Lines Stuns Trump
Oliver Lines scored the best result of his career so far with a 6-2 victory over Judd Trump to reach the last 32 of the Betway UK Championship.
It has been a remarkable tournament so far for the Lines family as dad Peter knocked out Neil Robertson on his way to the third round and and now rising star Oliver, age 21, has taken a huge scalp himself. They have already earned £20,000 between them and that figure could rise dramatically if they can keep their runs going, with a semi-final meeting in prospect if they can each score three more wins.
Lines Jnr was voted Rookie of the Year after his debut season in 2014/15 and has perhaps not made as much progress as he had hoped since then, but tonight’s performance showed the true extent of the world number 61’s potential.
The Leeds cueman built a 3-0 lead with a top break of 62, then world number three Trump took the next two frames with runs of 72 and 60. Lines made an excellent 61 to go 4-2 up, then won frame seven on the colours before sealing victory in the next in three scoring visits.
“I had never really performed on TV before,” said Lines. “I have been practising very hard and I think my results will start coming in a roll. Me and dad will think about the semi-finals on the way home – it would be a dream if we could both get that far.”
Lines now meets Jimmy Robertson, who beat Mark Davis 6-2 in a Sussex derby.
Shaun Murphy fired breaks of 115 and 119 in a 6-3 win over Robin Hull while Marco Fu made a 125 in a 6-0 thrashing of Rory McLeod.