When I arrived in Cardiff on Wednesday we had 64 players left in the Welsh Open but now just four remain as we are down to a one table set-up for the semi-finals.
Judd Trump will play Scott Donaldson in the afternoon semi-final. Donaldson was the first man through as he controlled his match with Zhou Yuelong. His tactic was a strong one and while it did push at least three of the five frames past the half an hour mark, it also did not allow the Chinese youngster to find his rhythm and that was the key to success for the Scot. Whether he will be able to frustrate Trump in the same way today remains to be seen. Trump was a lucky boy against Hawkins in my opinion. Not just in the decider but the frame before that too could have seen Hawkins win 5-3 if one red didn't come across and block the path of another once he had split the reds. Trump's highest break in the match was just 50, and to get 3-1 ahead he was let off on a couple of occasions. You would think against Donaldson that he would get a few chances if the nerves kick in for his first semi-final.
In the evening session we then have the two guys who came through on Friday night in Robert Milkins and Stuart Bingham. Bingham played well against Carrington in the first three or four frames to build a very healthy 4-0 lead in the best-of-9 frames match and it looked for all money that the match would be over quite quickly the way he was playing. All of a sudden though he started to miss a couple and Carrington grew in confidence as he got a frame or two on the board and at 3-4 I wondered if things were going to turn right around and send us the distance. In the end I think it got nervy for both players and you could feel those nerves in the arena too.
While I was able to see bits of that match I was concentrating on Robert Milkins and Kurt Maflin that was going on at the same time. It was quite scrappy at times as I think both players realised the opportunity that could unfold this week, missing a few balls and giving each other quite a few chances. When Milkins did get in and take his chances he looked as good and as fluent as he had for the rest of the week, and in my opinion he has played as well as anyone so far this week. The last time Milkins and Bingham played was in the English Open first round. Milkins did lead 3-1 and had chances to kill the match off but eventually went down 4-3. There is certainly no reason why Milkins cannot put that right tonight, especially with Bingham not quite being at his best at times this week.
You would expect Trump to win and Bingham will be a heavy favourite with many too but for me we have seen so many shocks this week that it is hard to take things for granted. However, just to show the consistency of Trump he has now reached at least the semi-finals in all three home nations events that he has played. Therefore, it is tough to say that he would not deserve to take the title home this weekend.
I am back at the venue again, and will probably be posting some pictures on my Twitter page to make up for the fact that we are down to one table and there will be no more live blogs this week from Cardiff.
No comments:
Post a Comment