In the second event to conclude on the World Snooker tour in the space of six days, we had another young winner as 26-year-old Welshman Michael White won the seven matches in two days required to win his second ranking title.
Starting his tournament on the Saturday, he had to come back from the brink against Adam Duffy in the last 128 to sneak through 4-3, but from there on things were much more simple to close out his opening day. Robbie Williams and Mike Dunn were dispatched for the loss of only one frame as he booked his place in Sunday's last 16.
First up on the Sunday was a tough test against the defending champion and world number one Mark Selby. A come from behind frame win in the second set the tone as White took a 3-0 lead and though Selby won the fourth to threaten the possibility of a comeback, White closed things out with a run of 68 to put himself in the quarter-finals.
Before the tournament I pointed out that White had not been in a ranking event quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open nine months earlier, so he quickly took care of that. Ian Burns was his opponent for the last eight after Burns beat Kyren Wilson in the last 16. White was clearly the player expected to win and in the end he did so comfortably by a 4-1 scoreline to put himself in his first full-ranking event semi-final since winning the Indian Open in March 2015.
Mitchell Mann provided the opposition to White in the semi's after beating Mark Joyce in a long quarter-final to reach his first ever semi-final in ranking competition and marking a great week for him as he looks to climb into the top 64 on the ranking list. Mann started well with a 64 break to take the opening frame but that was as good as it was going to get. White won four frames on the trot, finishing with breaks of 68 and 50 in the final two frames to book his place in the final.
For a while it looked like there could be an all-Welsh final with Jamie Jones flying into a 3-1 lead against Shaun Murphy. Jones dominated the early exchanges and scored heavily getting out of the blocks with a 102 break and backing that up with a 77 to lead 2-0. Murphy nicked the third frame to get himself back in it, but Jones quickly regained the two frame cushion courtesy of a 72 break to go one away at 3-1. From there though, JJ would only score a further four points in the contest. Murphy kept himself in the tie with a break of 90 and then backed that up with a contribution of 75 to quickly force the decider. A break of 77 in the decider was more than enough for the Magician to perform another act of brilliance by coming back to win 4-3 and make his second ranking event final in the space of a week.
Much as in the China Championship final, Murphy was the favourite to win against lower ranked opposition but things (as often is the case) did not go to form. White won the opening two frames to speed into the a 2-0 but much like his fellow Welshman Jones he had to watch as Murphy took frame three, a run of 84 seeing the 2005 world champion take it out in one visit and closing to 1-2. White again regained the two frame advantage though with his own high break, an 83, putting him a frame from the title at 3-1. In the fifth frame he went a ball from winning, but rattled the final black along the cushion, leaving it for Murphy to close the gap at 2-3 and put doubt into White's mind. However, if there was any doubt it did not show as he took the first chance he got in the sixth frame to make a break of 97, just missing out on the century, to get his second ranking title after a 29-month absence from the winners circle.
In my preview I referred to White as "someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament" and he certainly delivered. Despite a field that was missing many of the top players he still had to overcome the two highest ranked players who did fly to Furth in Selby and Murphy, and doing so on the final day.
As for Murphy, while there are no trophies to show for it he has had a great week making both the China Championship and Paul Hunter Classic finals, with over a days worth of travelling in between, and there are plenty of positives to take. Two of those will be practically guaranteed qualification for the World Grand Prix and Players Championship tournaments later in the season, which is a great effort given that these were his first two full tournaments of the new campaign.
The next stop for snooker is at the 6-Reds Championship in Thailand, though with no ranking importance there is not much interest there, but that is closely followed by the final stages of the Indian Open beginning on September 12.
Tuesday 29 August 2017
Thursday 24 August 2017
ROBIN HULL INTERVIEW
Many of you that read the blog will know while I try to remain as impartial as possible one of my favourite players is Finland's Robin Hull, and as such I have quite a few followers that are fans of his. So I am delighted to have been able to pick the brains of the man himself and find out his thoughts on Snooker's World Cup, Finnish snooker, the end of last season and what his hopes are for the next couple of years.
Starting with the World Cup, it was Robin Hull and Finland's first time in the event out in China, where they were knocked out in the group stages.
"The world cup was very good and well organized. Like you said, the result wasn't good for us but it was a very good competition. Hopefully we get to play there again in a few years time".
Hull's partner for the tournament was Heikki Niva, having been picked out as one of Finland's best amateur players, and along with that Hull has his say on the next best Finnish prospect.
"As it was Heikki's first time at a big event, I think he found it tough which is no surprise. Hopefully it gives him a slightly better picture of what's required standard wise nowadays. He's moved to England so it'll be interesting to see how he starts to develop over the next few years. Patrik Tiihonen, the current Finnish champion is another good prospect"
Niva and Tiihonen are two to keep an eye on then, but the current World No.99 tells us what else can we expect from the amateur game in Finland and across Europe.
"It all comes down to the grass roots. In Finland I would like to see the national association working more closely with the snooker clubs on how to bring new players in and develop existing ones. On a wider scale, mainland Europe cannot compete with China on players coming through. There just isn't strong enough systems in place for players to develop in mainland Europe mainly because the game is so small in competitive terms in some places. It's pretty much, 'go to the uk or forget it'."
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| Robin Hull featured in the China Championship qualifiers, played in Preston in June. |
So with players from Europe often having to make big decisions on what they need to do to make it in the game, discussion turns to what Hull believes amateur players need to have to turn pro.
"Players need will, belief and a strong work ethic, if any of those are faltering, it's time to have a think. Players have to be honest about whether they are willing to put the effort in and enjoy it. That pretty much answers the question on whether to continue or not if we're talking about pursuing a professional career. The obvious put aside though i think nowadays is that it's a smart move to look at things from a financial perspective, obviously calculated risks have to be taken when someone is starting off, but playing professional snooker requires sponsorship in some form, so getting that in place is vital."
Hull himself has secured some new sponsors for the season having secured a fresh two year tour card.
"Profrec and WIP are my sponsors for the new season. Like i said, it's vital for a snooker player. I'm very grateful for their support".
Going back to snooker in Europe though, and with Belgium's Luca Brecel being joined by Germany's Lukas Kleckers as young professionals from mainland Europe, there is a lot of hope that they could increase support for snooker.
"Luca and Lukas help for sure.The biggest key is Eurosport though, snooker gets massive exposure in all of Europe, which has brought snooker to another level. Belgium has held successful tournaments before, and it's great to see a ranking tournament there."
With the European Masters heading to Brecel's home country, is there any hopes of a tour event coming to Finland so Hull can play on home soil though?
"I would love to see a tournament back home. The crowds and interest would be a cert. So yes, I would like to think it's a possibility."
One problem that does come with living in a country where participation is not as great as others though is the practice partners a player can gain without coming to the UK.
"95% of the time I practice on my own, but I do go to the Sheffield Academy sometimes before tournaments."
With a busy stretch of the season coming in, Hull's game will need to be in top condition if he is to continue moving back up the rankings having started the season on £0 on the ranking list.
My game is in great shape, practice wise I have been producing a standard I last played about 15 years ago. I've also been working with a sports psychologist so I'm seeing benefits from that, and it has given me more insight into what I need to do and how to do it."
Last season though ended with a defeat in the World Championship qualifiers to Reanne Evans that meant that Hull dropped out of the top 64 and hard to start the season with a new tour year tour card as previously mentioned.
"I was aware against Reanne what was at stake but can't really say it was the reason I lost, don't get me wrong it wasn't easy to relax but I played pretty close to what I had in the tank at the time. I could say I felt pretty exhausted towards the end of the season which showed strongly in the standard I played. A mistake on my part that I won't be repeating this season. Sometimes it's easy to get carried away with things trying to improve and eating out all your energy and then come tournament time having nothing left. It was sort of a pattern I developed during the season, starting good but not picking up speed and then crashing and burning. A big part of what I've been working on with the sports psychologist is getting a nice balance when playing the game."
Having started by making the Last 32 in Riga, Hull has now made the Last 32 of a ranking event six times in the last 12 months but only gone past that stage once, so he will be looking to get past that stage more.
"I'm looking to go further for sure, like the stuff I said before, a certain pattern emerged. I keep my goals to myself, but have 3 set for the next 2 years (with the new tour card)"
One success Robin has had in recent years was winning the Snooker Shoot-Out in 2016 and picking up the £32,000 top prize.
"The money was helpful and it's nice to win. It's not a proper tournament for me but there was something to be taken from it confidence wise."
With Ryan Day's victory at the Riga Masters this adds to a number of players who have won their first ranking title in the last year, but who does Hull think could be next?
"It really is hard to say, but I think we'll see a new Chinese winner this season"
While Hull has never entered the ranking event winners club, and despite his 43rd birthday approaching, he is far from done yet.
"I have enjoyed my time within the game immensely but still have strong ambitions. I'm keeping my focus on the next 2 years, after that we will have to see."
I would like to thank Robin for his taking the time to have offer his thoughts on his game and a number of other good topics and talking points. Next up for the Finn is the Paul Hunter Classic where he plays Ben Woollaston in round one and the final stages of the Indian Open in September.
Wednesday 23 August 2017
Paul Hunter Classic Preview
The Paul Hunter Classic is an event that means a lot to the players on tour and is always a unique tournament when it comes around. After three days of amateur qualifiers have been completed, the professional stages will begin on Friday morning.
The format is the same as the old European Tour with one half of the draw playing the opening three rounds on Friday and the other half doing the same. Then the remaining 16 players will play down to the conclusion on Sunday with all matches being best-of-7 frames.
It is a bit of a shame to see so many big names not being involved over the weekend, but that may be a symptom of it being so close to the conclusion of the China Championship. While the likes of John Higgins, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen may not be here, world number 1 Mark Selby, China Championship winner Luca Brecel and runner-up Shaun Murphy and guys like Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham are all in the draw.
With mainland Europe having its first ranking winner after Luca Brecel took the China Championship title back to Belgium, and Lukas Kleckers giving the German fans a talented young home star to cheer on this shapes up as a very special week, exactly what you would associate with the great Paul Hunter.
The second section does see quite a few stronger players. Ricky Walden is one who will be eyeing this week to start his comeback on the ranking list after injuries have disrupted his game somewhat. However, if he is still suffering in any way he could have easier draws than Sean O'Sullivan who has shown he is not afraid of the top players. Robert Milkins is one to keep an eye on but he is in a tough mini section of the draw that also features Ben Woollaston who seemed to be in good touch in the Preston qualifiers a couple of weeks ago. Woollaston himself faces a tough test in Robin Hull who is far better than his low ranking and could easily go on a big run himself if he finds top form. Beyond that it is always worth pulling out the name of Ken Doherty given the start to the season he had in a similar style event at the Riga Masters, where he marched into the semi-finals. Since then he has had qualifying round victories against Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins as well as running eventual China Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy very close in the last 64 stage and he had his chances to win that one.
Stuart Bingham will want to put an early exit in Guangzhou behind him and hit top gear in Germany, though his form on the whole has been patchy in recent times. Tom Ford is one to watch after making the final of this tournament a year ago and beating John Higgins comfortably last week in China on the way to the last 16. There are not many players that Ford has not beaten over the years and he has the potential to win ranking events, but as yet he has not put everything together in one week to get the job done. Another player who is heavily on my radar is Stuart Carrington. Carrington made two centuries in a losing first round cause against David Gilbert in China, but his run to the Crucible this year and the performance he gave in the first session against Liang Wenbo on that occasion suggest that he is capable of making a big break through and achieving much more.
