As the International Championship approaches in Daqing, China it's time to have a look ahead to what we can expect this week in the new feature I have been developing on the blog. That is of course my statistical view, and whether the stats can tell us anything that we would not necessarily have thought of otherwise and offer that new angle.
The slightly annoying thing in terms of when I look at head to head offerings later is that there are still 8 Last 64 matches which are unknown, leaving me 24 where I can look at any previous meetings.
Of course the International Championship has been staged 3 times previously and has always been played under the same format. It may have moved this year across China to Daqing but that should make little difference to things overall.
With the semi-finals being best-of-17 they are always played on separate days (Friday and Saturday) with the final on Sunday. So, the first thing to look at is whether there is an advantage having the Saturday off or not. Well, 2 of the 3 champions (2012 and 2014) have come through the Friday semi-final, and each of the finals has been close (10-8 in 2012, 10-9 in 2013 and 10-7 in 2014) so that may explain that interesting trend. Ding is the odd one out after winning his semi-final on Saturday, but his opponent Marco Fu in 2013 had come through 2 deciders in the 2 previous rounds, so the law of averages said he was odds against to do 3 in a row.
Marco Fu has also won the most matches at the International Championship with 2 more than nearest contender Mark Allen. This comes after he made the 2013 final and the quarter-finals in 2012 and 2014.
It may surprise many that Peter Ebdon is 3rd on the list of most International Championship wins. He made the semi-finals in 2012 losing to eventual champion Judd Trump, and he also lost to the eventual champion Ding Junhui in the 2013 quarter-finals.
Ricky Walden is the defending champion this week, but the defending champion in this event doesn't have a particularly spectacular record. Judd Trump was defending champion in 2013 and he lost in his first match at the venue, 6-5 to Alan McManus in the Last 64. Meanwhile, when Ding Junhui was defending champion in 2014, he failed to even make the venue, losing to Wang Zepeng 6-5 in the Last 128 round played at Barnsley.
Marco Fu has played his fair share of deciders in this competition as I hinted earlier, and he has played 6 overall, winning 4 of them which is more than anyone else. Peter Ebdon has also come through 3 deciders out of 3 played in the International Championships, which is the most deciders played to have a 100% decider winning rate.
Neil Robertson leads the way on the centuries front in the International's 3 year history. Having made 18 across those 3 events, 4 more than Mark Allen who is his nearest rival, showing once again Mark's good record in this event previously.
13.85. This is the average number of frames across the first three years of the competition (including qualifiers) per century break that was made. Basically an average of one every 2 games played which is a decent standard of play in a Chinese event.
Coming back yet again to Marco Fu, his Last 64 match against Matthew Stevens boasts an interesting head to head. It's 5-3 to Stevens but that doesn't tell the story as Fu's 3 wins have come in their latest 3 meetings.
When looking at Ryan Day's head to head with Mark Joyce it can quickly be noted that the last meeting between the pair came at this tournament a year ago, and went down to a decider with Day the eventual winner of that contest.
As for the statistics of the season so far, there's plenty of interesting angles to take. Underestimate Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at your peril this week. Thanks to his run in this weeks Asian Tour event to the quarter-final, and his win at the 6 Reds World Championship, Un-Nooh has the highest win percentage 87.5%. Although, he has only played 4 events, and Kyren Wilson with 80.95% has played two events more so far this season.
Surely Stuart Bingham's bad form cannot last for two much longer. Six events into his season and his win percentage is only 50%.
Can we expect a close match between Kyren Wilson and Jamie Cope in the Last 64? Well the season statistics suggest that. They have each played six deciding frames this season, and they have both also won 5 of those 6 deciders which is quite extraordinary.
If Luca Brecel is at his scoring best, Shaun Murphy will have a very tough game on his hands. Luca is joint second on the season centuries chart with Tian Pengfei (who plays Ricky Walden in a Last 128 match that's been heldover) with 8 centuries each. Judd has the most but he was unable to qualify for the venue.
If you listen to one particular statistic it could be pointed out that Michael White is struggling this season. Looking at a tally of points scored "For and against" each player, White has a final "points difference" of -127. That is the lowest of anyone inside the top 64 that's qualified to take part at the venue this week.
This event is also the last one before the seeding's cut off for the UK Championship. If Ronnie enters (becoming no.1 seed as defending champion) an interesting battle is in progress for seeds 4 and 5 (3 and 4 in the rankings) between Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson. Coming into the event only £8,827 sits between them, so a big week for Murphy could see him leapfrog Neil. A much tighter sum of money stands between Dominic Dale in 32nd and Peter Ebdon. £8. A simply amazing difference in the battle for the top 32.
Meanwhile, Tian Pengfei will be in the top 64 if he could beat Ricky Walden in their held-over Last 128 tie, which would see Peter Lines slide outside of the 64.
The last bit of information in my Stats and Information guide to the International Championships is of course to point out that if the winner of this event has not yet won a tournament, he will of course make it into the Champion of Champions event. Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Ricky Walden, Marco Fu and Mark Williams are currently the 5 highest ranked players not to put their name in the hat for Coventry. (Ronnie O'Sullivan of course has qualified but has chosen not to take up his place).
That's all from me in the Stat Attack feature which has also turned into a handy information guide to accompany my tournament preview (which itself will be published in the next day or two). Otherwise, i'll be back with a statistical review sometime following the event and again all feedback is welcome.
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