This is the final part of my three part review of the 2017/2018 snooker season. In this edition we will look back on events from the big ITV events in the Grand Prix and Players Championship, the final home nations event of the season, the final Chinese event of the season, as well as reflecting on all of the action from the 17 days at the Crucible.
When we left things in the second part, Mark Williams had lifted the German Masters title, and the players were all set for four days of fun in the one-frame Snooker Shoot-Out. After four days filled with drama, including three blue-ball shoot outs, it was Michael Georgiou that walked away with the trophy, his first ranking title. The Cypriot overcame Thor Chuan Leong, Jak Jones (with an impressive break of 82), former runner-up Luca Brecel (with a break of 73), former champion Nigel Bond, Zhang Yong (with a tournament high break of 109), Martin O'Donnell (who had made it to his first ranking semi-final) before a dramatic victory on the pink in the final against Graeme Dott. The Scotsman had made back-to-back finals for the first time in his career and was also a runner-up in the Shoot-Out for the second time.
The implications for Georgiou were a huge cheque of £32,000 that steered him away from a possible tour survival battle at the end of the season, as well as helping him qualify for the World Grand Prix that followed the following week in Preston.
The successes did not end there for Georgiou as he completed a 4-0 whitewash of Luca Brecel in the first round of the World Grand Prix. Brecel was not the only high seeded player to fall at the first hurdle though in this tournament for the 32 best players on the one-year list. Second seed Mark Williams lost out in round one to Stuart Bingham while third seed Judd Trump lost 4-1 to Michael White, while Masters champion Mark Allen lost from 3-0 ahead against Xiao Guodong.
The run of Georgiou came to an end in the last 16 where he fell 4-3 to Stephen Maguire, despite being 3-0 adrift at one stage. Also in the last 16, Xiao Guodong kept his good run going with a 4-3 win against John Higgins, while top seed Ronnie O'Sullivan clawed through 4-3 against Yan Bingtao and world number one Mark Selby whitewashed Neil Robertson.
Selby was again in good form to beat Michael White 5-2 in the quarter-finals, while Stephen Maguire overcame Shaun Murphy by the same scoreline. Ding Junhui was also showing signs of a return to form as he overcame Anthony McGill 5-3 to set-up a semi-final meeting with Mark Selby. Again though, it was Ronnie O'Sullivan who was stealing the show, as he whitewashed giantkiller Xiao Guodong, making four century breaks in the process.
In the semi-finals though O'Sullivan had to forge a comeback against Stephen Maguire, winning four straight frames from 4-2 down to come through 6-4 and book his place in yet another final, as he targeted his fourth ranking title of the season. In the second semi-final, things were just as tight when Selby faced Ding. There was never more than a frame in the contest, with Ding eventually coming through 6-5 courtesy of an 83 break in the decider, joining earlier breaks of 91, 94 and 104 from the Chinese number one.
The final between Ding and O'Sullivan however, was not as close as the two semi-finals had been. O'Sullivan made three centuries in the first session from 2-2 to take a 6-3 lead going into the evening session. From there, Ding only scored 35 more points in the contest as O'Sullivan won four frames in a row that evening to runaway with a 10-3 victory.
Things kept moving thick and fast though and from Preston, the players headed down to Cardiff for the final home nations outing of the season at the Welsh Open. Much like the three home nations that had gone before it, the tournament produced plenty of surprise results, starting with one of the home favourites and 16th seed Ryan Day losing out to Kurt Dunham. The win was by far and away the best of Dunham's two years on the professional tour. Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy continued his poor record in the home nations series with another first round exit, falling 4-0 to Gerard Greene.
The last 64 saw exits for second seed Mark Selby 4-3 against Liang Wenbo, fourth seed Judd Trump 4-1 against Noppon Saengkham - who would also go on to beat Kyren Wilson on the way to his first full ranking semi-final. Fifth seed Ding Junhui was taken down 4-1 by Liam Highfield, while Luca Brecel, Ali Carter, Anthony McGill and Neil Robertson also lost at this stage, and that was despite Robertson making three centuries in his match.
Masters champion Mark Allen lost out 4-3 in the last 32 stage to Gary Wilson, who would go on to make the semi-finals in Cardiff, while the home favourite Mark Williams fell to Martin Gould, though there was a success for Wales when Matthew Stevens took down the defending champion Stuart Bingham. Stevens lost out in the last 16 to Yan Bingtao who had another fine week in Wales, before losing out to Barry Hawkins in the quarter-finals after Hawkins had already beaten Martin Gould. Liang Wenbo's automatic Crucible qualification hopes were dented when he lost in the last 16 to Yu De Lu but the likes of John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan continued their fine form to make the quarter-finals, where they would meet each other once more.