For my second quarter choice I am looking for Shaun Murphy to carry on from Guangzhou and have another fine run. My opinion on Murphy is always that slight bit biased (as my Twitter followers and those that know me are well aware) but after a good run that he had last week in Guangzhou I always fancy him to follow it up. He seems to play pretty well in this event on the whole, reaching the final two years ago when he last played in Furth. By his own admission he was struggling with his game in some of the early season Preston qualifiers, but he certainly found something at the China Championship. I was impressed with how hard he battled in the tactical frames of which there were quite a few in playing conditions that were not too easy. Murphy's game seems to be suited well to these European Tour style weekends having claimed the Gibraltar Open earlier this year, and claiming three European Tour victories in 2014 (two of those back-to-back). All in all with not many top players here this week I think Murphy is the one of the better picks.
The fourth and final quarter is home to China Championship winner Luca Brecel who will certainly get a lot of attention on his return to Europe. With such a little turnaround from his win on Tuesday to starting this event on Saturday, it is hard to expect him to hit the ground running straight away because he has every right to still be celebrating his maiden triumph. Andrew Higginson often seems to play well in these European Tour style events, with evidence of that being his opening event of the season where he made the Riga Masters quarter-finals. In fact in four of the six years that the Players Championship was held in conjunction with the European Tour and PTC events, Higginson was one of those that qualified, having also been a PTC winner. For me the Widnes Warrior is never one to count out on a week like this and is so much better than his provisional seeding of 54 given the talent and results he has shown in the past.
Jack Lisowski is another that falls into the bracket with Higginson as being better than his ranking in the 50's and the bracket of potentially being a form horse for these style of events. He started the season with a run to the last 16 of the Riga Masters and made the Gibraltar Open quarter-finals in March showing much better form than he had done for a while. In Preston at the beginning of the month he looked in decent form too and won each of his three matches there which is always a nice effort. The likes of Martin Gould and David Gilbert can never be ruled out, and Gilbert starts the week in the last 64 after a first round walkover. Both are very heavy scoring players who can blitz through a draw when they are on their game.
The format is the same as the old European Tour with one half of the draw playing the opening three rounds on Friday and the other half doing the same. Then the remaining 16 players will play down to the conclusion on Sunday with all matches being best-of-7 frames.
It is a bit of a shame to see so many big names not being involved over the weekend, but that may be a symptom of it being so close to the conclusion of the China Championship. While the likes of John Higgins, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen may not be here, world number 1 Mark Selby, China Championship winner Luca Brecel and runner-up Shaun Murphy and guys like Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham are all in the draw.
With mainland Europe having its first ranking winner after Luca Brecel took the China Championship title back to Belgium, and Lukas Kleckers giving the German fans a talented young home star to cheer on this shapes up as a very special week, exactly what you would associate with the great Paul Hunter.
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Gary Wilson Vs Jimmy White
Rod Lawler Vs Zhang Yong
David Grace Vs Matthew Glasby
Christopher Keogan Vs Andy Symons
Fergal O'Brien Vs Steven Hallworth
Michael Georgiou Vs Josh Boileau
Noppon Saengkham Vs Ashley Hugill
Chris Wakelin Vs Kishan Hirani
Jak Jones Vs Saqib Nasir
Peter Lines Vs Umut Dikme
Fang Xiongman Vs Sanderson Lam
Rhys Clark Vs Paul Davison
Dominic Dale Vs Daniel Ward
John Astley Vs Daniel Holoyda
Martin O'Donnell Vs Zack Richardson
Jamie Jones Vs Billy Castle
If ever there was a perfect example of a wide open quarter in a draw this is it. At world number 32, Dominic Dale is the highest ranked player in the section while fellow Welshman Jamie Jones is just behind. Fergal O'Brien comes into this tournament off of a quarter-final in the China Championship and could have another good run again this week. David Grace had a good run to the quarter-finals in Furth last year in a similar field that had many top players missing, so perhaps he could be the one to take the opportunity that is presented in this section. If you are looking for a young player to break through and impress in a similar fashion to Brecel then Noppon Saengkham could be that man. Each time I have seen him recently he has impressed me and looked pretty good. His fluency when scoring is great to watch, and this was in evidence when I saw one of his Preston qualifiers against Hu Hao up close. Qualifying for the Crucible will have given him quite a lot of confidence and he should continue to move forward.
My opening quarter choice though in this section that could throw anything up, is Gary Wilson. I have gone with a choice outside the box here but I am often impressed by Wilson and with the draw as it is I think he is one of the stronger players in this section. His run to qualify for the World Championships in April was massive in the clutch situation of needing victories to guarantee his tour survival. To then go and take the game to Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible was equally as good. From the players outside of the top 32 or top 40 he is one of the heavier scorers and it is his comfort in this area of the game that creates the potential to achieve more. His run to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open and the final of the China Open in the same year saw him beat stronger players than he will face up to this week (with no disrespect to the good names I have already mentioned), and those runs showed the potential he has and that he could climb back up the rankings and go further, starting with this week.
My opening quarter choice though in this section that could throw anything up, is Gary Wilson. I have gone with a choice outside the box here but I am often impressed by Wilson and with the draw as it is I think he is one of the stronger players in this section. His run to qualify for the World Championships in April was massive in the clutch situation of needing victories to guarantee his tour survival. To then go and take the game to Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible was equally as good. From the players outside of the top 32 or top 40 he is one of the heavier scorers and it is his comfort in this area of the game that creates the potential to achieve more. His run to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open and the final of the China Open in the same year saw him beat stronger players than he will face up to this week (with no disrespect to the good names I have already mentioned), and those runs showed the potential he has and that he could climb back up the rankings and go further, starting with this week.
Best of the Rest: Noppon Saengkham
Quarter Choice: Gary Wilson
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ricky Walden Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Stuart Carrington Vs Wang Yuchen
Robert Milkins Vs Brian Cini
Ben Woollaston Vs Robin Hull
Rory McLeod Vs Aditya Mehta
David John Vs Jamie Cope
Tom Ford Vs Robert Read
Alexander Ursenbacher Vs Jamie Clarke
Shaun Murphy Vs Adam Stefanow
Jimmy Robertson Vs Sam Baird
Ian Preece W/O Darren Morgan
Ken Doherty Vs Ross Muir
Zhao Xintong Vs Reanne Evans
Kuldesh Johal W/O Hamza Akbar
Craig Steadman Vs Gerard Greene
Stuart Bingham Vs Yu De Lu
The second section does see quite a few stronger players. Ricky Walden is one who will be eyeing this week to start his comeback on the ranking list after injuries have disrupted his game somewhat. However, if he is still suffering in any way he could have easier draws than Sean O'Sullivan who has shown he is not afraid of the top players. Robert Milkins is one to keep an eye on but he is in a tough mini section of the draw that also features Ben Woollaston who seemed to be in good touch in the Preston qualifiers a couple of weeks ago. Woollaston himself faces a tough test in Robin Hull who is far better than his low ranking and could easily go on a big run himself if he finds top form. Beyond that it is always worth pulling out the name of Ken Doherty given the start to the season he had in a similar style event at the Riga Masters, where he marched into the semi-finals. Since then he has had qualifying round victories against Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins as well as running eventual China Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy very close in the last 64 stage and he had his chances to win that one.
Stuart Bingham will want to put an early exit in Guangzhou behind him and hit top gear in Germany, though his form on the whole has been patchy in recent times. Tom Ford is one to watch after making the final of this tournament a year ago and beating John Higgins comfortably last week in China on the way to the last 16. There are not many players that Ford has not beaten over the years and he has the potential to win ranking events, but as yet he has not put everything together in one week to get the job done. Another player who is heavily on my radar is Stuart Carrington. Carrington made two centuries in a losing first round cause against David Gilbert in China, but his run to the Crucible this year and the performance he gave in the first session against Liang Wenbo on that occasion suggest that he is capable of making a big break through and achieving much more.
For my second quarter choice I am looking for Shaun Murphy to carry on from Guangzhou and have another fine run. My opinion on Murphy is always that slight bit biased (as my Twitter followers and those that know me are well aware) but after a good run that he had last week in Guangzhou I always fancy him to follow it up. He seems to play pretty well in this event on the whole, reaching the final two years ago when he last played in Furth. By his own admission he was struggling with his game in some of the early season Preston qualifiers, but he certainly found something at the China Championship. I was impressed with how hard he battled in the tactical frames of which there were quite a few in playing conditions that were not too easy. Murphy's game seems to be suited well to these European Tour style weekends having claimed the Gibraltar Open earlier this year, and claiming three European Tour victories in 2014 (two of those back-to-back). All in all with not many top players here this week I think Murphy is the one of the better picks.
Best of the Rest: Tom Ford and Stuart Carrington
Quarter Choice: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Alan McManus Vs Allan Taylor
Kurt Maflin Vs Brandon Sargeant
Kyren Wilson Vs Kurt Dunham
Jamie Barrett Vs Chris Totten
Ian Burns Vs Andy Hicks
Alfie Burden Vs Scott Donaldson
Lukas Kleckers Vs Joe O'Connor
Li Yuan Vs Harvey Chandler
Eden Sharav Vs Alex Borg
Mike Dunn Vs Lee Mein
Matthew Selt Vs Robbie Williams
Michael White Vs Adam Duffy
Joe Swail Vs Louis Heathcote
Adam Edge W/O Chen Zhe
WILDCARD PLAYER Vs Michael Williams
Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
The bottom half of the draw is where we find world champion Mark Selby who fell at the last 32 stage in Guangzhou, but has a good record in this event and is of course the defending champion this week. He may not have things all his own way in round one where he faces up to Michael Holt who has provided tough tests for many top players in recent times.
Holt has again this week been mentioned in the "best player not to win a ranking event" debate, something he himself got involved in on Twitter saying it was "the worst title ever...Who's the best loser?". In many ways he has a point that it is not too flattering to debate the best underachievers and even less flattering to ask them about it. It is much like some of the treatment British Golfers Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have received in the past with regards to winning Golf majors, despite glittering careers on the European Tour.
Alfie Burden could prove a threat in his mini section of the draw and would probably be my pick to come through that little area and make the last 16 on Sunday. Lukas Kleckers also finds himself in that mini section and he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, with all eyes on him as he plays on home turf for the first time as a tour professional. Although, his result against Neil Robertson in the Riga Masters showed that he could handle it and he may be a dark horse in the draw this weekend. Michael White is someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament. The former Indian Open champion has not reached a ranking quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open last November (by my reckoning) and on the provisional seedings he is set to drop to 30th, despite being a seeded player at the World Championships in 2016.
My third quarter pick for this weekend though is Kyren Wilson. Wilson had last week off after not making it to Guangzhou so he will be fresh as those Chinese trips often take a lot out of the players. His last tournament outing saw him capture the gold medal at the World Games so that should give him plenty of confidence because to have something like that on your CV is a good feeling. While everyone else was at the China Championship, Wilson was actually helping promote the European Masters which is coming up in just over a month. Doing something like that should make him eager to get back out and competing and in a section the draw that again is not littered with top players he is one of the stand out names, and certainly the best player in the top half of this section which is one of the reasons he gets my pick.
Holt has again this week been mentioned in the "best player not to win a ranking event" debate, something he himself got involved in on Twitter saying it was "the worst title ever...Who's the best loser?". In many ways he has a point that it is not too flattering to debate the best underachievers and even less flattering to ask them about it. It is much like some of the treatment British Golfers Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have received in the past with regards to winning Golf majors, despite glittering careers on the European Tour.
