STAN MOODY thrashed Barry Hawkins in a “freak performance” at the Wuhan Open to break new ground in his career.
Having snapped the Ding Junhui curse this week in China, the 18-year-old has now marched into a maiden quarter-final of a ranking snooker tournament.
GettyStan Moody is making a name for himself as the ‘Luke Littler of snooker’[/caption]
GettyMoody thrashed Barry Hawkins 5-0 to reach the quarter-final of the Wuhan Open[/caption]
A 5-0 hammering of world No.8 Barry Hawkins – Moody scored 466 points to his opponent’s 39, 431 of which were without reply – represents the “best win” of his life.
The former world junior champion, labelled the Luke Littler of the baize, plays No.1 seed and defending champion Xiao Guodong over the best of nine frames next up.
Moody, ranked 61st in the world, said: “It’s the best win of my career I’d say. I played very, very well. I was just in the zone.
“I don’t know what happened to be honest. I just potted everything. Hopefully it’s the same in the next game.
“I thought I’d have a run like this last season but it just didn’t happen. I wasn’t experienced enough.
“But this season I’m more relaxed, I’m enjoying playing, competing, under pressure now. So yeah, it just happened.
“Today was a bit of a freak performance. On another day I wouldn’t get the fluke in one of the frames and I wouldn’t play as well.
“I didn’t give him a chance and that’s how it goes sometimes.
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“I put myself under a bit of pressure to try and go one further because I think I’ve let it get to me before.
“When you’re out there, you’re desperate to win no matter what match it is, to get to a final, semi or whatever. If I play like that I’ll be hard to stop.
“I went into the players’ lounge and there were not a lot of players there – I’m not used to that. Playing Xiao will be a good occasion.”
Mark Williams won the battle of the multiple world champions as he beat Mark Selby 5-3 – the pair share seven Crucible crowns between them.
Judd Trump, the world No.1, was shocked 5-4 by Gary Wilson in the Last 16 after the North East cueist came from 4-3 down to win.
GettyThe teenager faces Xiao Guodong in the next round[/caption] Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]