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.
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