Alfie Burden could prove a threat in his mini section of the draw and would probably be my pick to come through that little area and make the last 16 on Sunday. Lukas Kleckers also finds himself in that mini section and he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, with all eyes on him as he plays on home turf for the first time as a tour professional. Although, his result against Neil Robertson in the Riga Masters showed that he could handle it and he may be a dark horse in the draw this weekend. Michael White is someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament. The former Indian Open champion has not reached a ranking quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open last November (by my reckoning) and on the provisional seedings he is set to drop to 30th, despite being a seeded player at the World Championships in 2016.
My third quarter pick for this weekend though is Kyren Wilson. Wilson had last week off after not making it to Guangzhou so he will be fresh as those Chinese trips often take a lot out of the players. His last tournament outing saw him capture the gold medal at the World Games so that should give him plenty of confidence because to have something like that on your CV is a good feeling. While everyone else was at the China Championship, Wilson was actually helping promote the European Masters which is coming up in just over a month. Doing something like that should make him eager to get back out and competing and in a section the draw that again is not littered with top players he is one of the stand out names, and certainly the best player in the top half of this section which is one of the reasons he gets my pick.
Best of the Rest: Lukas Kleckers
Quarter Choice: Kyren Wilson
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
David Gilbert W/O Soheil Vahedi
Nigel Bond Vs Joshua Thomond
George Pragnall W/O Mark Williams
Matthew Bolton Vs Barry Pinches
Daniel Wells Vs Mitchell Mann
Xu Si Vs Rob James
Liam Highfield Vs Lee Walker
Oliver Lines Vs Oliver Brown
Matthew Stevens Vs Kacper Filipiak
Sam Craigie W/O Yuan Sijun
Mark Joyce Vs Marc Davis
Andrew Higginson Vs Hammad Miah
Martin Gould Vs Peter Ebdon
Jack Lisowski Vs Roman Dietzel
Luca Brecel Vs Ashley Carty
Mark King Vs Elliot Slessor
The fourth and final quarter is home to China Championship winner Luca Brecel who will certainly get a lot of attention on his return to Europe. With such a little turnaround from his win on Tuesday to starting this event on Saturday, it is hard to expect him to hit the ground running straight away because he has every right to still be celebrating his maiden triumph. Andrew Higginson often seems to play well in these European Tour style events, with evidence of that being his opening event of the season where he made the Riga Masters quarter-finals. In fact in four of the six years that the Players Championship was held in conjunction with the European Tour and PTC events, Higginson was one of those that qualified, having also been a PTC winner. For me the Widnes Warrior is never one to count out on a week like this and is so much better than his provisional seeding of 54 given the talent and results he has shown in the past.
Jack Lisowski is another that falls into the bracket with Higginson as being better than his ranking in the 50's and the bracket of potentially being a form horse for these style of events. He started the season with a run to the last 16 of the Riga Masters and made the Gibraltar Open quarter-finals in March showing much better form than he had done for a while. In Preston at the beginning of the month he looked in decent form too and won each of his three matches there which is always a nice effort. The likes of Martin Gould and David Gilbert can never be ruled out, and Gilbert starts the week in the last 64 after a first round walkover. Both are very heavy scoring players who can blitz through a draw when they are on their game.
Best of the Rest: Jack Lisowski and Andrew Higginson
Quarter Choice: David Gilbert
Winner Selection: Shaun Murphy
The tournament will not be covered this week on Eurosport TV but will be available to watch from the start of the professional stages on Friday on Eurosport Player and it should be a good one. Looking at the field you certainly would not bet against there being another first time ranking event winner either.
Tuesday 22 August 2017
Luca Brecel breaks through to win China Championship
Luca Brecel has come through the pack to win his first ever ranking title today at the China Championship. Beating Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final saw the Belgian take home the £150,000 top prize, putting himself into the top 16 in the world rankings, as well as earning a place in the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship and a great chance of Masters qualification and automatic Crucible qualification.
Along the road this week Brecel overcame Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals making two centuries in a 5-4 victory from 4-1 adrift. Two rounds before at the last 32 stage he killed off the demons of his World Championship defeat (where he lost 10-9 to Marco Fu from 7-1 up) by beating Fu 5-2. His other victims on the week were Jimmy Robertson (5-2 in the last 64), Mike Dunn (5-3 in the last 16), as well as coming through a very nervy semi-final against China's Li Hang.
Brecel has showed promise on so many occasions before, qualifying for the Crucible in 2012 as a teenager and then making the UK Championship qualifiers in the same year and again in 2016 (losing on both occasions to Murphy), on top of that he made the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2015 before reaching a maiden ranking final in the 2016 German Masters where Martin Gould was the eventual champion.
Despite losing in the final to Brecel, it was a good week still for Murphy as he took home the £75,000 runners-up prize giving his ranking a boost by cementing his top 8 place, and displaying improved form after a couple of poorer showings in the early season Preston qualifiers. On the way this week he battled past an in-form Ken Doherty, had an early bath in the last 32 when German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton shook hands in the second frame - withdrawing through a back problem. Coming into the last 16 pretty fresh he thrashed an under par Stephen Maguire 5-0, before coming through a quarter-final meeting with Zhou Yuelong who had already beaten Martin Gould and World Champion Mark Selby in the previous two rounds. A semi-final with Ali Carter produced a rare win for Murphy as he came from 4-2 down to win 6-4 and end a run of deciding frame losses for Shaun against Ali in recent years.
The draw opened up rather suddenly on "Freaky Friday" as the last 32 round produced the exits of each of the world's top 6. Mark Selby fell to Zhou Yuelong and Barry Hawkins was sent packing by Mark Davis quite comfortably in the afternoon session. The evening session was even more surprising. John Higgins the "defending champion" was beaten 5-2 by Tom Ford while home favourite Ding Junhui was whitewashed by Alan McManus. Graeme Dott showed there's still plenty of big performances in him yet, with the Scot taking down Judd Trump 5-3 while Brecel himself sent home the final member of the top 6 by beating Fu.
World number 7 Neil Robertson had an early bath, falling on the very first morning of the competition, before many of us in the UK were even awake. The victor there was Li Hang who would go on to have his personal best week by reaching the semi-finals. In all he carried on from his 5-4 win against the Australian by beating the Welsh trio of Michael White (5-4 in the last 32), Matthew Stevens (5-4 in the last 16) and Mark Williams (5-3 in the quarter-finals). The run came to an end in the last four despite fighting back against Brecel to eventually lead 5-4. Chances came and went in the final two frames, twitching a simple enough red in the decider which gifted the Belgian a chance from which he took the match out in one visit.
In the end, the final was not exactly an explosive affair. Murphy played well to start with making breaks of 55, 68 and 107 on the way to a 3-1 advantage. However, a couple of tight frames then went against him as Brecel took four on the trot, and even though the Magician stole frame nine on the black after the Belgian bullet missed frame ball pink, the 5-4 end of session lead for Brecel was an unexpected one given Murphy's early play.
Things only got better for Brecel who took the first two frames in the evening session to extend his advantage to three at 4-7. Murphy kept fighting with a run of 77 helping him to close to 5-7 but a crucial frame thirteen proved too much for the eighth seed to come back from. Only needing the penultimate red down the side cushion to make it 6-7, he missed after his rhythm and flow were somewhat disturbed by a misunderstanding with the referee. Murphy repeated his request for the red to be cleaned on several occasions before the referee (who was insistent on getting either the rest or extended rest out) eventually obliged. In the end Brecel made the clearance for 5-8 and took a couple of scrappier frames, by which time Murphy would have been frustrated to have let things slip, and a 10-5 win for Brecel was complete.
Next up on tour is the Paul Hunter Classic in Furth, an event that the players hold dearly, with the professional stages starting on Friday, while the amateur qualifying stages have already begun.
Along the road this week Brecel overcame Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals making two centuries in a 5-4 victory from 4-1 adrift. Two rounds before at the last 32 stage he killed off the demons of his World Championship defeat (where he lost 10-9 to Marco Fu from 7-1 up) by beating Fu 5-2. His other victims on the week were Jimmy Robertson (5-2 in the last 64), Mike Dunn (5-3 in the last 16), as well as coming through a very nervy semi-final against China's Li Hang.
Brecel has showed promise on so many occasions before, qualifying for the Crucible in 2012 as a teenager and then making the UK Championship qualifiers in the same year and again in 2016 (losing on both occasions to Murphy), on top of that he made the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2015 before reaching a maiden ranking final in the 2016 German Masters where Martin Gould was the eventual champion.
Despite losing in the final to Brecel, it was a good week still for Murphy as he took home the £75,000 runners-up prize giving his ranking a boost by cementing his top 8 place, and displaying improved form after a couple of poorer showings in the early season Preston qualifiers. On the way this week he battled past an in-form Ken Doherty, had an early bath in the last 32 when German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton shook hands in the second frame - withdrawing through a back problem. Coming into the last 16 pretty fresh he thrashed an under par Stephen Maguire 5-0, before coming through a quarter-final meeting with Zhou Yuelong who had already beaten Martin Gould and World Champion Mark Selby in the previous two rounds. A semi-final with Ali Carter produced a rare win for Murphy as he came from 4-2 down to win 6-4 and end a run of deciding frame losses for Shaun against Ali in recent years.
The draw opened up rather suddenly on "Freaky Friday" as the last 32 round produced the exits of each of the world's top 6. Mark Selby fell to Zhou Yuelong and Barry Hawkins was sent packing by Mark Davis quite comfortably in the afternoon session. The evening session was even more surprising. John Higgins the "defending champion" was beaten 5-2 by Tom Ford while home favourite Ding Junhui was whitewashed by Alan McManus. Graeme Dott showed there's still plenty of big performances in him yet, with the Scot taking down Judd Trump 5-3 while Brecel himself sent home the final member of the top 6 by beating Fu.
World number 7 Neil Robertson had an early bath, falling on the very first morning of the competition, before many of us in the UK were even awake. The victor there was Li Hang who would go on to have his personal best week by reaching the semi-finals. In all he carried on from his 5-4 win against the Australian by beating the Welsh trio of Michael White (5-4 in the last 32), Matthew Stevens (5-4 in the last 16) and Mark Williams (5-3 in the quarter-finals). The run came to an end in the last four despite fighting back against Brecel to eventually lead 5-4. Chances came and went in the final two frames, twitching a simple enough red in the decider which gifted the Belgian a chance from which he took the match out in one visit.
In the end, the final was not exactly an explosive affair. Murphy played well to start with making breaks of 55, 68 and 107 on the way to a 3-1 advantage. However, a couple of tight frames then went against him as Brecel took four on the trot, and even though the Magician stole frame nine on the black after the Belgian bullet missed frame ball pink, the 5-4 end of session lead for Brecel was an unexpected one given Murphy's early play.
Things only got better for Brecel who took the first two frames in the evening session to extend his advantage to three at 4-7. Murphy kept fighting with a run of 77 helping him to close to 5-7 but a crucial frame thirteen proved too much for the eighth seed to come back from. Only needing the penultimate red down the side cushion to make it 6-7, he missed after his rhythm and flow were somewhat disturbed by a misunderstanding with the referee. Murphy repeated his request for the red to be cleaned on several occasions before the referee (who was insistent on getting either the rest or extended rest out) eventually obliged. In the end Brecel made the clearance for 5-8 and took a couple of scrappier frames, by which time Murphy would have been frustrated to have let things slip, and a 10-5 win for Brecel was complete.