Higgins only dropped three frames in his four matches to reach the last eight, which included a win over Stephen Maguire in the last 64, while O'Sullivan recorded three successive whitewashes after receiving a first round walkover. On the day though it was John Higgins who produced the goods with two centuries in five consecutive frames as booked his place in the semi-finals with a 5-1 win. In the semi-finals Higgins took on Gary Wilson and was again a comfortable winner 6-2 with high breaks of 99 and a match-clinching 106.
Things were not as straightforward in the other semi for Barry Hawkins. It was the left-hander who stormed into a 5-2 lead against Noppon, only for the Thai to fight back with breaks of 57 and a superb 139 to keep the pressure on the ninth seed. A run of 63 in the last saw Hawkins hold firm and book his place in the final. The final was always a very even affair despite breaks of 138 and 141 from Higgins in the first four frames, with the score at 2-2. Hawkins moved 4-2 ahead, only for Higgins to win the last two and square the opening session 4-4. In the evening, Higgins took the first two to make it four in a row overall and lead 6-4, but back-to-back tons from Hawkins tied the match once more at 6-6. When the four time Welsh winner Higgins won the first two after the interval to lead 8-6 though he was just one from victory, and despite the best efforts of Hawkins it was the Scot that would win 9-7 to record his fifth career Welsh Open triumph.
The next couple of weeks on tour turned into golden weeks for Ryan Day, starting at the Gibraltar Open. With a number of top players skipping the tournament or withdrawing it certainly left an opportunity for some players to have a fantastic week. That did not help Luca Brecel as he lost in the last 128 to Martin O'Donnell, while Welsh Open runner-up Barry Hawkins lost in the last 64 to Sam Craigie. Liang Wenbo missed a chance to help his ranking and get back into the top 16 when he lost out in the last 32. Five amateur qualifiers also made the last 32 including former tour pros Michael Wild, Jamie Cope and Andy Hicks, but all five failed to make it through to Sunday's last 16.
After three wins earlier that weekend, Ryan Day was still going strong with a 4-1 win against Fang Xiongman, while Cao Yupeng was having another good tournament, making the last 16 and then defeating Yu De Lu 4-1. It was also a good weekend for Lee Walker as he defeated Anthony McGill 4-2 in the last 16, and then whitewashing Kyren Wilson to make the semi-finals. As for Scott Donaldson, he made up the semi-final line-up thanks in part to an epic comeback in the last 16 as he won 4-3 from 3-0 down against Alfie Burden, before then beating Zhang Yong 4-2.
After a 4-0 win over Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals, Cao then overcame the giantkiller Lee Walker 4-2 to book his place in the second ranking event final of the season. It was there that he met Ryan Day after the Welshman scrambled over the line in the semi-finals. He had led Scott Donaldson 3-0 at one stage but for the second time on the day, Donaldson came back to force a decider before Day booked his place in the final. Things were much more simple for Day in the final, as he clinched his second ranking title with a 4-0 whitewash of Cao, who would only score 24 points in his second ranking final. Day would then go on to win the invitational Romanian Masters beating Stuart Bingham in the final the following week.
That set Day up nicely for his last chance saloon for getting into the top 16 for the World Championships when he headed to Llandudno for the Players Championship. With the top 16 on the one-year list involved, Day drew world number 1 Mark Selby and took him down 6-3. Next up for Day was an all-Welsh clash with Mark Williams, after the second seed defeated Yan Bingtao 6-2 in round one. Day had won 12 consecutive matches at this point but there was to be no thirteenth with Williams coming through 6-3 to book his semi-final place. Top seed Ronnie O'Sullivan was on fire once again, defeating Graeme Dott 6-1 in the first round before then defeating Ding Junhui for the second time in just over a month, 6-3 this time. Ding had beaten Mark Allen earlier in the week 6-2.
Shaun Murphy was also in fine form again despite suffering with a back and neck injury. Given this injury his 6-3 first round win against Kyren Wilson was impressive. In the quarter-finals he faced Anthony McGill, after the Scot had whitewashed John Higgins 6-0 in the first round. Things were much tougher this time and Murphy ultimately came through a very tight match 6-5 to book his place with Mark Williams in the semi-finals.
