Vinnie Calebrese enjoyed the best day of his fledgling professional career as he won three matches at the third Euro Tour event in Doncaster yesterday.
The Australian first came from two frames down to overcome UK and Masters champion Mark Selby 4-2 and then repeated the feat in the last 64 by again reversing a 2-0 deficit to beat Crucible hero Dechawat Poomjaeng.
In the third round, the 25 year-old took out the in-form David Morris 4-1 despite a break of 100 from the Irishman.
Australia has had a history of snooker players that has spanned many decades but in that time there have not been too many who have emerged into the big-time.
Eddie Charlton was the main character from Down Under for many years, reaching the World Championship final on three occasions only to go down as a loser each time.
Quinten Hann was a young player who many tipped in the late 1990s to be a rising star but a charismatic temperament and his playboy persona got him into trouble all too often – culminating in an eight-year suspension in 2006.
Of course, the best Aussie of them all is the current world no.1 Neil Robertson – a world champion, multiple ranking event winner and a player still in his prime.
Calabrese plays another Robertson, Jimmy, for a place in the quarter-finals on Saturday after the Englishman too enjoyed an eventful day at the Dome.
Robertson ended Thursday with a comfortable 4-1 triumph over Kurt Maflin but posted a brace of 4-3 wins prior to that in dramatic circumstances.
After edging Zhang Anda, the 27 year-old fought back from 3-0 down to force a final frame shoot-out with Stuart Bingham before clearing with a 73 break at the death after his opponent made a 72 on his way to a maximum 147.
Elsewhere, Steve Davis continues to defy the logic of age after enduring a long day’s action to win three encounters – the last a 4-3 triumph over Welshman Jamie Jones.
The Nugget, who turns 56 next week, faces Marco Fu next, who was relatively comfortable after pipping Graeme Dott 4-3 in the opening round.
Mark Williams continued his good run of form of late and is on course for back-to-back PTC titles, coming through to face India’s Pankaj Advani while Ding Junhui and Anthoy Hamilton complete the top half of the draw.
Today, the bottom half will be played out to complete the last 16 line-up with the likes of Ronnie ‘Will He Turn Up?’ O’Sullivan, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty all competing.
The full draw can be viewed by clicking here.