Next up on tour is the Paul Hunter Classic in Furth, an event that the players hold dearly, with the professional stages starting on Friday, while the amateur qualifying stages have already begun.
Monday 14 August 2017
China Championship Preview
This week the tour heads over to Guangzhou for the first Chinese ranking event of the season as the world's best compete for the China Championship title.
The tournament unusually starts on a Wednesday with the final following next Tuesday with the winner taking home a huge £150,000 top prize which will certainly guarantee that player a big rankings move as well as a place in the World Grand Prix and Players Championship events next Spring and a place in November's Champion of Champions.
With World champion Mark Selby, home favourite Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan all in the field this week it is sure to be a week of great entertainment. The only question that remains is whether we will see a renowned winner, someone returning to the winners circle or, after Ryan Day's win in Riga, another first time champion.
This section again gives an opportunity to a few players. Barry Hawkins will be looking to go well after a solid end to last season although he probably has not had as much success in China as he has elsewhere in recent years which may not make him the best pick this week. Ali Carter meanwhile lost both of the qualifiers he played last week in Preston which does not bode too well for this event. Carter particularly seemed to struggle in what I saw of his qualifier against Mei Xiwen. Mark King could really be a dark horse in the draw this week for me. He won each of his three qualifiers in Preston at the beginning of the month and he seems to be confident with his game at the moment. His first round opponent Fergal O'Brien did not seem to go so well last week and will have to up his game if he is to beat King. Watch out also for Ian Preece. He is playing a lot better at the start of this season, completely dominating Oliver Lines and Sanderson Lam in the Indian Open and European Masters qualifiers and thrashing Ricky Walden to get through to Guangzhou. His first round opponent David Grace had differing fortunes in Preston though losing his three qualifiers.
Another talent-packed section of the draw sees us home here with top players contesting every match. I want to start with Hong Kong Masters winner Neil Robertson. Robertson had not had his best few months on the table coming into that tournament so would have perhaps had reason to not be full of confidence coming up against the other top players. To win in the fashion he did will have been very pleasing and often when Robertson has a good run he keeps it going and has another big run to follow it up with a semi-final, final or another title soon after. In fact there are examples of that in each of the last four or so seasons, so you have to fancy that if he can keep it going he'll be right there again this week. Michael Holt against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a great prospect and if I was at the venue for this event, it would be top of my watch list. Holt has improved heavily in the last two years on the big stage and looks a lot calmer under pressure, and with the heavy scoring that Un-Nooh can produce he may be under plenty of it. Riga Masters champion Ryan Day will be looking to keep his form going in what has been a pretty good few months for the Welshman. However, his tie with Cao Yupeng is a very tough assignment. Cao had struggled for a year or two prior to this season but has started in style winning each of his five qualifiers played at Preston so far beating players ranked well inside the top 64 on each occasion. If Day is even slightly off his game he could be punished heavily by the Chinese player.
The talent keeps coming though with former world champions Mark Williams and John Higgins all in the bottom mini section with Day and Cao. Both could be big contenders and of course Higgins will have very fond memories of his win here last year in the invitational event. Williams meanwhile started the season nicely by making the Riga semi-finals for the second year running and losing 5-4 in the semi's for the second year running too. That backs up his run to the China Open final in April so he is certainly a danger man in the draw, even if he still likes to suggest on Twitter every now and again that he is not.
My final quarter choice though is Mark Allen. Allen is in need of an improved season to hold on to his place in the top 16. Last year he finished as low as 22nd on the one-season money list in a season that did not produce enough deep runs in tournaments. This year though he has showed positive signs by bouncing back from defeat in the Riga Masters qualifier to win each of his next four, despite insisting on Twitter that he was not at his best. This ability to grind out matches though is a much more positive sign having been something he probably did not do enough of last season. He still scored well enough in those qualifiers despite his discomfort with the performances, though we all know that on his day there are not many that score heavier. The World Championship last 16 tie with John Higgins provides enough evidence of that. If he is even close to his A game he has enough scoring power to blow away 90% of the tour and should he be happy to grind out frames and matches more along with that I can see a much improved season coming for Allen.
The tournament unusually starts on a Wednesday with the final following next Tuesday with the winner taking home a huge £150,000 top prize which will certainly guarantee that player a big rankings move as well as a place in the World Grand Prix and Players Championship events next Spring and a place in November's Champion of Champions.
With World champion Mark Selby, home favourite Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan all in the field this week it is sure to be a week of great entertainment. The only question that remains is whether we will see a renowned winner, someone returning to the winners circle or, after Ryan Day's win in Riga, another first time champion.
Quarter 1
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Mark Selby Or Luo HongHao Vs Noppon Saengkham
Zhou Yuelong Vs Chen Zifan
Martin Gould Vs Andrew Higginson or Hu Hao
Anthony McGill Vs Mark Joyce
Stephen Maguire Vs Rory McLeod
Stuart Bingham Vs Yan Bingtao
Anthony Hamilton Vs Peter Ebdon
Shaun Murphy Vs Ken Doherty
For me this opening quarter is one where there are opportunities for a couple of players to go well. It will be interesting of course to see how the leading player Mark Selby gets on this week having missed the Riga Masters and losing in round one in the Hong Kong invitational. You certainly would not be surprised if he came back and won straight away this week, especially after doing so well in China last season winning the China Open and International Championship and making the Shanghai final. Aside from this week's heavy favourite the quarter boasts Shaun Murphy who, by his own admission, was not at his best in last week's Preston qualifiers. This is Murphy's first full ranking tournament of the season having failed to make the venue in Riga.
For me though he faces the week's dark horse in round one and that is the resurgent Ken Doherty. Doherty has won all five of the qualifiers played so far this season and went on to reach the semi-finals of the Riga Masters. In last week's qualifiers he overcame Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins so he has certainly found his form and is capable of taking on the best players. Martin Gould and Anthony McGill could do well but in a packed mini section of the draw it is hard to pick either one out to go far with any certainty. Stuart Bingham is another dangerous player in this section but he has a very tough first round draw against someone in Yan Bingtao who could easily go on a run himself if he hits top gear. Anthony Hamilton has also been in good form over the course of the year and could well get on a run this week with his heavy scoring.
My pick for the quarter though is recent Riga Masters runner-up Stephen Maguire. Maguire has a round one draw here that he will fancy against Rory McLeod, who he overcame easily in the second round of this years World Championship. It was at that World Championship where he showed signs of a return to form and he picked that up again at the start of this season in Latvia. Maguire is long overdue for success having gone four and a half years without a full ranking title. He will be pushing hard to get back into the top 16 and has had success in China before, playing one of his best tournaments last season at the Shanghai Masters as well as having a brilliant China Open record. For me this could be a big week for Maguire with big money on offer on the ranking list.
For me though he faces the week's dark horse in round one and that is the resurgent Ken Doherty. Doherty has won all five of the qualifiers played so far this season and went on to reach the semi-finals of the Riga Masters. In last week's qualifiers he overcame Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins so he has certainly found his form and is capable of taking on the best players. Martin Gould and Anthony McGill could do well but in a packed mini section of the draw it is hard to pick either one out to go far with any certainty. Stuart Bingham is another dangerous player in this section but he has a very tough first round draw against someone in Yan Bingtao who could easily go on a run himself if he hits top gear. Anthony Hamilton has also been in good form over the course of the year and could well get on a run this week with his heavy scoring.
My pick for the quarter though is recent Riga Masters runner-up Stephen Maguire. Maguire has a round one draw here that he will fancy against Rory McLeod, who he overcame easily in the second round of this years World Championship. It was at that World Championship where he showed signs of a return to form and he picked that up again at the start of this season in Latvia. Maguire is long overdue for success having gone four and a half years without a full ranking title. He will be pushing hard to get back into the top 16 and has had success in China before, playing one of his best tournaments last season at the Shanghai Masters as well as having a brilliant China Open record. For me this could be a big week for Maguire with big money on offer on the ranking list.
Best of the Rest: Ken Doherty
Quarter Choice: Stephen Maguire
Quarter 2
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Barry Hawkins Vs Oliver Lines
Ben Woollaston Vs Mark Davis
David Grace Vs Ian Preece
Ali Carter Vs Aditya Mehta
Kurt Maflin Vs Michael Georgiou
Mark King Vs Fergal O'Brien
Alan McManus Vs Elliot Slessor
Ding Junhui or Niu Zhuang Vs Alfie Burden
This section again gives an opportunity to a few players. Barry Hawkins will be looking to go well after a solid end to last season although he probably has not had as much success in China as he has elsewhere in recent years which may not make him the best pick this week. Ali Carter meanwhile lost both of the qualifiers he played last week in Preston which does not bode too well for this event. Carter particularly seemed to struggle in what I saw of his qualifier against Mei Xiwen. Mark King could really be a dark horse in the draw this week for me. He won each of his three qualifiers in Preston at the beginning of the month and he seems to be confident with his game at the moment. His first round opponent Fergal O'Brien did not seem to go so well last week and will have to up his game if he is to beat King. Watch out also for Ian Preece. He is playing a lot better at the start of this season, completely dominating Oliver Lines and Sanderson Lam in the Indian Open and European Masters qualifiers and thrashing Ricky Walden to get through to Guangzhou. His first round opponent David Grace had differing fortunes in Preston though losing his three qualifiers.
To me, Ding Junhui is the most likely player aside from Selby who can dominate the game in the next few years. The 30-year-old comes into this tournament fresh having only played in the World Cup with Liang Wenbo, where they ran out winners, since his incredible World Championship semi-final with Selby. In that tournament, Ding for me showed signs that he has come of age at last and is ready to add big titles by the bucket load. His incredible scoring (seeing him rack up 13 centuries in 51 frames won at the Crucible in May) is too much for the large majority of players to handle and is the reason I believe he stands out from the pack. On home soil, his performances were of the highest quality last season as he reached two finals, winning in Shanghai and losing in the International, in the four ranking events in China. His results in the UK and Europe did not always necessarily match that level last year, but he now seems more comfortable than ever playing in front of a home crowd and the results demonstrate it. In quite an open section of the draw I expect Ding again to be the top man.
Best of the Rest: Mark King
Quarter Choice: Ding Junhui
Quarter 3
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Judd Trump Vs Daniel Wells or Ma Chunmao
Graeme Dott Vs Robert Milkins
David Gilbert Vs Stuart Carrington
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Sam Baird
Liang Wenbo or Ian Burns Vs Allan Taylor
Joe Perry Vs Mike Dunn
Luca Brecel Vs Jimmy Robertson
Marco Fu Vs Hossein Vafei
Quarter three in this draw for me is the most exciting one. For starters we have Judd Trump who will be looking to get back to his Pre-World Championship form of last season. He has recently had laser eye surgery which can take some getting used to, especially in Chinese conditions as well and under the TV lights. He lost 5-0 to Sam Craigie and will more than likely face another talented youngster player in Daniel Wells as long as he wins his wildcard match, and Wells will certainly not make life easy for Trump. Robert Milkins and Graeme Dott is going to be a close battle in my view. Both players blew hot and cold in Preston, Dott's two games in particularly being struggles for the line while Milkins had some tough matches too. Ronnie O'Sullivan is obviously the big draw and I think he will do well this week even if the draw looking beyond round one is filled with class players. He does not always bring his best game out to China, particularly in recent years, but with a big cheque on offer and some exciting matches on the cards I think he will be well up for this event.
