Made it to the last 32 at the 10-Ball WC

I made it through the first single knock-out round in a match that was tighter than the score would indicate. I beat Johnny Fulcher 9-5, but I was struggling to get control of the match early on:

Johnny won the first rack due to a good safe, then broke the 10 in of the break. It went directly into the bottom corner. 2-0.
Then I managed to get a rack in. 2-1. I then played a bad shot on the 5, he ran out. 3-1.

We kinda went neck to neck for a while. I had a chance to go up 5-3 but dogged a safety. He tied 4-4 and then had an easy run-out.
5-4 him. Following rack, he missed a ball completely but hooked me. I hit it but left a shot. He should have gone up 6-4 but he played a bad position on the 9 and so could not get great on the 10. He misses the 10 in the side and I had to just roll it in.
5-5. Phew!
I started to break a little better. went up 7-5. Then dry break. He had a chance to close the gep to 6-7 but he missed the 4. He hooked me again though. I had to kick two rails. I made the ball but was automatically snookered behind the 10 to make the 5. I jumped and made the 5 into the side to finally gain control of the rack.
The final rack I felt good already and ran out to win 9-5.

I will try to post some illustrations later on. the 8-5 run out with kick and jump was interesting.

Thanks for listening...

Mika

PS. live score at: www.wpa-tour.com