The first semi-final saw O'Sullivan face Judd Trump, after the left-hander had beaten Stephen Maguire 6-4 before thrashing Neil Robertson 6-1. Trump was on top for most of the contest against O'Sullivan, leading 2-0, 4-3 and 5-4 with two centuries along the way, but O'Sullivan won the final two frames to give himself the chance to win a fifth ranking title of the season. When Murphy faced Williams, Murphy stormed into an early lead opening up the match with a break of 133 and also piling in with runs of 117 and 88 to take a 4-1 lead. Williams did have a ton of his own to get back to 5-3 behind before Murphy clinched the victory, getting into his fifth final of the season and his third against O'Sullivan.
In the end, the final turned out to be quite a one sided affair. Murphy won the opener, but ended up 6-2 behind before winning the final frame of the session to end up just 6-3 behind O'Sullivan. That lead became 7-3 though Murphy closed to 7-4 with a match high break of 137. O'Sullivan then finished with breaks of 54, 76 and 85 to close out a superb 10-4 victory, and his fifth ranking title of the season.
Before, two huge tournaments to close out the season there was the small matter of the Winners Group in the Championship League. The seven players involved were former champion Martin Gould, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Zhou Yuelong, Ali Carter and defending champion John Higgins who had just won group seven a day earlier. After the round robin stages, Zhou Yuelong faced Ali Carter in the semi-finals, with Zhou making a high break of 141 on the way to a 3-0 win. Meanwhile, John Higgins overcame Mark Selby in a deciding frame which went down to the final black. The final was a huge opportunity for Zhou to clinch the title and book a place in the 2018 Champion of Champions. Higgins had other ideas though, securing a 3-2 victory with an 81 break in the final frame to successfully defend his title.
Looking to end the season with a pair of title defences was Mark Selby starting at the China Open. With increased prize money and Crucible places on the line it was expected that the top players would be on form and that proved to be the case. Mark Allen needed a win in the last 64 to overtake Ryan Day and he did so comfortably before reaching the last 16 and losing to Mark Williams, though Allen's top 16 place would soon be secure.
There were still early exits for the two Players Championship finalists. Shaun Murphy was thrashed 6-0 by Chris Wakelin in the last 64 while Ronnie O'Sullivan lost for the second time this season to Elliot Slessor, though he did make a 147 break in frame five of the match which was the 14th of his career. One man who did have another good week was Jack Lisowski. After his semi-final in Shanghai he nearly made another in Beijing. He started the week with a 6-1 demolition of Anthony Hamilton, before a 6-2 win over John Higgins in the last 32 (though Higgins would have the last laugh at the Crucible). Another 6-2 win over Gary Wilson in the last 16 booked his place against Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals. Lisowski surged into a 4-0 lead only for Kyren to come back and level at 4-4 before ultimately winning 6-5.
With that win and a 6-5 defeat of Ding Junhui, Kyren Wilson showed his Crucible credentials in making the China semi-finals, before running Mark Selby close. Selby had led 6-3 and 8-5 before Wilson levelled their semi-final at 8-8, though in true Selby style he was the stronger at the end coming through 10-8 to book his place in the final. Selby had gotten stronger and stronger after a couple of close matches against Wang Yuchen and Scott Donaldson to start his week. Things were much simpler against Ben Woollaston, Lu Haotian and indeed Mark Williams who he overcame 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
Barry Hawkins and Neil Robertson met in the second semi-final. After a simple enough start to the week with a 6-3 win against Sam Baird, followed by a 6-1 defeat of Michael White, Hawkins had been made to battle against Cao Yupeng and Tom Ford. In the last 16 against Cao, Hawkins trailed 5-2 before winning all of the last four frames to turn it around and get through to the last eight. Then against Ford, he led the match 4-1 before losing four in a row to trail 5-4. Ford had chances from there but Hawkins impressively won the decider with a break of 96 to get into the semis. Neil Robertson meanwhile had also been in trouble in the last 32 against Sam Craigie, trailing 4-1 before levelling at 4-4 and then winning the final two frames for a 6-5 win. After that, he only dropped one frame in victories against Zhou Yuelong and Stuart Bingham (who made a maximum of his own in the last 32 against Ricky Walden). However, from a position of 5-5 in the semi-final with Hawkins, Robertson crumbled and Hawkins won five of the next six frames to clinch a 10-6 victory and book a final meeting with Selby.
