Ebdon edges out Lee in epic

It took Ebdon nearly 11 hours for victory

P Ebdon (Eng) beat S Lee (Eng) 13-12

Peter Ebdon broke down in tears when he beat Stephen Lee in an epic 13-12 victory on Monday evening.

After a ding-dong match, often slow at times, Ebdon finally clinched a place in the quarter-finals after a 10 hour 43-minute marathon.

And as he potted a black in the final frame, to leave Lee needing snookers, Ebdon let out an emotional outburst.

Lee had started the Monday afternoon session 9-7 ahead, but was pegged back by Ebdon, who went on to lead 12-11, when play was stopped.

I didn't mean the outburst at the end but I just exploded

  Peter Ebdon

Lee then pulled level to make for an exciting decider.

It appeared the occasion got to Lee as poor shot selection gave Ebdon the upper-hand.

He finally clinched the frame 72-30 to set up a quarter-final clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan at 1000 BST Tuesday.

Afterwards Ebdon said: "I'm pleased I dug deep and did what was required.

"I didn't mean the outburst at the end because I didn't want to show disrespect to Stephen but I just exploded.

"It's just that the victory meant so much to me after I had got very bogged down in the second session when I was simply beating myself."

It had been a slow afternoon's play, with both players making mistakes, the highest break being Lee's 88 in the 18th frame.

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Second round score (best of 25 frames):

S Lee (Eng) 12-13 P Ebdon (Eng)
131-17 (121) 99-0 (66)13-50 20-69 (69) 73-1 24-67 10-78 (52) 66-36 (50) 79-54 71-8 (56) 51-6 47-74 37-66 63-0 71-50 (53) 26-56 16-57 88-0 (88) 0-69 21-60 93-23 28-64 (60) 46-72 83-5 30-72