BLURRED vision is something of a handicap for a snooker player, so Robert Milkins was relieved to dominate Michael Leslie 6-0 in the Coral UK Championship despite admitting he only had “one eye”.
The Gloucester potter, on a high after reaching the final of the Ruhr Open in Germany last weekend, conceded he couldn’t find his range with his long game because of the problem.
He is now praying it will be fixed in time for his last 64 clash with Marcus Campbell, who beat Scott Donaldson 6-4, on Saturday.
“I’m struggling. I have got a bad eye,” Milkins said. “I don’t know what it is but there is something in there. My long game was a bit blurry.
“I felt all right in the balls but, with my long game, I couldn’t do anything. I will have get that sorted before the next match.
“I don’t tend to go to doctors, like any other bloke I suppose, but I will see what I have got in the cupboard back home and then come up here on Friday.
“Hopefully, it will be sorted by then.”
He added: “I don’t feel bad but I have only got one eye at the moment.”
Milkins was rarely seriously troubled during the match with Leslie, taking the opening frame with a break of 67 and adding an effort of 84 in the fourth before closing the clash with a tidy 61.
After breaking his duck of losing in semi-finals when beating Stephen Maguire in Manheim, Milkins said he picked up a lot of confidence from his run to the final.
He explained: “I didn’t particularly play well in Germany but I have been winning a lot of matches recently. When you are winning, everything just comes naturally.
“When players had the chance to beat me they didn’t and, obviously, the opposite happens when you are losing. It is really hard to pick up a win. You can be playing well.
“I have got a lot of confidence from that. Especially getting to my first final. I played well against Stephen Maguire to break the demon of losing semi-finals all the time.”
Third favourite Judd Trump, meanwhile, reached the last 64 without having to pot a ball. The 2011 champion at York was due to play Rouzi Maimaiti in the main arena last night but the Chinese player was forced to withdraw because of visa issues.
Trump, who won the tournament in York in 2011, will now open his campaign against the winner of the match between Aditya Mehta and Alex Davies in round two on Saturday evening.
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