Neil Robertson completed his triple crown at the weekend by beating Mark Selby 10-7 in the 2013 UK Championship final, to go with the Aussies 2012 Masters victory and 2010 World Championship triumph. For me, Robertson really deserved this victory, especially how he played in the evening session of the final, but also through his consistent performances throughout the event.
For me the tournament as a whole was a general success, with the UK Championships taking on the new flat 128 structure, with some brilliant surprises as amateur Mitchell Travis beat Marco Fu 6-5 in the Last 128 stages and the 90th seed David Morris making the Last 16 of the event. However, the best players still climbed to the top as 14 of the top 16 seeds made into the Last 16, and the defending champion and world No.2 contested the final with the World No.1. The York Barbican also showed when it got down to the latter stages why the UK Championships shouldn't be moved from there in the near future, as it was always going to be difficult for any venue to have 8 tables on the go at one time, but with matches like Bingham/Robertson in the semi-finals and the final between Selby and Robertson, the Barbican showed it could host top class snooker to the fans and create a brilliant atmosphere.
Anyway, lets have a look at how the 2013 UK Championship final panned out:
Neil Robertson 10-7 Mark Selby - The final started off in brilliant fashion as Mark Selby knocked in a brilliant 130, to give the crowd a flavour of what to expect in the match. Robertson then reminded everyone of how well he was playing, and that this would be a really closely fought contest as a break of 63 made it 1-1. Selby began taking control of the match after that point thought taking the next 2 frames before the interval, and the next 2 after the interval to lead 5-1, as the World No.1 failed to get into a rhythm and settle into the match. Breaks of 49 and 57 helped the defending champion take advantage of his opponents poor showing to this point. At this stage the final 2 frames of the session became massive for Neil who really needed to win them both to stay in the final. That was just what the World No.1 did in true champions fashion with breaks of 54 and 123 making it 5-3 after the first session, with a possible 11 more frames to come in the evening.
The next session started well for Mark Selby as he managed to carve out a couple of chances on his way to a 6-3 advantage. However this 3 frame lead didn't last long as Robertson managed to find a couple of extra gears, making breaks of 56, 122 and 132 to level the match for the first time since the second frame at 6-6, going into the final mid-session break. After the interval, Robertson continued to dominate, snatching a very important 13th frame to lead for the first time, before he doubled that lead at 8-6 with a break of 47 helping him on his way. Mark Selby kept on fighting though as a break of 74 kept him within 1 frame of Neil Robertson at 8-7. The sixteenth frame was a massive one in the context of the match, and one that really broke Mark Selby. With Selby looking to steal the frame on the black, he had a more difficult black then he would like to clinch the frame and level, but he missed it to everyone's amazement, leaving it for Robertson to take the frame and go 9-7 ahead. Neil took out the match and the title in style though, with a break of 57 in the seventeenth frame giving the Aussie the 10-7 victory, that meant the world to him and all of his family and friends that were there supporting him.
So overall, I don't believe that the new format has taken any of the gloss away from what was still a fantastic tournament once you get down to the latter stages of the event. However, I still think that there is room for improvement for this format, and that to be on a level playing field, the BBC shouldn't be holding matches over from the Last 128 stages.
I still think that everyone involved in the tournament did a great job, and can't wait for the next televised snooker, which happens to be The Masters in January. Can't wait, and I hope that you guys can't either.
No comments:
Post a Comment