So let's have a look back at this magical evening in Ireland:
Ding Junhui Vs Neil Robertson
Ding Junhui was in first in the final with a nice long pot
to give himself the first scoring chance of the match. He’d made 41 when he ran
out of position after potting a tricky black, and was forced to play safe. Neil
got in with a nice long red of his own after a small safety battle, and after a
good blue to the corner he was in with a great chance to take the opening
frame. Once he developed the last red from the cushion it became an excellent
chance, which Robertson took with a break of 88 to lead 1-0. Robertson was in
first again in the second frame, with a good red to the middle to get going.
Robertson was already on 51 when he played the split to the pack from the
black, but he couldn’t get on one and was forced to play safe with his 58 point
lead. A brilliant long red soon had him back in with a second opportunity to
kill off the frame. That was exactly what he did with an additional 22 stopping
Ding from coming back to the table, and giving the Australian a 2-0 advantage.
Neil Robertson was first in again in the third frame, after potting a good red
to the middle, but could only make 12 after failing to get on a red after
splitting the pack from the blue, which was really unlucky. Robertson missed a
long red in dramatic fashion shortly afterwards, as the red wobbled and came
off of the table. Another missed long red from Neil shortly afterwards cost
him, as Ding was left right in amongst the reds. A good split of the reds on 41
from the blue left Ding with all the balls open to get his first frame on the
board. However, the mistake came shortly afterwards as Ding missed a red with
the rest on 51, leaving Robertson with a great opportunity to counter. That was
exactly what Robertson did as a break of 60 was enough to put him 3-0 in front
and only one frame from taking the PTC Grand Finals title.
Ding really needed to improve and fight back if he was going
to win this title now, and an early Robertson miss of a red to the green pocket
left Ding in with a chance, a good red to the green pocket early on kept the
break going and he picked the reds off nicely at the beginning of the break
until he left himself a tricky red to the middle on 52, which he just missed.
When Robertson missed another red to the green pocket in similar fashion
though, Ding was back in again and already with a healthy advantage in the
frame. A nice plant on 15 just stopped Robertson coming back to the table, and
a further 70 made sure that Ding got his first frame on the board and stayed in
the match at 1-3. But was this the start of a brilliant comeback? Well, Ding
was first in again in the fifth frame with a brilliant long pot to get on the
blue as well, giving him a brilliant opening to score, and score was exactly
what he did, making a magical 130 total clearance to close to within a frame of
Neil who hadn’t had a chance since going 3-0 up, at 2-3. A poor safety from
Neil early in the sixth frame, gave Ding another early scoring occasion.
Although, it didn’t amount to much as Ding was forced to play safe on 9 after
failing to split the black away from the reds near it’s spot. After a long
safety battle after this, Ding made the first mistake to give Neil his first
opportunity to try and win the match. He’d got to 44 before he played a poor
positional shot to get on the next red and had to play safe with a 30 point
lead. A missed pot attempt from Robertson, left the Chinaman in with a chance
to close the gap in the frame, or even possibly win it. Some good pots on the
final reds put him 6 points ahead going down to the colours, but when he
massively overdone his position on the yellow, ending up snookered on it behind
the green, bringing on a vital battle on the colours. After an exchange of
fluked snookers from both men, it was Robertson that was unable to get the
yellow safe from one of Ding’s fluked snookers, with Ding potting the yellow,
green, brown, blue and pink to confirm that we would be heading into a deciding
frame at 3-3.
Neil missed a long red early in the seventh and final frame,
and Ding potted a nice red to the yellow pocket to get going, and give him the
first proper opening. A brilliant split of the reds on 14 from the blue gave
him a brilliant chance to win the match at that visit. That was exactly what
Ding did as he manoeuvred through the reds brilliantly and only an in-off from
the black on 98 stopped him finishing the match with a century, but Ding didn’t
mind as he had a fist pump of his own and banged his chest to show what this
win meant to him. It was truly a brilliant performance from Ding Junhui, to
come back from 3-0 down to win 4-3 and one that is worthy of “classic” status.
What a match that was, and you know the rest of the countdown is going to be good when this only just made 10th place, with some brilliant break-building and a terrific comeback from Ding Junhui, producing a good advert for the short format. Did you enjoy that? Then be sure to return tomorrow on the very eve of Christmas to find out who enters the countdown in ninth place.
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