Championship League Group 7: Day 1

It's all to play for after day one of the seventh and final qualifying group at the Championship League as the seven remaining players battle to join Hawkins, Bingham, Carter, Mark Davis, Selt and Woollaston in the Winners Group which starts tomorrow.

David Gilbert and Fergal O'Brien had the best of things on day one, both winning three of their opening games with Gilbert playing three yesterday and O'Brien four. Xiao Guodong also had a pretty good opening day as he played three games and picked up a nice couple of wins, while Mark Williams won two and lost two of his four games played on day one to just sneak into the top four on day one. John Higgins and Peter Ebdon both struggled to get going yesterday, as neither could manage more than a solitary victory from their three games, though Higgins did lose in a couple of deciding frames which means his frames won column is looking good despite the loses. Propping up the table and really out of contention for a semi-final spot in the top four of the league table is Dominic Dale who couldn't manage a victory from any of his four games on day one, and two victories shouldn't be enough to break into the top four, so the Welshman is now only playing for pride.

Here is exactly what happened yesterday, courtesy of my notepad picture on what was a very even day:

 

 

So then, heading into the final day of the group 6 of the 7 players are still in with a decent chance of making the semi-finals by finishing in the groups top four. Fergal O'Brien probably only needs another win to fully secure his spot of his two remaining games, though even if he loses both games he should still scrape in. David Gilbert meanwhile having won all of his opening three games, only needs the one win from his last three to get into the semi-finals though a couple of wins could see him top the group which is always handy when it comes to the semi-finals. Xiao Guodong looks good but could still do with at least one win, and maybe two from his remaining three games while Mark Williams is in a similar boat, just with only the two games to go, but one win may just complete the job. John Higgins and Peter Ebdon struggled yesterday and that means they'll both need at least two wins from their last three games, but because of Ebdon's inferior frames won tally he may need a clean sweep of his matches today. As I said earlier in the piece Dominic Dale has no real hopes of getting through and less something extraordinary happens in the other games and he gets two convincing victories in last two matches.

 

 

 

As always i'll be back tomorrow with information on who won group 7 to take the final place in the Winners group, along with a very quick look ahead to the Winners Group itself and who I fancy to take the overall Championship League title and a place in the Champion of Champions next season. 

Fantasy Snooker League: Championship League Players

Right then, there's no time for an update on the points for the fantasy league this week as the German Masters hasn't yet finished, but with the Championship League Group 7 starting tomorrow and the Winners Group from Wednesday.

It's an odd situation this week with the final qualifying group and Winner group so I'm going to treat the two as two separate tournaments unlike the rest of the qualifying groups so it's time to price up the players for these events:

Championship League Group 7 (Deadline 9th February 12pm) £5 MILLION FOR 1 PLAYER:

John Higgins £4.2 million
Mark Williams £3.5 million
Xiao Guodong £3.5 million
Fergal O'Brien £3.5 million
Dominic Dale £3.5 million
Peter Ebdon £3.5 million
David Gilbert £3 million


Championship League Winners Group (Deadline Wednesday 11th February at 11am) £8 Million for Two Players as usual:

Barry Hawkins £5.3 million
Stuart Bingham £4.9 million
Ali Carter £4.4 million
Mark Davis £3.5 million
Matt Selt £3 million
Ben Woollaston £3 million

As always if something is unclear feel free to tweet me, along as if you want to know how much money you have left over.

Murphy and Selby going for Berlin Glory

Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby are through to the German Masters final after winning their semi-finals in different styles yesterday. Shaun Murphy got through to the final after beating Liang Wenbo 6-4 in the semi-finals. Shaun had led 3-0 early on in the match, but as he did against Mark Allen and Ronnie O'Sullivan in the previous couple of rounds he went on to lose four frames in a row and found himself 4-3 behind. However, he was able to step it up once again and he won all of the last three frames to take the match 6-4, and along the way he had two total clearances of 141 and 145, so other than the four frames in the middle of the match he was in fine form.

Mark Selby meanwhile had things much easier against Stephen Maguire as he played well from the start of the match and in similar fashion to Shaun taking a nice 3-0 advantage, with three good breaks to start off the match. Stephen pulled one back before the break, but Mark won the next two to go one away from the match at 5-1. While Maguire won another frame it was only a consolation as Selby finished off the match for a 6-2 victory.

Final Preview:

Mark Selby Vs Shaun Murphy - This is going to be a really tough final, and I have to say I'm finding it an incredibly tight one to call. Mark Selby's momentum has been building throughout the week after he started the week with a tough decider and an elongated match against Peter Ebdon before he seemed to find his very top scoring form in the matches against Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire. That was to be expected after he came over from China just before the event and you have to say that he's looked like he's getting fresher and stronger as the week has gone on rather than becoming more tired and starting to peter out. Shaun Murphy meanwhile has been playing well all week long with good performances in all of his matches against Michael Wasley, Mark Allen, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Liang Wenbo, so both players have had some very tough matches so far. They're both going to be very confident, but especially Murphy after the season he has had so far. Both of these guys are incredibly evenly matched, even on the head to head where they are now pretty equal. Shaun won the last couple of matches in this years Masters opening round and the Haikou World Open final last year so, but Mark was on a very good run for a long period of time before that, and that may make Shaun even more determined to go on a run similar over the next 18 months.

