Hotting up in Haikou

Business as usual for top guns.

We've been graced with a fantastic line-up for the Quarter-finals of the Haikou World Open, as all of the players in the last 8 are in the top 16.

The early session on the Hainan island saw comfortable victories for the top 2 in the world as Judd Trump hit 3 century breaks in beating Nigel Bond 5-1. Meanwhile Mark Selby won 5-1 against Barry Hawkins. By no means was this a great match as the top break of the match was a 61 from Barry Hawkins in the first frame in what was a scrappy affair. However, Selby did what he does best and got through and will look to improve for the rest of the event. On the non-televised tables Neil Robertson thrashed Graeme Dott 5-0 in what he described as his "best performance in China". He made breaks of 78, 86 and 83 and capitalised on the chances that he was given by former World champion Dott. Another former World champ, Shaun Murphy, squandered a 3-1 mid-session interval lead to lose 5-3 to Matthew Stevens who once again was without his own cue and joked that he should put his own cue "in the bin" went it finally arrives with him. After a 110 break from Murphy in the 4th frame, he then had chances to win all of the next 3, but lost them all. A break of 73 from Welshman Stevens sealed a fantastic victory.

In the later session the battle of the home favourites, Ding Junhui and Marco Fu, was won by Ding 5-2. After being 2-1 down Ding made a 127 to level up and then won the next 3 after the interval to seal only his second Quarter-final spot in a ranking event this season. Mark Allen described his performance against Robert Milkins as embarrassing and later apologised on twitter to "anyone that had to watch that" despite winning 5-2 and continuing his title defence. On the non-televised tables, John Higgins showed a slight return to form, whitewashing Stuart Bingham. Higgins made a break of 105 in the first frame and a break of 64 in the third and barely gave the recent Welsh open runner-up a chance. In the final match of the 2nd round Ricky Walden came from 4-2 down to beat Stephen Maguire, who's cue he won with in the 1st round, 5-4 with a pressure break of 70 in the decider.

Quarter-Final Draw

Mark Allen Vs Ricky Walden
Ding Junhui Vs John Higgins
Judd Trump Vs Matthew Stevens
Mark Selby Vs Neil Robertson

Pick of the last 8: Trump who was superb against Bond.

Some great matches there, and should be really close calls too in what has to be the best line-up for the Last 8 for some time including a Masters final repeat.

Should be fantastic viewing, and is reward for ITV4's magnificent coverage of the tournament so far. I'll be back tomorrow to round-up the Quarter's and look ahead to the Last 4 and thanks for reading.

World Open: Round 1 Round-Up

Most Seeds Through, Williams Out.

It was busness as usual for most of the top stars at the Haikou World Open in Round 1, as 13 of the 15 seeds (after Carter's withdrawal) got through to the 2nd round, so that we head into Day 4 with an incredibly strong line-up.

Day 1 saw only 2, 1st round matches as Ricky Walden overcame Peter Ebdon 5-2. That was not the only thing that Walden had to overcome, as he turned up on the Hainan island without his cue and the rest of his luggage (and wasn't the only victim of this). Luckily for him Stephen Maguire lent him his cue, as well as his waistcoat and even his socks. This didn't affect his game though as he made a 125 break with the recent Welsh Open champions cue and continued to heep misery on Ebdon his poor form continued. Later on Day 1 Robert Milkins scored another good victory, this time over Mark Davis. Milkins took early leads of 3-0 and 4-1, before being dragged back to 4-3 as Davis made a break of 100. It wasn't enough though as Milkins won the next and the match 5-3 and played quite well for someone who'd had 5 hours sleep across 3 nights!

On Day 2 defending champion Mark Allen came from 2-0 down to beat Ryan Day 5-2, despite a delay during frame 5 as drops of water from a leaking roof fell onto the table. Meanwhile there were also victories for Shaun Murphy, 5-4 over Martin Gould. In a high quality match Gould's top break of 94 came in the opening frame and last month's Snooker Shoot-Out champion lead 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, but was continually pegged back by Murphy who made a 118 break to force the decider. The 2005 World champion had to come from behind in the decider before winning the match on the final pink.
Later on Judd Trump thrashed Mark Joyce 5-0, Matthew Stevens came from 4-2 down to beat David Gilbert 5-4. Also, Graeme Dott made the highest break of the tournament so far, making a 139 break after coming from 2-0 behind to overcome Jamie Cope 5-2 and finally on Day 2 Neil Robertson beat Dominic Dale 5-2.

Day 3, the final day of the first round, saw wins for home favourites Ding Junhui, 5-4 over Michael Holt, while Hong Kong's Marco Fu continued Mark Williams poor run of form with as the German Masters runner-up was a 5-2 victor. Barry Hawkins and Mark Selby were the other winners in the first session, Hawkins 5-1 over Ian Burns and Mark Selby 5-0 against Lu Haotian. In the all Scot clashes of the final session, Stephen Maguire beat Marcus Campbell 5-3 and we rolled back the years as John Higgins overcame Alan McManus by the same scoreline.