Liang Wenbo is not someone we have seen a whole lot of this year. The World Cup has been his only appearance since Sheffield and as someone who is very hit and miss it is going to be tough to judge how he will go this week, with very little form to go on. Luca Brecel and Jimmy Robertson is going to be a very exciting match. Both are attacking players who on their day score very heavily and Robertson himself was in very heavy scoring form in Preston at the start of the month and looked quite impressive. That is a match that could go right to the wire and the winner could go far in this quarter if they are on their game. Finally, Marco Fu and Hossein Vafei looks like another blockbuster. Hossein continues to impress and has won all of his August qualifiers and is just growing stronger and more confident, ever since his run to the China Open semi-finals. Fu has not played much this season and will not want to give Hossein any encouragement early on or else he could be in for a struggle. Fu was much more consistent last season and scored pretty heavily but having been an inconsistent player over the years, the question is certainly whether he can keep that going.
Joe Perry is my pick though for this third quarter. Perry's season tailed off in 2016/2017 after making the World Open final and despite making the Masters final, he could not hold on to that form and stay in the top 16 for the World Championships. He will now be determined to fight back into the top 16 and he started the season with a boost by making the Riga quarter-finals before losing to eventual winner Ryan Day. He has won each of his qualifiers this season so far and showed good fight against Boonyarit in the European Masters qualifier in particular. His draw is not too bad with a couple of players in his mini section who, while being very dangerous at their best, can also dip well below their usual standards if things do not quite happen for them. Perry is probably the most solid by comparison to Liang, Fu or Brecel who can be very streaky. A couple of confidence boosting wins could soon see Perry back to the form that has taken him to two Chinese ranking finals, two Asian tour titles and a lone full ranking win that came in Thailand, showing his pedigree in what can be very difficult Asian playing conditions at times.
Liang Wenbo is not someone we have seen a whole lot of this year. The World Cup has been his only appearance since Sheffield and as someone who is very hit and miss it is going to be tough to judge how he will go this week, with very little form to go on. Luca Brecel and Jimmy Robertson is going to be a very exciting match. Both are attacking players who on their day score very heavily and Robertson himself was in very heavy scoring form in Preston at the start of the month and looked quite impressive. That is a match that could go right to the wire and the winner could go far in this quarter if they are on their game. Finally, Marco Fu and Hossein Vafei looks like another blockbuster. Hossein continues to impress and has won all of his August qualifiers and is just growing stronger and more confident, ever since his run to the China Open semi-finals. Fu has not played much this season and will not want to give Hossein any encouragement early on or else he could be in for a struggle. Fu was much more consistent last season and scored pretty heavily but having been an inconsistent player over the years, the question is certainly whether he can keep that going.
Joe Perry is my pick though for this third quarter. Perry's season tailed off in 2016/2017 after making the World Open final and despite making the Masters final, he could not hold on to that form and stay in the top 16 for the World Championships. He will now be determined to fight back into the top 16 and he started the season with a boost by making the Riga quarter-finals before losing to eventual winner Ryan Day. He has won each of his qualifiers this season so far and showed good fight against Boonyarit in the European Masters qualifier in particular. His draw is not too bad with a couple of players in his mini section who, while being very dangerous at their best, can also dip well below their usual standards if things do not quite happen for them. Perry is probably the most solid by comparison to Liang, Fu or Brecel who can be very streaky. A couple of confidence boosting wins could soon see Perry back to the form that has taken him to two Chinese ranking finals, two Asian tour titles and a lone full ranking win that came in Thailand, showing his pedigree in what can be very difficult Asian playing conditions at times.
Best of the Rest: Hossein Vafei
Quarter Choice: Joe Perry
Quarter 4
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Li Hang
Michael White Vs Xiao Guodong
Mark Allen Vs Matthew Stevens
Michael Holt Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ryan Day Vs Cao Yupeng
Mark Williams Vs Tian Pengfei or Fan Zhengyi
Tom Ford Vs Matthew Selt
John Higgins or Lu Haotian Vs Chris Wakelin
Another talent-packed section of the draw sees us home here with top players contesting every match. I want to start with Hong Kong Masters winner Neil Robertson. Robertson had not had his best few months on the table coming into that tournament so would have perhaps had reason to not be full of confidence coming up against the other top players. To win in the fashion he did will have been very pleasing and often when Robertson has a good run he keeps it going and has another big run to follow it up with a semi-final, final or another title soon after. In fact there are examples of that in each of the last four or so seasons, so you have to fancy that if he can keep it going he'll be right there again this week. Michael Holt against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a great prospect and if I was at the venue for this event, it would be top of my watch list. Holt has improved heavily in the last two years on the big stage and looks a lot calmer under pressure, and with the heavy scoring that Un-Nooh can produce he may be under plenty of it. Riga Masters champion Ryan Day will be looking to keep his form going in what has been a pretty good few months for the Welshman. However, his tie with Cao Yupeng is a very tough assignment. Cao had struggled for a year or two prior to this season but has started in style winning each of his five qualifiers played at Preston so far beating players ranked well inside the top 64 on each occasion. If Day is even slightly off his game he could be punished heavily by the Chinese player.
The talent keeps coming though with former world champions Mark Williams and John Higgins all in the bottom mini section with Day and Cao. Both could be big contenders and of course Higgins will have very fond memories of his win here last year in the invitational event. Williams meanwhile started the season nicely by making the Riga semi-finals for the second year running and losing 5-4 in the semi's for the second year running too. That backs up his run to the China Open final in April so he is certainly a danger man in the draw, even if he still likes to suggest on Twitter every now and again that he is not.
My final quarter choice though is Mark Allen. Allen is in need of an improved season to hold on to his place in the top 16. Last year he finished as low as 22nd on the one-season money list in a season that did not produce enough deep runs in tournaments. This year though he has showed positive signs by bouncing back from defeat in the Riga Masters qualifier to win each of his next four, despite insisting on Twitter that he was not at his best. This ability to grind out matches though is a much more positive sign having been something he probably did not do enough of last season. He still scored well enough in those qualifiers despite his discomfort with the performances, though we all know that on his day there are not many that score heavier. The World Championship last 16 tie with John Higgins provides enough evidence of that. If he is even close to his A game he has enough scoring power to blow away 90% of the tour and should he be happy to grind out frames and matches more along with that I can see a much improved season coming for Allen.
Best of the Rest: Cao Yupeng
Quarter Winner: Mark Allen
Winner Selection: Ding Junhui
The format for this week sees the players play over the best-of-9 frames until best-of-11 frame semi-finals and a best-of-19 frame final over two sessions next Tuesday. The event will be live on Eurosport in the UK as well as on the Eurosport Player.
Sunday 13 August 2017
China Championship: Rewind - Best Matches
In a new blog feature over the course of the season, I'll be looking back on the recent past of tournaments to some of the great matches, in a scaled down version of my old classic matches feature, which over the season will probably bring some of those old posts back to life.
Starting this week with the China Championship, the tournament has only ever been held once in November 2016 as a 16-man invitational, but the event still lived up to a top billing and produced a trio of tasty matches that I will be looking back on here.
Featuring on this occasion is are a couple of classic head to heads including another high scoring repeat of the 2015 World Championship final, and a Kings finish from John Higgins.
3rd - 2016 - Quarter-Finals - Mark Allen 6-5 Mark Selby - This contest was the scene of one of Mark Allen's best performances in the whole of last season as he made three centuries to beat world champion Mark Selby. The first two frames of the match were shared before the Northern Irishman waded in with the first of three centuries in the match. A break of 114 put him 2-1 ahead but he was soon level again at 2-2 after Selby took the fourth frame on the black. Allen was unfazed by that and came out of the interval firing even further. A break of 100 was added to by a match high of 131 in putting him 4-2 in front and his scoring was at it's best.
When a tight seventh frame went the way of Allen sending him one away from victory at 5-2, he looked like he was countering to victory. As always though, things are never that simple against the long-term world number one. In true Selby fashion there was no rolling over, instead he smashed in a brilliant 89 in the eighth and a 127 century of his own in the tenth to come back and force a final frame decider. Having been on the receiving end of Selby fight backs like this before Allen did not panic or buckle under the pressure. When his chance came in the deciding frame he put a break of 60 on the board and that was the key factor in the end, as Allen sealed a memorable 6-5 victory.
2nd - 2016 - Final - John Higgins 10-7 Stuart Bingham - Match number two comes from the hotly contested final between John Higgins and Stuart Bingham. In a match that featured five century breaks in total, it was the Scot who took an early advantage by racing into a 3-0 lead. This was when Bingham fired in his two century breaks and started looking strong himself. Brilliant efforts of 102 and 112 were added to with a run of 52 that saw the match levelled at 3-3. In the end a closely contested end to the session eventually saw Higgins 5-4, but a run of 98 featured in the two frames that Bingham won after the break to lead for the first time at 6-5.
That did not throw Higgins from his game though. He quickly hit back with successive frames to regain the lead at 7-6 in this pendulum swinging contest aided by runs of 56 and 61. A one visit frame followed from Bingham as he notched up 84 to level the match up once more and set up what looked like being a close finish from 7-7. Like big time champions do, the four-times World Champion served up a vintage spell of snooker that not many could match. A run of 134 in the fifteenth nudged him ahead once more at 8-7 and he soon gained a cushion with a second century in a row, with a 100 to go one away from the line. Determined to finish in style, a 101 break in the final frame gave Higgins the title and three successive tons to get force his way over the line.
1st - 2016 - Final - Stuart Bingham 9-8 Shaun Murphy - The best match of last year's championship was the high scoring semi-final match between Shaun Murphy and Bingham. The match featured a total of 14 breaks of 69 or more which is some going over a best-of-17 frame contest. Despite a run of 94 in the opener from Murphy, Bingham led 3-1 after the first mini session with runs of 104 and a total clearance of 141 in frames three and four. Murphy's riposte was to wade in with runs of 86 and 87 to make the match all square at 3-3. The pair then traded blows again to end the session 4-4, Bingham making 83 to win the seventh in one visit, while 78 from Murphy in the eighth produced the same result.
The second session got underway with Murphy racking up 69 to move ahead for the first time since the opening frame of the match at 5-4. Although, in similar fashion to the first session, he would go on to lose the next three frames and head into the final mini session 7-5 adrift, as Bingham made runs of 78 and 96. Once more, Murphy responded with a match and tournament high total clearance of 144 to get back to within one of Bingham, but he returned with 71 to go to within a frame of the final at 8-6. Murphy was playing well enough to know he still had more than a chance though. A run of 75 kept him in the hunt at 7-8 before he dominated the sixteenth to take the game all the way.
Murphy had a chance early on in the decider to pull off the comeback but he couldn't take advantage and Stuart Bingham did the rest. Ballrun made his third century of the match to keep the high scoring going right up to the last moments, as a 114 saw him edge out Murphy once again. A head to head that produced a classic Crucible final and nail biting World Grand Prix final produced once more making this the best of last year's China Championship.
With plenty of more matches to indulge in this week, I'm sure there will be even more top quality contests to add to this list of excellent displays in what, with a £150,000 top prize, is a major event.
Starting this week with the China Championship, the tournament has only ever been held once in November 2016 as a 16-man invitational, but the event still lived up to a top billing and produced a trio of tasty matches that I will be looking back on here.
Featuring on this occasion is are a couple of classic head to heads including another high scoring repeat of the 2015 World Championship final, and a Kings finish from John Higgins.
