Jamie Burnett could be pleased with his week’s work in Chengdu, the world No51 reaching a first ranking quarter-final for four years, and picking up a welcome cheque for £17,500.
But he also accurately predicted his own demise with downbeat assessments of his wins over a below-par Judd Trump and a Peter Ebdon who struggled with the table conditions.
Burnett said after the 6-2 win over Ebdon: “I have really found it hard to get proper sleep this week, I am on about two hours a night and not playing particularly well, even though I am into the quarter-finals. If I run into a good player playing well, I could have big problems.”
That proved highly prophetic as an on-song Ricky Walden ran out a 6-1 winner on Thursday afternoon to grab a place in the last four.