In the best of 21 frame final, it was always Selby who was in control. The first session of ten frames ended with Selby 8-2 in front and well on the way to victory. Breaks of 83, 112 and a closing statement of 132 soon gave Selby an emphatic 11-3 win, the £225,000 first prize and a successful defence of his China Open.
Then it was on to the season's finale, the World Championship at the Crucible, where again Mark Selby was hoping for a successful title defence. Having won the title in 2014, 2016 and 2017, Selby was again among the favourites to lift the title but this soon came crashing to halt on day one of the Championship. He was handed a tough first round draw against Joe Perry who had been impressive in the qualifiers, and things started badly for Selby as he lost the opening four frames and would eventually lose the session 7-2. Only small hints of a recovery suffered in the final session and Selby was sent packing at the first hurdle 10-4.
Attention then turned to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but the second seed had gotten off to just as shaky a start in a tough opener with Stephen Maguire. Like Perry, Maguire won the opening four frames though he was only able to win the session 6-3 after a slight recovery from the five-time champion. The full rescue operation was completed on the Sunday morning when O'Sullivan won seven of the eight frames played to end up winning quite comfortably in the end at 10-7.
Selby was one of six seeds that lost in the opening round. Marco Fu's return to action was short lived as the impressive young Lu Haotian impressively took him out 10-5 on his Crucible debut. Eighth seed and five time finalist in the 2017/2018 season Shaun Murphy was beaten 10-9 from 8-5 up against Jamie Jones, who also overcame Murphy in the first round in 2012. There was another repeat in the match between Neil Robertson and Robert Milkins, where Milkins used memories of a 2013 first round win against Robertson to win again 10-5. Also falling at the first hurdle was Luca Brecel, who looked completely out of form in the second half of the season. Walden was the benefactor here with a 10-6 win. The superb form of Jack Lisowski continued and many were touting him as a dark horse after he beat 2015 champion Stuart Bingham 10-7.
Judd Trump narrowly avoided being the seventh seed to fall at the first hurdle as he held off the fightback of debutant Chris Wakelin to win 10-9, while Anthony McGill won the final five frames of his match against Ryan Day to record a 10-8 win. Ding Junhui and Kyren Wilson were off to emphatic starts with 10-3 victories, while there were 10-5 wins for Mark Williams and Mark Allen, and 10-7 victories for Barry Hawkins and four-time champion John Higgins.
The shocks did not end in round one though as second seed Ronnie O'Sullivan was the man to suffer a surprise second round exit in a tense affair with Ali Carter. Carter was leading 9-7 going into the final session, and while many fancied an O'Sullivan comeback once again, Carter was the stronger player recording a 13-9 win. Selby's victory Joe Perry fell to Mark Allen. The pair were locked at 8-8 going into the final session but Allen won five in a row in the final session to win comfortably 13-8. There was no luck either for Jamie Jones as Kyren Wilson dispatched him 13-5 to book a third successive Crucible quarter-final. Despite not being at his best at times in the match, Williams was too strong for Milkins winning 13-7 while dark horse Lisowski was humbled by Higgins. Losing the first session 8-0, things did not get any better the next day for Lisowski and the Scot came through 13-1 with a session to spare. Ding Junhui had similar comfort against Anthony McGill, winning the first session 8-0 on the way to an eventual 13-4 triumph.
Lu Haotian was not to roll over as he continued his impressive Crucible debut against Barry Hawkins. Despite falling 4-0 and 8-3 behind, Lu fought back to level the match at 10-10 during the final session, before Hawkins Crucible experience told and he booked a 13-10 victory and a sixth successive Crucible quarter-final. Finally, Judd Trump was impressive as he won the final five frames of his second round match to win 13-9 against Ricky Walden.
Coming into the quarter-finals, there was a sense that any of the eight remaining players could win the title, while it was only the second year since 1996 that there were no qualifiers in the quarter-finals. Ding Junhui was the tournament favourite going into the last eight but that quickly changed after his woeful start against Barry Hawkins. The Chinese number 1 never looked on form and eventually lost 13-5, as Hawkins made it to a fifth Crucible semi-final in six years. Kyren Wilson won the second session of his quarter-final with Mark Allen 7-1 to take an 11-5 lead and get through to his first Crucible semi-final a 13-6 winner, while Mark Williams came through 13-8 against Ali Carter.