3rd - 2016 - Quarter-Finals - Mark Allen 6-5 Mark Selby - This contest was the scene of one of Mark Allen's best performances in the whole of last season as he made three centuries to beat world champion Mark Selby. The first two frames of the match were shared before the Northern Irishman waded in with the first of three centuries in the match. A break of 114 put him 2-1 ahead but he was soon level again at 2-2 after Selby took the fourth frame on the black. Allen was unfazed by that and came out of the interval firing even further. A break of 100 was added to by a match high of 131 in putting him 4-2 in front and his scoring was at it's best.
When a tight seventh frame went the way of Allen sending him one away from victory at 5-2, he looked like he was countering to victory. As always though, things are never that simple against the long-term world number one. In true Selby fashion there was no rolling over, instead he smashed in a brilliant 89 in the eighth and a 127 century of his own in the tenth to come back and force a final frame decider. Having been on the receiving end of Selby fight backs like this before Allen did not panic or buckle under the pressure. When his chance came in the deciding frame he put a break of 60 on the board and that was the key factor in the end, as Allen sealed a memorable 6-5 victory.
2nd - 2016 - Final - John Higgins 10-7 Stuart Bingham - Match number two comes from the hotly contested final between John Higgins and Stuart Bingham. In a match that featured five century breaks in total, it was the Scot who took an early advantage by racing into a 3-0 lead. This was when Bingham fired in his two century breaks and started looking strong himself. Brilliant efforts of 102 and 112 were added to with a run of 52 that saw the match levelled at 3-3. In the end a closely contested end to the session eventually saw Higgins 5-4, but a run of 98 featured in the two frames that Bingham won after the break to lead for the first time at 6-5.
That did not throw Higgins from his game though. He quickly hit back with successive frames to regain the lead at 7-6 in this pendulum swinging contest aided by runs of 56 and 61. A one visit frame followed from Bingham as he notched up 84 to level the match up once more and set up what looked like being a close finish from 7-7. Like big time champions do, the four-times World Champion served up a vintage spell of snooker that not many could match. A run of 134 in the fifteenth nudged him ahead once more at 8-7 and he soon gained a cushion with a second century in a row, with a 100 to go one away from the line. Determined to finish in style, a 101 break in the final frame gave Higgins the title and three successive tons to get force his way over the line.
1st - 2016 - Final - Stuart Bingham 9-8 Shaun Murphy - The best match of last year's championship was the high scoring semi-final match between Shaun Murphy and Bingham. The match featured a total of 14 breaks of 69 or more which is some going over a best-of-17 frame contest. Despite a run of 94 in the opener from Murphy, Bingham led 3-1 after the first mini session with runs of 104 and a total clearance of 141 in frames three and four. Murphy's riposte was to wade in with runs of 86 and 87 to make the match all square at 3-3. The pair then traded blows again to end the session 4-4, Bingham making 83 to win the seventh in one visit, while 78 from Murphy in the eighth produced the same result.
The second session got underway with Murphy racking up 69 to move ahead for the first time since the opening frame of the match at 5-4. Although, in similar fashion to the first session, he would go on to lose the next three frames and head into the final mini session 7-5 adrift, as Bingham made runs of 78 and 96. Once more, Murphy responded with a match and tournament high total clearance of 144 to get back to within one of Bingham, but he returned with 71 to go to within a frame of the final at 8-6. Murphy was playing well enough to know he still had more than a chance though. A run of 75 kept him in the hunt at 7-8 before he dominated the sixteenth to take the game all the way.
Murphy had a chance early on in the decider to pull off the comeback but he couldn't take advantage and Stuart Bingham did the rest. Ballrun made his third century of the match to keep the high scoring going right up to the last moments, as a 114 saw him edge out Murphy once again. A head to head that produced a classic Crucible final and nail biting World Grand Prix final produced once more making this the best of last year's China Championship.
With plenty of more matches to indulge in this week, I'm sure there will be even more top quality contests to add to this list of excellent displays in what, with a £150,000 top prize, is a major event.
Friday 11 August 2017
FANTASY SNOOKER 2017/2018 LAUNCH
With the first big event of the snooker season, the China Championship, just a few days away it is time to launch this season's Fantasy Snooker competition. With a new season comes a few additional rules, that with the existing rules will add to the excitement of the competition.
NEW RULES:
- The first new rule of the season is the addition of 3 "captain’s picks" to use during the season. Captain’s picks can only be used on one of the two players that you pick for a tournament and these will earn double points for the selected player. Captain’s picks cannot be used in the UK, Masters and World Championships (Double Points events in their own right) but with a maximum of three to use this effectively means there will be double the amount of double points events this year.
NEW RULES:
- The first new rule of the season is the addition of 3 "captain’s picks" to use during the season. Captain’s picks can only be used on one of the two players that you pick for a tournament and these will earn double points for the selected player. Captain’s picks cannot be used in the UK, Masters and World Championships (Double Points events in their own right) but with a maximum of three to use this effectively means there will be double the amount of double points events this year.
- As well as picking two players for each tournament
in turn, ALL participants must pick two "season long picks". These players are picked before the first event (China Championship) and cannot be changed at any point of the season, so pick wisely. The catch with these season long picks is that one of them must come into the China Championship with a world ranking between 33 and
64 and the other must be a player outside of the current top 64. These players will earn points throughout the season in addition to tournament specific picks (excluding qualifying events or heldover matches). Current world rankings can be found here: http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?template=31
- Finally, I will be playing along in a "Beat the Boss" style. What this means is that I will pick players in the same way as you competitors in order to set a bench mark. At the end of each event players will then get bonus points based on how they perform Vs myself. For example beating me by 1-10 will gain 2 bonus points and beating me by 11-20 points will gain 3 bonus points, with a winning margin of over 20 points gaining 5 bonus points. Anyone who earns 20 or more points less than me in a "gameweek" will receive a 1 point penalty.
CONTINUING RULES:
- Participants can pick any two players they wish,
but each participant can only pick the same player a maximum of three times
over the course of the seasons featured events.
TOURNAMENTS TO BE INCLUDED
- China Championship
- Indian Open
- World Open
- European Masters
- English Open
- International Championship
- Champion of Champions
- Irish Open
- UK
Championships (DOUBLE POINTS)
- Scottish Open
- Masters
(DOUBLE POINTS)
- German Masters
- World Grand Prix
- Welsh Open
- Players Championship
- China Open
- World
Championships (DOUBLE POINTS)
POINTS SCORING:
- Match
Win: 5 points
- Match
Win by 3 frames or better (5-2, 4-1, etc): 2 bonus points
- Player
Century: 2 points
- 147
break by player: 5 bonus points
- Semi-Finallist:
2 points
- Runner-Up
5 points
- Tournament
Winner: 10 points
The final task is for me to pick my players for the first event as part of "Beat the Boss".
For the China Championship my selections are: Stephen Maguire and Michael Holt
Meanwhile, my season selection from the 33-64 ranking bracket is: Hossein Vafei
Finally, my season selection from the Outside Top 64 ranking bracket is: Robin Hull
The deadline for all China Championship and season-long picks is before the first matches in the China Championship in the early hours of Wednesday 16th August.
Friday 4 August 2017
LIVE BLOG: European Masters: Soheil Vahedi vs Mike Dunn and others
GRAEME DOTT 4-2 CRAIG STEADMAN - Dott did quickly get the job done knowing he had seized control he had upped the pace and was over the winning line in no time at all. A battling win from 2-0 down but, as he would've been on Tuesday, he'll be happy just to be through.
- Chances have come and gone for Steadman again but it's an unlucky safety that might do for him in the end. Dott already led coming into this break and the reds are favourable for him to get it done here.
Frame Dott - In no time at all Dott notches up a run of 68 to leave Steadman needing a snooker with three reds left, but having also been snookered by Graeme he concedes and Dott leads for the first time. 3-2 Dott
- Graeme Dott is starting to look stronger here and being helped by his opponents errors. A missed red to middle from Steadman left him in this time and despite a horrendous kick on the black he's building a strong break and could soon be in front.
Frame Dott - He may not be firing on all cylinders but Dott is doing something he knows how to do so well and that is grind out a result. Steadman potted a long red that deserved better than the tough pink he was left with and subsequently missed to leave Dott in. The Scot jumped on the chance and with an additional 38 he's squared the match up in battling fashion 2-2
TABLE 5 UPDATE - This match between Steadman and Dott is now the one I'll be covering since Soheil has won. Dott edged the third frame on the pink to get back into it but he is not out of the woods by any means. Yet to settle and he's missed the black off its spot in frame four already but still leads by 36 as a safety exchange begins.
SOHEIL VAHEDI 4-0 MIKE DUNN - The bronze medalist does not hang about in the balls and sprints to a 45 break that is enough to leave Dunn needing snookers on the last two reds. Mike had seen more than enough though and shook Soheils hand. Him and Hossein, who was returning the favour after Soheil watched his match yesterday, will be delighted. Two wins from two for both this week. Great work.
- A cracking long pot with reds spread open has forged a great chance for Soheil here. From the snooker he laid Dunny has left one and this could be game set and match very quickly.
Frame Soheil - Just as I said Dunn needed to knuckle down and make the most of his opportunity he missed the black off its spot. Soheil hasn't given him another bite of the cherry and for me those are Dunn's hopes in this match extinguished. 3-0 Soheil
- Another cracking opportunity here for Soheil as Dunn is unfortunate to see the red he played safe off and sent into baulk come all the way back leaving an east starter for his opponent. With the reds spread far and wide by the safety exchange and the way Soheil has played this could soon be 3-0... Until he misses unexpectedly. Dunn needs to take this opportunity here to have any hopes.
TABLE 5 UPDATE - Graeme Dott has started slowly here and is going to be out of this before long if he doesn't get it together. An initial 57 from Steadman the catalyst for his 2-0 lead.
Frame Soheil - Soheil ran out of position from the chance I initially called "golden" but got another when Dunn missed a red on the counter. Soheil then missed frame ball from that chance and another go from range but after fluking a snooker, Dunn left one of the two remaining reds and the Iranian eventually killed the frame off. 2-0 Soheil
- Thanks to a poor safety from Dunn, Soheil has been left right in and already having a 33 point lead as he comes to the table this is a golden chance to double his lead.
TABLE 5 UPDATE - First frame to Steadman against Dott much to his relief. He missed frame ball and Dott had a chance to clear but went in off potting the yellow and trying to go round the table for position on the green.
Frame Soheil - Clinch the frame in one visit is exactly what the Iranian does. An 83 that is only not a century because of a poor shot to get on the yellow. Otherwise a perfect start. 1-0 Soheil
- Dunn had an early chance in this frame but after a bit of safety Soheil now has a spectacular chance with the reds in perfect positions. Like a practice session. Should take the opener from here.
My second live blog of the afternoon will focus on the second Iranian player Soheil Vahedi against Mike Dunn. We're just a few minutes away from the start of this one. Soheil of course won the bronze medal last week at the World Games and overcame Martin Gould in Indian Open qualifying. As for Dunn he had a nice 4-0 win in Indian Open qualifying and played pretty well in that match.
Elsewhere I will have updates on table 8 featuring one of my players to watch Ashley Hugill against Malaysia's Thor Chuan Leong. I have a sighter at table 5 too between Dott and Steadman. Really looking forward to these afternoon games.