It's almost impossible for me to call this one, but I just feel like Mark's momentum is building this season and with that should come this title.

Prediction: 9-7 to Mark Selby


Whatever the outcome I'm sure it's going to be a great final, especially judging by the matches they have had so far this week in this wonderful arena at the Tempodrome in Berlin. I'll be back in good time to look ahead to the Championship League this week with the Fantasy League.

Quarter-final classics light up Berlin

Every single one of Friday night's quarter-final matches went to deciding frames as we saw four awesome matches that gave the crowd at the Tempodrome plenty of value for their money as well as an awesome line-up for Saturday's semi-finals. On the outside table Judd Trump made a maximum 147 break against World Champion Mark Selby and he came from 1-3 behind to force a decider in the end but it was Mark who was still able to get over the line. Liang Wenbo got through in the battle of the two remaining non-top 16 players as he won his second decider of the day against Ryan Day to get into only his second ranking event semi-final. An absolute classic on the TV table between UK champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and Masters champion Shaun Murphy saw a match that swung every which way as Murphy looked good in taking a 2-0 lead, but then had to sit and watch doing very little wrong as Ronnie O'Sullivan won all of the next four frames to lead 4-2. Shaun won the next two frames with good breaks to force the deciding frame, but it was Ronnie who was in position to win it leading by 32 with just 35 remaining, but after the pair both missed shots on the final red it was Murphy the potted it and went on to make a superb 34 clearance to take out the match 5-4. Finally, Neil Robertson was ahead at basically every stage of his match with Stephen Maguire at 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 before Stephen forced a decider and it looked like Neil would win the match as he left the Scotsman needing snookers, but he got the snookers and a good clearance somehow saw him beat Neil Robertson on the black to win 5-4.


Quarter Final Results:

Liang Wenbo 5-4 Ryan Day
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Stephen Maguire 5-4 Neil Robertson
Mark Selby 5-4 Judd Trump

Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Shaun Murphy Vs Liang Wenbo - This looks like being a very tough and a very close semi-final to start the last 4 off tomorrow afternoon as Shaun Murphy takes on Liang Wenbo in a repeat of Liang Wenbo's only other ranking semi-final, where he beat Shaun 6-5. Both players had to play their last 16 and quarter-final matches on Friday and both players won both of those matches in close style 5-4. In fact they have played the exact same amount of frames at the venue after their Last 32 matches ended up in 5-1 victories. Liang's record against Shaun is pretty solid with their last proper meeting seeing a Wenbo comeback in last years Welsh Open Last 32. However, Shaun is right on top of his game right now as he had to be to beat a Ronnie O'Sullivan that was at the very top of his and a Mark Allen earlier today who has been close to his best form at times this season, and is always very defiant. Another thing that just stands in favour of Shaun Murphy is that he simply has been involved in more of these big semi-finals in the past than Wenbo and has played in the German Masters one-table set-up when he lost to Maguire back in 2012. Liang has been playing very well this week and his form has somewhat come out of nowhere, while Murphy has been on a very good run now for a very long period of time, and if he comes out firing again tomorrow then I just fancy Shaun to edge this encounter.

Mark Selby Vs Stephen Maguire - Both of these guys again have been pushed hard throughout this week, not just with their deciders today, but with their matches earlier on in the week as well which saw Selby beat McGill and Ebdon in long drawn out games while Maguire won tough affairs with Gilbert and King. Tonight's display from Maguire showed just how gritty and determined the Scotsman is as he was just able to hang in there in a match that never really looked like going his way against Neil Robertson, but somehow he was able to come through. Mark meanwhile showed what he can do on top form tonight as he beat Judd Trump with some really great breaks in that match that was very much a quick fire match where Selby was able to take his chances and out score Judd. Selby's form has been building throughout the tournament and that is what you want if you have aspirations of going all the way in an event, and the fact that he came here with no form on a snooker table will not faze him at all. Stephen however has been in good form in the lead up, but in the major tournaments has just fallen short at the big hurdles in the big matches which is a shame for him, but not something that Mark Selby does a particularly large amount of by comparison. Selby has been in the slightly better form this week, and when he is playing well I'd fancy him to beat anyone, so you have to fancy him to edge out Maguire tomorrow.


It's a fantastic line-up now for the last 4 of the German Masters with four players that thoroughly deserve to be playing at the one table set-up at the Tempodrome in Berlin, and it's still all to play for because I really can't call a tournament winner. I'll have a go though tomorrow or on Sunday morning when we're down to the final two of this years event and I come back for my Final preview. Otherwise, it should be an equally enjoyable end to the tournament as we've already seen this week, and today in particular.

