Outside of John Virgo's television show Big Break, it's not often you see professionals chip the cue ball over the black and straight into the corner pocket. Yet Joe Swail demonstrated his occasional fallibility yesterday in the sixth frame of his opening semi-final match against Wales' Matthew Stevens by doing just that. But the Belfast player didn't allow this aberration to ruffle his composure, and the session finished with him strongly in contention at 4-4.
In the scrappiest frame of the session, Swail also appeared to damage his cue tip as the white ball went airborne before disappearing. The crowd found the incident quite hilarious.
A request for sandpaper to do a running repair job was granted, and in the next frame a not-at-all red-faced 30-year-old emerged from his seat to knock in a 102 break.
It was a reply that required no small degree of bottle, and Swail moved on to build from a 51 break to close out Stevens in the final game and draw level.
Midway through the session, it looked ominous as Stevens took a 3-1 lead, including a 114 break in the second frame and a tournament-high 143 in the fourth, his fifth century of the competition. Swail could afford a wry smile as Stevens not only looked dangerously relaxed potting the balls and getting so close to the maximum, but also because he swiped Swail's share of the £20,000 on offer for the highest tournament break.
Swail jointly held the highest score with John Higgins on 141. Higgins had reached the mark twice, and Swail managed it in his first round match against Paul Hunter.
Swail, having beaten Dominic Dale in the quarter-finals, and although astonished to have gotten so far, is quietly determined not to let the run end.
"I'm trying not to let it end here because a chance like this only happens once in a lifetime," he said. "It's all right for the top four players - they're going to get lots of chances - but guys like myself down the rankings, this is a one-off. I'm playing my best match snooker for ages." Stevens, who rose from 29th to ninth in the world rankings last season, is the latest player to emerge from Wales. Proving he has a bigmatch temperament, the 22-year-old has already savoured the limelight in February of this year when he beat Alan McManus, Jimmy White and John Parrott before overcoming Ken Doherty 10-8 to pocket Stg£165,000 in the Masters at Wembley.
He also reached the quarterfinals of the World Championship on his debut in 1998, before Doherty put him out, and he was beaten at the same stage last year by Stephen Hendry, who went on to become champion. Not surprising then that William Hill has Stevens at 13 to 8 and Swail 16 to 1 to win the tournament.
The players go into two sessions today in the longer, 33-frame format before finishing tomorrow.
Yesterday evening, in the second semi-final between Mark Williams of Wales and John Higgins of Scotland, exploiting the opportunities which came their way was the name of the game.
The pair, arguably the best players in the world, came out of the first round on equal terms at 4-4.
Higgins, who won the title in 1998, went into the session with the reputation as the biggest break builder in the competition, with 10 centuries to his name.
It was Williams, though, who picked up the only one in the opening eight frames, and that 105 came in his last visit to the table.
The 25-year-old, who was devastating in his expulsion of Ireland's Fergal O'Brien in the last round, had breaks of 87, 78 and 69, while Higgins relied on modest enough totals of 66, 62, 52, and 48.
Next season's world number one Williams drew first blood in the battle of the big guns, benefiting from a slice of misfortune which struck Higgins in the opening frame.
The Scot potted the blue and cannoned into the pack of reds, scattering them all over the top end of the table. But one dropped into a pocket to leave Williams in and he took advantage with a break of 87.
