Bexhill star reaches last 16 in Bulgaria

The in-form Bexhill cueman reached the last 16 of European Tour event four, the Bulgaria Open, in Sofia at the weekend.

Robertson began the event with a hat-trick of victories last Friday, starting with a 4-1 win over world number 108 Allan Taylor in round one. He clinched the first three frames with a top break of 56 before finishing the match in frame five.

World number 38 Robertson then edged a see-saw contest against Michael Leslie 4-3. He went 2-0 up with a highest run of 51 only for 85th-ranked Scottish cueman Leslie to take the next three. Robertson delivered the goods when he really needed to, though, winning the last two frames with breaks of 73 and 60.

Robertson produced a tremendous display to whitewash 39th-ranked Rod Lawler 4-0 in round three. Robertson rattled through frame one in a single visit with a break of 84 before knocking in a run of 69 in frame three and sealing victory with a brilliant 116 in the next.

His progress was halted by a narrow 4-3 defeat in an epic three-and-a-half hour tussle yesterday (Sunday) morning against Sam Baird, who hadn’t dropped a frame in the previous three rounds.

World number 68 Baird won the opening two frames by similar scorelines and although Robertson took the third, Baird clinched the fourth with his second 50+ break of the match to lead 3-1.

Robertson dug in, though, and fought his way back to 3-3 aided by a run of 63 in frame six. Baird prevailed 64-38 in the decider and went on to upset Judd Trump 4-1 in the quarter-finals before losing to Ryan Day in the semi-finals.

Robertson finished last month by reaching the semi-finals of Asian Tour event the Haining Open and making the last 16 of a major ranking event for the first time at the International Championship.

The 29-year-old, who runs O’Sullivan’s Snooker Club in Wickham Avenue with his family, will now turn his attention to the UK Championship. Robertson is scheduled to face Chinese cueman Lu Ning in round one on Wednesday November 25.

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