The drama from the quarter-finals came between the meeting of seeds four and five Trump and Higgins. Trump was in control at one stage, leading 7-3 before five straight frames helped Higgins ahead at 8-7 before Trump levelled at 8-8 going into the final session. The left-hander would then win three of the first four on the final evening, fist pumping as he took the twentieth on the black to lead 11-9. That spurred Higgins into life as he cleared in the next after the interval with 75 to get it back to 11-10, while a 72 in the next squared the match once more, before a sublime 134 break gave him the lead at 12-11. Higgins had a chance to wrap the match up at 13-11, but Trump held firm to clear and force a decider. With two chances in the decider though, Higgins was simply too strong.
Down to the one table set-up, the men looked like being separated from the boys early in the first semi-final between Higgins and Wilson. Higgins won the opening three before watching Wilson fight back, and Higgins ended up having to win the final frame of the session to take a 5-3 lead, this was a lead he would continue to hold throughout the match, winning crucial final frames in the second and third sessions to maintain leads at 9-7 and 13-11. Higgins never allowed Wilson to level, and after Higgins lost the first of the final session, he added breaks of 136, 100 and a match clinching 98 to get through to a second successive final, beating Wilson 17-13.
It was also a close fight in the second semi-final between Williams and Hawkins. Like Higgins, Hawkins got off to a strong start leading 5-3 after the first session, though Williams won the last of the session to avoid being further behind. Despite levelling at 6-6, Williams had to do the same again in the second session to get out just 9-7 adrift, before he would level again at 10-10 in the third session, only for Hawkins to take a 13-11 lead into the final session. Once again, Williams levelled going into the interval in the final session at 14-14, but Hawkins edged in front again at 15-14 but missed a chance to lead 16-14 and once Williams squared it up at 15-15, Hawkins did not have enough left to take any of his chances in the final two frames, as Williams ran out a 17-15 winner.
The final between Higgins and Williams meant that the winner would become the oldest since Ray Reardon in the 1970's, with Higgins targeting his fifth title and redemption from last year's final defeat to Selby, and Williams eyeing a third world title in his first final for 15 years.
It was the Welshman that started the stronger though, winning all of the first four frames in the opening session. Higgins did manage to recover and make the first century of the final on the way to making sure he only lost the session 5-3. Williams went further ahead at 6-3 in session two, but a further two centuries helped Higgins on his way to level at 7-7 with three frames of the opening day remaining. From there, Williams made his first ton of the final to lead at 8-7 and then took advantage of Higgins errors in the final two frames to end the day 10-7 in front.
Once again Higgins made a woeful start on the second afternoon, and Williams surged clear winning the first four of the day again to lead 14-7 and make it seven frames in a row overall. At this point there was a very real possibility that Williams could win with a session to spare, but that idea was erased from players minds fought back to 14-10 behind with a big clearance in the twenty-third frame, though again Williams crucially won the final frame of the session to lead 15-10 going into the final evening of the championship.
There was a sense that the final was still far from over after Higgins had twice clawed back into it to give himself half a chance. Those chances were increased when opened the session with a sublime break of 131, and then cleared from behind in the next two to make it 15-13. Another big clearance after the interval soon had the match all-square again at 15-15 and Williams must have been shell-shocked at this point. If he was, his game did not show it when he won steered ahead again at 16-15 before making an excellent century to go one away from the win at 17-15. He was one ball away from the win when a missed pink on 63 in the next opened the door back up for Higgins, and like the true champion he is, Higgins would punish him with a 65 clearance to stay alive. Once more, Williams appeared unfazed by it as he belted a red into the middle to start a break of 69 that was simply one of the best you will ever see under the pressure, and it proved enough to give him a hard-earned a thoroughly deserving third world title. For Higgins, it must be an agony that is beyond words in sport, to come so close but yet so far in successive years to a fifth world title. One thing he has proved is that, with his 43rd birthday on the horizon, he is far from done and the class of '92 with Williams, Higgins and O'Sullivan are still the three toughest players in the game with all three now back in the world's top four in the rankings.
That has all brought the curtain down on a superb 2017/2018 snooker season and one that has been enjoyable from start to finish. Personally, I take a lot of good memories from this campaign as a blogger, and a fan more importantly, and I would like to thank everyone who has read this blog over the last 12 months, and to all of you who have gotten in touch via Twitter. Your contributions and comments are much appreciated. Here's to an even better season in 2018/2019.
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