LIVE BLOG: European Masters: Jackson Page Vs Mitchell Mann and Others
MITCHELL MANN 4-0 JACKSON PAGE - In the end it was a good clearance from Mann that got it done. Page left a red over the middle but it wasn't potable from the baulk end so Mann played bottom cushion and side cushion to knock it in. He fully capitalised with a confident 31 to the pink to secure a 4-0 victory. Jackson couldn't get going and Mann had the upper hand tactically today would be my summary.
- To say both Page and Mann have had chances in frame four would be an understatement. A few balls have been missed by either side. Three reds left and they're on the bottom cushion as the safety commences.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - Georgiou took his chance well in fifth frame. A comfortable break leaving De Lu needing three snookers with two reds left. Surprisingly given that it was the frame Georgiou needed for victory, Yu took a long time to think before then shaking Georgiou's hand and the Cypriot signs for a comfortable 4-1 victory.
Frame Mann - Mann makes an error when in and leaves Page a chance with three reds left. He clears the reds with blacks and clears the first three colours but can't knock the blue into a potable area. Mann then leaves a chance at a long blue, Page misses and leaves it for Mann who clears the three colours to move one away. 3-0 Mann
- Back to table 8 and there's a decent chance for Jackson Page until he misses a black off the spot. Mann missed initially but will be delighted to be back at the table so soon. Even if it's for a safety bottle. Page now in with a long red and brilliantly screws the yellow in to come off the baulk cushion and back for the reds. He doesn't land nicely on one though and misses a tricky one. Mann comes back still 10 ahead and makes a good mid range pot on the stretch. Remaining reds set up perfectly so should be 3-0 here.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - Georgiou missed a red into the middle which De Lu left and from that the Chinese player has made a very assured and comfortable 49 to the pink, never looking in trouble this time as he gets a frame back. Still 3-1 Georgiou.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - De Lu had first chance again in this frame and looked OK until he under hit a couple of positional shots resulting in a missed blue to the yellow pocket that was never too close. Georgiou made 27 from Yu's leave but could not get into the pack and played safe with 5 reds left.
Frame Mann - Mann forces the error on the final red as Page fouls and leaves a free ball. From that Mann clears to the brown, which he rolled in nicely across the baulk cushion, leaving Page needing snookers he failed to obtain 2-0 Mann
- Mann had the upper hand on the safety and forced another opening only to miss when in and leave the chance for Page. He clears the open reds but stumbles on one along the cushion which Mann pots but can go no further than the resulting colour. Safety now.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - De Lu pots the penultimate red and black and just misses the cannon on the final red on the side cushion. Georgiou then gets the upper hand on the final red with a brilliant snooker behind the black which forces the error. He clears to the green leaving De Lu needing a snooker on the brown.
- Not a great deal is happening over on table 8. There's been a lot of safety in frame two and it's here where Mann has the upper hand putting Page in trouble.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - De Lu gets a fourth chance from the snooker but playing the red at pace misses it and opens reds up for Georgiou. He clears to the final three reds which are all quite awkward and misses one down the rail. Yu's safety then results in fluking a red but he doesn't land on a colour and plays a clever snooker behind the black on the side cushion. Another missed De Lu at pace leaves nothing. Safety now.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - Not been the best start to frame three here. De Lu has had two chances but only made 2. Missing a blue off the spot trying to come round the table and a black along the bottom cushion that was too pacy to have much chance. Georgiou doesn't take advantage and De Lu makes a long pot to get back in, but after hitting two positional shots too hard he loses position and lays the snooker.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - Yu De Lu's poor safety was the end of his participation in this frame. With reds open and a rest pot to get in Georgiou negotiates it well and soon notches up a century to double his lead. 2-0.
Frame Mann - Mann makes a very nice 67 with a couple of nice recovery pots before missing a simple frame ball black. Jackson can tie here with all blacks and immediately gets it back on it's spot from its resting place up the table. Unfortunately he's now had to take a blue so needs a snooker and misses the next red. Mann knocks one in and that'll be the opener in the bag.
- First chance for Mann here. Balls nicely spread. Black in play. He should be looking to make a few from this one.
- Jackson Page and Mitchell Mann are now out in the arena and ready to begin their match. Only 20 minutes late in the end.
TABLE 6 UPDATE - Georgiou is going to win the opener here. Three or four chances needed and Yu played on for snookers before leaving a red short of the pocket when trying to pot it and conceding. 1-0 Georgiou.
- Over now for Jackson Page Vs Mitchell Mann which is not more than a few moments from starting and will have updates on Yu DeLu and Michael Georgiou on table 6.
TABLE 4 UPDATE - 72 for Zhou Yuelong takes the opener with ease so he leads 1-0
- While that happens on table 4, Jak Jones has beaten Fergal on table 8 so Jackson Page Vs Mitchell Mann will be on in 15. Will also have table 6 updates on Yu De Lu after some interesting tweets I've seen.
TABLE 4 UPDATE - A poor shot from Robbie Williams has given the first chance away to Zhou Yuelong. The reds are pretty well placed but the black is out of play for now. Needs to keep tight position
- A slight change of plan already this afternoon. Jackson Page and Mitchell Mann are due on table 8 which has run over so I will do updates from table 4 between Zhou Yuelong and Robbie Williams until that match is underway.
Today's first live blog will come from "The Action" Jackson Page and Mitchell Mann in the European Masters qualifiers. Jackson's 16th birthday is not until Tuesday but he'll be looking to celebrate with another victory here after beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-0 on Tuesday morning in Indian Open qualifying. As for Mann, he is searching for his first win of the season having lost his first three qualifiers of the year. Page is a player many are excited by so it will be good to watch him close up again today.
Depending on which matches start on time, and on which tables matches are, I'm hoping to get a look at Robbie Williams (who I interviewed before the World Championship qualifiers) and Zhou Yuelong. There are also two cracking streams on the go this afternoon with Michael White and Thepchiaya Un-Nooh as well as Ryan Day and German Lukas Kleckers so why not take a look at those while following my blog. Once I again I will confirm everything for this afternoon once I am in the venue just before 1pm.
European Masters Qualifiers: Day 1 Round-up
Ken Doherty kept his brilliant run going this season by qualifying for the European Masters, beating Barry Hawkins 4-3 for the privilege. Doherty produced a well controlled 69 in the decider to get over the line and add to his win over Ali Carter in the Indian Open qualifiers on Tuesday, keeping the Irishman on cloud nine.
Jimmy Robertson fell 4-3 to Sam Baird despite a break of 130 in a match that looked to have a lot of high quality throughout. Adam Duffy produced a 4-2 win over Liam Highfield to make it two out of two for him this week in the qualifiers, having beaten Noppon Saengkham earlier in the week, who he will play again in the World Open qualifiers for their third meeting of the season already.
Chen Zifan meanwhile won his third qualifier out of four this season as he saw off Hammad Miah 4-2. In the afternoon session, Yuan Sijun secured his first win as a tour professional, the 17-year-old beating Allan Taylor 4-2 in a match that did not necessarily have the highest quality, but did again show flashes of the talent with Yuan that can certainly be honed.
Ben Woollaston looked in much better form yesterday in a 4-0 win against Ian Burns than he had earlier in the week. Whenever I glanced over to that table he seemed to be in and scoring, and sealed victory in little over an hour, finishing with a century break that accompanied to other 60+ breaks in the match. Kyren Wilson was able to put the disappointment of Wednesday afternoon's defeat behind him as he took care of Xu Si 4-0.
Gerard Greene managed to grab a 4-3 victory Andrew Higginson in a ding dong battle where Gerard was on top for much of the play but could not shake off his opponent. After winning the first two frames, with Higginson missing a few chances, he was then able to claw his way back in and steal the next two despite decent breaks from Greene in each. The Northern Irishman edged back in front in a fifth frame that Higginson again had chances, but a magnificent century from Higginson forced the decider. It was the higher ranked player who had the first chance in the decider but missing in the thirties and leaving the red over the hole handed that over to Greene. His first move was to go into the pack from the red over the corner and having split the reds he did not back. A run of 76 was more than enough to secure a deserved win.
My first feature match of the afternoon saw Robin Hull defeated 4-2 by Zhang Yong. The Finn had started well with an excellent 99 to settle into the match immediately, and he looked to be cueing very nicely early on. This was backed up by a good 63 to quickly double his lead, and at this stage you thought that the match would be over very quickly. The turning point came in frame three which Zhang Yong won on the pink and that gave him a huge boost of confidence, as would the support of some of his fellow Chinese players in the crowd. A run of 90 in the fourth not only squared the match up but showed how well Zhang was cueing as he continued to pull out shot after shot. He did not waste his opportunity in frame five either with 68 to edge ahead for the first time, and by now Hull was left to wonder how this had come about after a great start. When Zhang completed victory Hull will have been left very disappointed and frustrated not to have converted a good start into a Belgium trip, but Zhang played very well from the third frame onwards and looked a lot more comfortable.
Later in the afternoon I was treated to another great battle as Gary Wilson took on Hossein Vafei. Both players were in top scoring form, with Wilson looking very comfortable and confident as he took the opening frame, despite needing two chances. Hossein needed two chances to take the second but a run of 50 from the second chance squared up the affair and at this stage they were playing at a great speed. 82 from Wilson put his nose back in front before Hossein made a brilliant 93 to level with both players going blow for blow and answering the others great play. Hossein then took the lead in frame five but let Wilson back in with a chance to steal and even though he let that one slip by, another came to his cue pretty quickly but a was left this time to rue a missed yellow and Hossein would have been relieved to pot the colours he needed for the frame.
Hossein built a 50 point lead again in the sixth frame and it looked like it could be curtains for Wilson, but when the Iranian missed a tough one, Wilson cleared down to the final red before playing safe with his hat firmly back in the ring. In the end a snooker behind the black forced the critical mistake and Wilson did the rest to take the match to a deserved deciding frame. The decider deserves a blog of its own in many ways to cover all of the drama. Wilson had the first chance and built a strong lead of 55 but lost position shortly after opening the pack, and this let Hossein back in to claw back the deficit. A run of 50 down to the yellow was good to get back into the frame but a critical miss was not. Wilson got the upper hand back by potting the yellow and playing a clever snooker on the green. This got him eight foul points and a ball in hand from which he potted the green from range. Brown would have been match ball but Hossein won the safety battle on that but could not get on the blue. More safety was played and Hossein again won the battle and followed with a decent pink, but left the black at long range, but still produced a top pot to win the match, much to his delight and that of fellow countryman Soheil Vahedi who was watching on. Meanwhile, Wilson wondered what might have been and let the table feel some of his frustration on the way out of the arena.
Elsewhere, there was victory for Mark Allen in a tough game with Daniel Wells, though Allen produced a nice clearance in the third frame, and made a 91 in the sixth before signing for a 4-2 win. Peter Ebdon clung on for a deciding frame win against the unorthodox Akani Songsermsawad who certainly has a unique style that I've never seen the like of before.
In the evening session there was a good victory for Noppon Saengkham who continues to improve, progress and look like a dangerous player every time I see him. A 130 break along the way was testament to that. Michael Holt eased to a 4-0 victory against Paul Davison, who made Holt work hard in a couple of frames but could not really string anything together.
Match of the evening saw Billy Castle get his first win as a professional by beating Jimmy White 4-3. It was a close affair all the way through with a number of frames coming down to the colours, with a critical moment coming in frame four when Castle needed snookers to avoid going 3-1 down, but played a brilliant snooker on the pink and ended up squaring the match at 2-2. White went back in front, but Castle stayed with him making a gritty 56 to force the deciding frame. After chances for both players, Castle was left in with all the reds open and in the middle of the table almost how you would set them up in practice. However, there was much more pressure than that but Castle was equal to it securing a brilliant win against a frustrated Whirlwind.
