April when it comes to snooker is all about the World Championship qualifiers and the event itself when it comes to importance and one man that impressed me through the qualifiers and in his run all the way to the Crucible quarter-finals was young Scot Anthony McGill.
Of course, anyone that had to go through the qualifying
stages had to play three matches if they were to make it to the main event
starting on April 18th.
He started off in very comfortable fashion, making a match
against Hossein Vafei Ayouri, who has since shown a little of what he can do,
into an easy affair by winning each of the last six frames to clinch a 10-3
starting win, the highlight of which was a 98 in the penultimate frame of the
contest. It’s nice to get through the early qualifying rounds without too much
drama and stress as it helps keep you fresh for the rest of the qualifying
campaign and then the short turnaround if you can get all three matches in the
bank.
Next up was another tough match against Chinese Cao Yupeng
who had reached the Last 16 on his Crucible debut in 2012 but not really
excited fans too much since then. That still made him a tricky opponent and it
showed as he went into an early 3-1 lead against McGill. Anthony recovered
nicely to end up winning the session 5-4. There was still plenty of work to do
but most of the damage was done within the opening three frames to storm 8-4
ahead and the next four frames were shared which proved enough for a 10-6 win.
That was another important win as he was put under pressure early on, and
responded to that in a manner that he would consider satisfying.
With one more match to go to qualify for the World
Championships at the Crucible Theatre for the very first time in his career, he
had a very experienced opponent in his way as he took on Mark King. Once again
he was under it early on, as Mark went into an early 4-2 lead and ended up
winning the first session 5-4. It wouldn’t bother you too much to be 5-4 behind
after the opening session in a best-of-19 but it is a nicer boost
psychologically to take a 5-4 lead as opposed to being on the receiving end.
After the opening two frames were shared, Anthony the
stormed through the gears in session two to take a magnificent lead at 9-6 and
leave himself just one away from one of the best moments in his career. The
match then turned scrappy and Mark clawed his way back into the match by taking
the next three to force a decider. There was little King could do from there on
in, as McGill played the decider like a winner with his highest break of
qualifying, a 127 to win the match in dramatic fashion 10-9.
When the draw was done randomly, Anthony’s name was pulled
out alongside that of fellow Scotsman Stephen Maguire who would not give him an
easy Crucible debut, despite not being in the best of form coming to Sheffield.
I was at the Crucible to watch the first session between the two of these guys
and what impressed me the most was how McGill carried himself, looking far from
daunted by the big occasion and you simply couldn’t tell it was his Crucible
debut whatsoever. With a little bit of luck in the final frame he won that
opening session 6-3 to take a pretty commanding position. After the drive back
home on my birthday the next day (and a road diversion which sent us round the
long route) I was back in time enough to order a celebratory curry in and
settle down for the final session of this match and once again McGill was
impressive. He took a 9-5 lead and again looked like cruising to victory. Once
again it didn’t pan out like that and Stephen found some form to win the next
four and force another decider. Yet again though, Anthony showed his class by
finishing off the match with a century break to win a Crucible classic on his
debut 10-9.
They don’t come much tougher than the defending world
champion in the Last 16, but that was exactly who the Scot faced next when he
played Mark Selby over 25 frames. Early on it was blow for blow stuff as the
first session was shared 4-4, but in the second session McGill began to really
demonstrate his talents once more. Despite breaks of 120 and 83 from Selby it
was McGill who went into a 7-6 lead before a fantastic 125 extended that to 8-6
and he won the final two frames of the session to end up 10-6 ahead. He added
the first of the final session to storm 11-6 in front and it seemed to be a
matter of if rather than when from there. The next two were shared after a
break of 67 from Selby was followed in by 87 from Anthony to go one away at
12-7. Mark never gives up, and made it difficult once again as he closed to
12-9. This time, McGill didn’t let it get much closer before completing his
work, finishing in style as he had done in the previous two rounds making a
match winning 82 which fell just short of a century but was still good enough
to win the match 13-9.
Unfortunately for Anthony, the run could not go any further
but he did push eventual runner-up Shaun Murphy hard, with Shaun reeling off
the final four frames to go from a tight match at 9-8 to an eventual 13-8
winner.
Regardless of that loss he showed the quality of a future
champion and had impressed a lot of people with his run beating some class
players and handling himself like winners do under the pressure. This was the
breakthrough of Anthony McGill that had been coming for a long time and is the
reason why he is my player of the month for April.
Christmas day sees a double whammy as I reveal two more nominees for May and June. If you miss it then all links will be available in my 'Christmas Countdowns complete list post'
No comments:
Post a Comment