It was the match everyone wanted to see, especially in Australia with it involving Melbourne's golden boy Neil Robertson against the Welshman who had already but the end to one Aussie's hopes Dominic Dale.
The match has been described as epic and to be fair it wasn't far off, Dominic had the game from the start making his presence felt from the off. Leading 3-1 to the interval when they came back Neil pulled it in a little to 3-2 but in the sixth frame Dominic stepped ever closer by make it 4-2, it was frame 7 and 8 that increased the nail biting and conversations on twitter about the size of players conkers. (Don't ask!)
It was into a deciding frame that to be fair could have gone either way, both players played exceptionally and when it came to snookers Dominic was the winner. His final snooker on Neil left him with the 4 points he desperately needed and control over the pink and black.
Of which he stayed cool, calm and collected for and potted them with confidence and ease to win the favoured Australian by 1 point. After the match Neil Robertson said:
"It was definitely the match of the tournament so far," said a dejected Robertson. "It's just one of those disappointing things. He made a great snooker with the pink and black left on the table.
"I thought I played good in the match but had a bad patch - it's just one of those things and in sport sometimes you get bad breaks. You have to hand it to Dominic and he played very well. When I was getting in the balls I was scoring well. The crowd were absolutely terrific and they gave me a great ovation. I'm really disappointed for them."
Dominic commented that the atmosphere was magical and the occasion was possibly one on the best of his 19 year career. And was even gracious enough to praise his opponent for his quarter final match.
"It's up there as one of the best matches I've ever played in for drama and excitement," said Dale, who now meets countryman Mark Williams in the quarter-finals. "You just live for matches like that and I loved the excitement. This is a big win for me and to hold myself together was quite tough. I've had a few great matches with Neil and this was definitely one of them. I will go to bed thinking I'm lucky to still be in it. I played some very good safety but also some shockers and maybe I was a bit too cautious.
"Mark is an unbelievable player and the world number one. He dropped down in the 40s and just decided to dedicate himself practising eight or ten hours a day and it's one of the finest sports feats ever across any sport."