2nd Round Draw

Mark Allen Vs Robert Milkins
Stephen Maguire Vs Ricky Walden
Marco Fu Vs Ding Junhui
John Higgins Vs Stuart Bingham
Judd Trump Vs Nigel Bond
Shaun Murphy Vs Matthew Stevens
Mark Selby Vs Barry Hawkins
Neil Robertson Vs Graeme Dott

My Picks: Allen, Maguire, Ding, Higgins, Trump, Murphy, Selby and an outside shot on Dott.

That's all for now another update coming up tomorrow ahead of the Quarter-Finals.

Thanks for reading!

Haikou World Open Preview

It's time for the Haikou World Open, the ranking event that first took place their last year and was won by Mark Allen, his first ranking title of his career, even after he criticised the venue and surroundings. Last year's runner-up Stephen Lee, will not be there of course. Lee is still suspended because of the match fixing allegations against him and it doesn't seem like he'll be returning to the baize any time soon.

It was also announced this week that Ali Carter would not be in Haikou. The reason for this withdrawal is unfortunately due to the effects of the horrible Chrone's disease that continues to trouble him and he was advised by his doctor not to travel over.

Tips for the tournament

My personal tips to win each individual quarter and get through to the semi finals are Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Judd Trump and Mark Selby. As I mentioned earlier Mark Allen is the holder of this tournament and won't want to give the title up easily. However, he has a tough first round draw against Ryan Day. Day hasn't head the best of seasons, but we all know how good a player the former top 16 player.

As for Ding Junhui, he started to show signs of returning to form in the Welsh Open earlier this month. He made it to the semi finals there and will be looking for the same again, to try and please his home crowd in on the Chinese island. How far he goes in this event may, again, be all down to the temperament that he shows up with and how much he wants to win, because when he wants to be there he's as good as anyone in the world.

Judd Trump also had a good run to the semi-finals in Wales and will be looking to return to his best form and hold on to his newly gained world No.1 spot. Judd has a tricky first round match against either Mark Joyce or wildcard Noppon Saengkham, and if Joyce makes it through he'll be looking to get rid of the demons of his 1st round exit to Joyce in the UK Championship after being 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 ahead. I think that if Trump can get through that early test his confidence will grow and he'll have every chance of going home with the £85,000 first prize.

Finally, Mark Selby won both of the triple crown events either side of Christmas taking the UK Championship and Masters titles. Selby was quite unlucky in both Berlin and Newport, losing at the Quarter final stage at the German Masters to Barry Hawkins, having beaten Ding Junhui earlier on the same day. He showed good form against Steve Davis in the Welsh Open qualifiers before falling in the 1st round 4-0 to Joe Perry who performed magnificently and completely shut out the "Jester from Leicester". If he can play consistently this week he has to be one of the favourites to walk off with the title next Sunday.

1st Round Draw

Mark Allen Vs Ryan Day
Mark Davis Vs Robert Milkins
Ricky Walden Vs Peter Ebdon
Stephen Maguire Vs Marcus Campbell
Mark Williams V Marco Fu
Ding Junhui Vs Michael Holt
Stuart Bingham Vs Andrew Higginson/ Zhao Xintong
John Higgins Vs Alan McManus/Lin Shuai
Judd Trump Vs Mark Joyce/Noppon Saengkham
Ali Carter V Nigel Bond/Zhu Yinghui (Bond/Yinghui has a walkover to Round 2)
Matthew Stevens Vs David Gilbert/ Lu Ning
Shaun Murphy Vs Martin Gould
Neil Robertson Vs Dominic Dale
Graeme Dott Vs Jamie Cope/ Wang Yuchen
Barry Hawkins Vs Ian Burns/ Saleh Mohammad
Mark Selby Vs Simon Bedford/Lu Haotian

The tournament can be seen live on Eurosport 1 and 2 as well as ITV 4 who are screening their first ranking event for 20 years.

I hope you enjoy watching this tournament as much as i will (hopefully!)

Thanks for reading,
Michael

 

Welcome to Cue Action

Welcome to Cue Action, the brand new snooker blog where i aim to discuss all things snooker. This ranges from keeping you up to date with the latest results and big headlines from the latest big tournament. I will also be having my opinions on the great performances, exciting matches and the big upsets. As well as this i will be posting the breaking news off of the green baize and sharing my thoughts on the hot headlines.

 

I hope you enjoy reading what i have to say, and feel free to comment on any of my posts with your own thoughts and opinions on the latest, new subject. Please recommend the blog to your friends and comment on what more you'd like to see here, maybe some player profiles or perhaps a prediction contest (no prizes, just for fun).

 

Most of all, I hope you enjoy having a look at what i have to say.

 

Thanks for reading,

Michael