WC2002 Last 16 - End of Day Update

Tragedy and comedy - that about sums up the day here at Cardiff. In contrast to the tragic news of the death of Francisco Bustamante's six-month old daughter last night, the melancholy mood of the day was lifted a little when Earl Strickland and Jeremy Jones took to the stage to entertain us.

At times, neither player looked like a professional as they both showed us their worst games of the tournament - it was so bad it's a shame there had to be a winner! Both players failed to make the easiest of shots, the most shocking being Double J's mile-wide fluffing of a short near-straight 7 into the corner bag. Jones' facial expression was one of resigned helplessness - if you're having one of those days then you're having one of those days. Fortunately for JJ, Strickland was having just as bad a time of it, although Earl had to have something to blame - today it was his shoes, and Johnny Archer was despatched back to the Pearl's hotel room to fetch another pair.

The new shoes did the trick though, and Earl quickly raced ahead to an 8-5 advantage, before Jones missed another easy pot on the 2 and knuckle-fluked it down the rail into another pocket, which kept Strickland in his seat until 8-6, when Jones got left nothing after the break. Both player's games had improved by this point, but it was still anyone's. At 9-8 down, Jones scratched on the break and that was the end - Strickland faces 1998 winner Kunihiko Takahashi in the quarter-finals.

Django Bustamante is through to the final eight after staging a magnificent comeback from 10-6 down against fellow Filipino Antonio 'Nicoy' Lining on table 2. He commented afterwards that he had never concentrated so hard to win a match. The other Fillipino superstar, Efren Reyes, is also through after beating Oliver Ortmann 10-3. The big German may have jinxed the match himself by forgetting to bring his cue along! Reyes quickly showed who was the boss, racing to a 5-0 lead - Ortmann got a few racks, but never looked a contender compared to the Magician. A couple of poor screw shots put him in snookers and Efren's magic did the rest. The final quarter-finalist is the man who outplayed Steve Davis last night, Ching-Shun Yang of the Chinese Taipei. He goes through after defeating Japanese newcomer Hiroshi Takenaka.

You can find the last 16 knockout table here.