STEPHEN GALLACHER achieved a bitter-sweet win against Victor Dubuisson yesterday to end a frustrating sequence of 10 consecutive singles defeats.
But it was the Frenchman who prevailed to reach the last-eight of the Volvo World Matchplay Championship at the London Golf Club in Kent.
Gallacher was left to reflect that fate has not been kind to him after Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal chipped in from 50 yards in his preceding group match to snatch victory and effectively end the Scot's hopes. But Gallacher will have taken heart from his 2&1 success after had also lost his opener to Ireland's Shane Lowry.
"It was a good win in the end," he said. "I was only three-under-par today but the conditions were tougher, as were the pins, and I had nothing other than pride to play for. You don't want to get beat at anything, not even at tiddlywinks, but it was a tough group."
Gallacher recovered from going one down at the first with birdies at the fifth, ninth, 10th and 13th after Dubuisson had regained the lead.
He reflected: "I just could not birdie that first hole all week. Every day I hit it in the same place and I never had a lie today. But I sank a couple of good putts towards the end."
Gallacher is planning a short family holiday to Aviemore before embarking on an unbroken run of four tournaments in the Final Series commencing with the BMW Masters in Shanghai.
He added: "I don't feel I need a break. I just feel I need to work on my game and I might take a couple of clubs with me to tick over. I'm just working on everything to try and get my bad shot better, because if you do that you're in the game all the time."
Dubuisson, the No.3 seed, will face Finland's Mikko Ilonen, who beat Alexander Levy by one hole, in the second of today's quarter-finals.
American Ryder Cup player Patrick Reed, whose 3&2 win against Welshman Jamie Donaldson enabled him to top his group, will set the ball rolling against South African George Coetzee, who progressed despite losing by 2&1 to Italy's Francesco Molinari.
Dutchman Joost Luiten, the only player to win all three group matches when he overcame defending champion Graeme McDowell by two holes, has a tie against Larrazabal, 2&1 winner against Lowry.
Henrik Stenson, who accounted for Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee 2&1, takes on fellow Swede Jonas Blixt, who halved his match with former champion Paul Casey before winning play-off for second place at the first extra hole.
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