squad set to take on New Zealand in next month’s Trans-Tasman series in Traralgon.
Baus will now take on 2013 Australian Open pairs champion Russell Green Jnr who defeated last chance qualifier and coach of APL side Brisbane Gold Alex Murtagh 21-12.
In the final match featuring an Australian representative, Wayne Ruediger defeated Albert Kruimel 21-16.
The two giant killers in the draw, Victorian Nathan Wilson, who yesterday defeated Scottish world champion Graeme Archer, and 20-year-old Jerome Coles who knocked out Jeremy Henry in the first round, will face off this afternoon after they both secured third round wins.
Wilson continued his run, shocking Adelaide Bowling Club’s Scott Thulborn 21-14.
Wilson, from Bendigo, held the lead for most of the match, as he advanced to the fourth round.
His opponent in the fourth round, Coles needed two hours to beat Chad Twentyman, but completed his 21-17 win to lock in a berth in the next round, and a chance to move into the quarter-final.
Other winners from this morning’s session were Mark Ryan, Dylan Riley, David Ferguson, Malaysia’s Fairul Izwan Abdul Muin, Ray Pearse and Dave Rankin (who defeated Aron Sherriff in the second round).
Fourth round men’s singles action commences at 1:30pm today.
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