Today is the final day of European Masters qualifying, with World Open qualifying then starting on Sunday, while I depart from Preston tomorrow. Before that I may have a live blog or two from the afternoon session so once again, keep on the look out for that.
Jimmy Robertson fell 4-3 to Sam Baird despite a break of 130 in a match that looked to have a lot of high quality throughout. Adam Duffy produced a 4-2 win over Liam Highfield to make it two out of two for him this week in the qualifiers, having beaten Noppon Saengkham earlier in the week, who he will play again in the World Open qualifiers for their third meeting of the season already.
Chen Zifan meanwhile won his third qualifier out of four this season as he saw off Hammad Miah 4-2. In the afternoon session, Yuan Sijun secured his first win as a tour professional, the 17-year-old beating Allan Taylor 4-2 in a match that did not necessarily have the highest quality, but did again show flashes of the talent with Yuan that can certainly be honed.
Ben Woollaston looked in much better form yesterday in a 4-0 win against Ian Burns than he had earlier in the week. Whenever I glanced over to that table he seemed to be in and scoring, and sealed victory in little over an hour, finishing with a century break that accompanied to other 60+ breaks in the match. Kyren Wilson was able to put the disappointment of Wednesday afternoon's defeat behind him as he took care of Xu Si 4-0.
Gerard Greene managed to grab a 4-3 victory Andrew Higginson in a ding dong battle where Gerard was on top for much of the play but could not shake off his opponent. After winning the first two frames, with Higginson missing a few chances, he was then able to claw his way back in and steal the next two despite decent breaks from Greene in each. The Northern Irishman edged back in front in a fifth frame that Higginson again had chances, but a magnificent century from Higginson forced the decider. It was the higher ranked player who had the first chance in the decider but missing in the thirties and leaving the red over the hole handed that over to Greene. His first move was to go into the pack from the red over the corner and having split the reds he did not back. A run of 76 was more than enough to secure a deserved win.
My first feature match of the afternoon saw Robin Hull defeated 4-2 by Zhang Yong. The Finn had started well with an excellent 99 to settle into the match immediately, and he looked to be cueing very nicely early on. This was backed up by a good 63 to quickly double his lead, and at this stage you thought that the match would be over very quickly. The turning point came in frame three which Zhang Yong won on the pink and that gave him a huge boost of confidence, as would the support of some of his fellow Chinese players in the crowd. A run of 90 in the fourth not only squared the match up but showed how well Zhang was cueing as he continued to pull out shot after shot. He did not waste his opportunity in frame five either with 68 to edge ahead for the first time, and by now Hull was left to wonder how this had come about after a great start. When Zhang completed victory Hull will have been left very disappointed and frustrated not to have converted a good start into a Belgium trip, but Zhang played very well from the third frame onwards and looked a lot more comfortable.
Later in the afternoon I was treated to another great battle as Gary Wilson took on Hossein Vafei. Both players were in top scoring form, with Wilson looking very comfortable and confident as he took the opening frame, despite needing two chances. Hossein needed two chances to take the second but a run of 50 from the second chance squared up the affair and at this stage they were playing at a great speed. 82 from Wilson put his nose back in front before Hossein made a brilliant 93 to level with both players going blow for blow and answering the others great play. Hossein then took the lead in frame five but let Wilson back in with a chance to steal and even though he let that one slip by, another came to his cue pretty quickly but a was left this time to rue a missed yellow and Hossein would have been relieved to pot the colours he needed for the frame.
Hossein built a 50 point lead again in the sixth frame and it looked like it could be curtains for Wilson, but when the Iranian missed a tough one, Wilson cleared down to the final red before playing safe with his hat firmly back in the ring. In the end a snooker behind the black forced the critical mistake and Wilson did the rest to take the match to a deserved deciding frame. The decider deserves a blog of its own in many ways to cover all of the drama. Wilson had the first chance and built a strong lead of 55 but lost position shortly after opening the pack, and this let Hossein back in to claw back the deficit. A run of 50 down to the yellow was good to get back into the frame but a critical miss was not. Wilson got the upper hand back by potting the yellow and playing a clever snooker on the green. This got him eight foul points and a ball in hand from which he potted the green from range. Brown would have been match ball but Hossein won the safety battle on that but could not get on the blue. More safety was played and Hossein again won the battle and followed with a decent pink, but left the black at long range, but still produced a top pot to win the match, much to his delight and that of fellow countryman Soheil Vahedi who was watching on. Meanwhile, Wilson wondered what might have been and let the table feel some of his frustration on the way out of the arena.
Elsewhere, there was victory for Mark Allen in a tough game with Daniel Wells, though Allen produced a nice clearance in the third frame, and made a 91 in the sixth before signing for a 4-2 win. Peter Ebdon clung on for a deciding frame win against the unorthodox Akani Songsermsawad who certainly has a unique style that I've never seen the like of before.
In the evening session there was a good victory for Noppon Saengkham who continues to improve, progress and look like a dangerous player every time I see him. A 130 break along the way was testament to that. Michael Holt eased to a 4-0 victory against Paul Davison, who made Holt work hard in a couple of frames but could not really string anything together.
Match of the evening saw Billy Castle get his first win as a professional by beating Jimmy White 4-3. It was a close affair all the way through with a number of frames coming down to the colours, with a critical moment coming in frame four when Castle needed snookers to avoid going 3-1 down, but played a brilliant snooker on the pink and ended up squaring the match at 2-2. White went back in front, but Castle stayed with him making a gritty 56 to force the deciding frame. After chances for both players, Castle was left in with all the reds open and in the middle of the table almost how you would set them up in practice. However, there was much more pressure than that but Castle was equal to it securing a brilliant win against a frustrated Whirlwind.
Today is the final day of European Masters qualifying, with World Open qualifying then starting on Sunday, while I depart from Preston tomorrow. Before that I may have a live blog or two from the afternoon session so once again, keep on the look out for that.
Thursday 3 August 2017
LIVE BLOG: European Masters: Gary Wilson vs Hossein Vafei and Others
HOSSEIN VAFEI 4-3 GARY WILSON - Hossein made a nice break and got all the way down to the yellow before making the error and missing the pot. Wilson potted yellow and then played a snooker behind the green yielding 8 foul points and a pot on the green but couldn't get on match ball brown. Hossein then won battles on the brown and the vital battle on the blue as he followed with pink and a long black to win the match. He's delighted as is Soheil watching on, while Wilson smashes the table with his hand while picking his cue case up before leaving the arena.
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| Hossein eats into Wilson's lead in the fascinating deciding frame |
- Wilson got the pack open but couldn't stay in good position, leaving him a tough red with the rest which went wide. A chance now for Hossein to certainly eat into Gary's lead and possibly make a run for the line himself.
- Wilson in first in the decider and the outcome of the break will hinge on whether he can get the pack in play. Otherwise he's building a very strong lead.
TABLE 5 UPDATE - Peter Ebdon is going to be back in front barring snookers in a pedestrian frame that took 35 minutes to get to snookers required. A snooker on the last red from Ebdon got Akani in trouble and his eventual escape pushed the red over the corner. Should be 2-1 Ebdon.
Frame Wilson - After playing safe on the last red, a good snooker behind the black from Wilson forced a miss and the error as the red was easily left on. A comfortable clearance from Gary ensued and we're going the distance here 3-3
- Hossein lost position and missed a tough one with the rest. He had a 50 point lead but he's left Wilson in who's rapidly eating into the deficit. Last red could be an issue but colours again on their spots for the clearance
- Hossein is in first again in frame six and looking to build at least a sizeable lead as he hopes to make this the last frame. The reds need some work to kill it off in one visit... But now he has the split and landed on a red. Could be the end for Wilson here.
Frame Hossein - Wilson missed his first chance at the counter clearance after trying to power a pink into the corner for reasons I couldn't work out as he left nothing for Hossein. Another chance came to Wilson's cue and he cleared the three remaining reds before missing a straightforward enough yellow by the standards of the afternoon. He stuck the yellow up too and the Iranian had a comfortable run to a 3-2 lead. 3-2 Hossein
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| Wilson was unable to capitalise on Hossein's mistakes in frame five |
- Hossein made a positional error and was forced to play safe 53 ahead with plenty on. Both players then had chances at reds with a little difficulty. When Hossein missed his he left over the middle and Wilson now has a chance for the counter. 1 red could be an issue but the rest ideally placed and colours on their spots.
- This match has been a pleasure to watch so far and it's far from done yet. Hossein has a nice lead in frame five and is at the table with reds in decent positions and the black and pink fully available. By this games standards he probably won't be far from taking a 3-2 lead.
TABLE 5 UPDATE - Nice contribution from Akani just now, took what was there very nicely. By the time he misses with his unique rest technique Ebdon needs a snooker with three reds left. Should be 1-1.
Frame Hossein - Like I say these two guys are not missing. Hossein taking it all in his stride with a quality response. 93 break and only denied a century by his failure to hit the yellow hard enough for it to get to the pocket. 2-2
- After a bit of early pendulum swinging Hossein now looks to have a decent opening here in frame four. The reds need perhaps a little work but like I've said both guys look in good form.
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| Hossein at the table in the fourth frame, trailing Wilson 2-1 |
Frame Wilson - Meanwhile there was no positional error from Wilson and as previously mentioned he didn't look like missing. So, an 82 clearance it is to put him back in front. 2-1 Wilson
TABLE 5 UPDATE - Ebdon wins the black ball opener. I'm not sure what Akani tried on the black. It was either the cross double onto the back cushion or for the pot. Either way it went straight toward the corner rattled and stayed close to the corner. Ebdon wobbled it in on the stretch for 1-0.
- Hossein's mistake could be Wilson's gain here. After both players have had chances, Wilson earns his second and has the reds pretty handy as he tries to regain the lead. Neither looks like missing when in so the Iranian must hope for a positional error.
TABLE 5 UPDATE: A pedestrian first frame between Ebdon and Akani and easy to see why. We know about Ebdon while Akani has an odd pre shot routine that sees him rehearse his action almost, before he gets down. Anyway the opener all hinges on the black.
Frame Hossein - 50 he makes in his ever cool style and with the earlier 31 that's more than enough to make it 1-1 in double quick time. If it wasn't quick enough, Hossein is helping the referee set the balls up for frame three. Somewhere to be have we lads? 1-1
- Hossein is looking to strike back straight away here in frame two. After an early 31 he's now back in and the reds aren't looking too bad. He'd certainly be hoping to level the match at this visit.
Frame Wilson - Another chance for Wilson having already got a 26 point lead. Hossein missed a long red to leave him in. An assured run of 39 was more than enough to take this opening frame 1-0
(Side note: Hossein's World Cup partner and fellow countryman Soheil Vahedi has come and sat two seats to my right to watch his good friend).
- We're underway and Gary Wilson is first in and scoring after a great finish yesterday. He'll be feeling confident coming into this and think this will be a high scoring game all round. Wilsons missed on 33 but not many loose reds left and Hossein plays safe.
We're just a few moments away from my second live blog of the afternoon with Gary Wilson taking on Hossein Vafei of Iran on table 6. Both of these guys qualified for India but only one can secure a Belgium trip. Should be a blockbuster.
I'll also have updates from Peter Ebdon and Akani Songsermsawad on table 5 whilst table 7 is the streamed game with Mark Allen and Daniel Wells.
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