Master Murphy fights back to beat Allen

Shaun Murphy was one of the four winners this afternoon at the Tempodrome in Berlin as the line-up for this evenings quarter-finals was completed. He had led Mark Allen 3-0 in the early stages before Mark Allen won the next four to go 4-3 up, and he then left Shaun needing snookers in the eighth if he had any chance of avoiding defeat. He got the snooker though and made a very cool 27 clearance including one of the best shots of the week from pink to black forcing a decider which he then won to take the match 5-4. Things were much simpler for his next opponent Ronnie O'Sullivan who ran away with things this afternoon against Joe Perry to whitewash him 5-0, while Ryan Day beat Alfie Burden 5-2 and will now meet Liang Wenbo who came from 4-3 down himself to beat Stuart Bingham.

Today's Last 16 Results:

Ryan Day 5-2 Alfie Burden
Liang Wenbo 5-4 Stuart Bingham
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Mark Allen
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-0 Joe Perry

That means we have an absolutely cracking line-up tonight for the quarter-finals of the German Masters with all of the Masters champion, UK Champion and World Champion left in amongst the UK runner-up, Masters runner-up, Former German Masters finalist and semi-finalist all in the mix.

Quarter Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Ryan Day Vs Liang Wenbo - This match is a huge one for both players as there is an opportunity for them to make a charge up the rankings by getting into the semi-finals and of course both players are well in the top 32 with the next target being getting back into the top 16. Ryan has played well this week in beating both Ding and Alfie Burden while Liang has had to battle a lot more at times in his matches against Hang and Bingham, though they have both still been incredibly impressive. Ryan though has been getting to the latter stages of ranking events more recently than Liang who has been struggling quite a bit in the lead up to this tournament. In fact it was Day of course that made the semi-finals here last year so he knows how it feels to play in these big games at this venue and reach the one table set-up and the quarter-final he won to get there was very similar on paper to the one he faces tonight.

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Shaun Murphy - It's a case of UK Champion against Masters champion in what will be the match tonight on the TV table as O'Sullivan takes on Shaun Murphy. Murphy doesn't have a good record against O'Sullivan, though there aren't more than a couple of players in the world that do. However, Murphy's confidence will be high after hanging on in there by his finger tips this afternoon to beat Mark Allen and after his Masters triumph last month he has continued to score well this week in Berlin. Although, it may be in the back of Murphy's mind that the last time the pair met he was dispatched at this stage in the World Championships 13-3 having led 2-0 in the opening session and that would've been a very sour defeat. The Rocket looks in stunning form this week only dropping the first frame against Mark Davis (which was to a 110 break from Mark) and has won his next 10 frames since in very determined style, scoring brilliantly as always and playing as well as he has done all season so far, which says a large amount as well. It's going to be tough for Shaun and I can really only see it going one way.

Neil Robertson Vs Stephen Maguire - Neil Robertson again has looked in very determined mood this week, not dropping a frame at the venue to get this stage, and he's scored well, but also been very professional in all departments of his game to not give his opponents a sniff, and that is something you would think he could do very effectively tonight against Stephen. On the other hand, Stephen's confidence is high from his return to form and on his night he can comfortably score as well as Neil and knock in as many long balls as his Australian opponent so this should be a very tight affair. The difference will be that I think Robertson can just keep things that bit tighter than Maguire and that the chances Stephen will get will have a bit of added pressure on them.

Mark Selby Vs Judd Trump - This again looks like being an absolutely cracking match between two players at the very top of the game. So far this week Mark has had to come through two very long games against Anthony McGill and Peter Ebdon, still suffering from jet lag from his trip to China, while Judd Trump has had two quick 5-0 and 5-1 wins that have used up very little energy, and on top of that Judd also came into the week fresh and raring to go. Trump is back to his very best in terms of scoring, and he's not going to be far away tonight in the safety stakes either, despite Selby being one of the best in the world. The difference is that when Mark isn't quite on his game his scoring goes astray and he has to try and grind his opponents out which can work with Trump. When Judd is on top form though he is still very cool and calm, will score well and is a little more mature now to fall into traps that players like Neil Robertson have set up in the past to try and grind out the result.

It should be a great conclusion to the week now in Berlin as things really hot up on the table, even if he conditions outside of the arena are freezing cold. I'll be back late on tonight after the quarter-finals to preview the semi-finals as we get down to the one table set-up from tomorrow afternoon.

Not Ding's Day in Berlin

Defending champion Ding Junhui was sent home at the first hurdle at the final stages of the German Masters as Ryan Day came from 4-3 behind with Ding Junhui missing match ball to win the match 5-4 and get into the Last 16 on a cracking day of snooker at the Tempodrome in Berlin. Along with those matches in the morning was another two high quality affairs as Bingham beat Selt and Burden beat Georgiou. Meanwhile, the five afternoon games were one-sided ones that were over rather quickly (giving me enough time for an afternoon nap) as O'Sullivan looked in brilliant form on the TV table to beat Mark Davis 5-1 despite Davis having a century in the opening frame. Shaun Murphy continued his Masters winning form to beat Michael Wasley, while Mark Allen played well in seeing off Mark Williams. Joe Perry got the only whitewash of the afternoon as he destroyed Jimmy Robertson, while the all-Chinese affair saw Liang Wenbo beat Li Hang.

Meanwhile in the Evening session we saw the start of the Last 16 games, as the four second round ties from the bottom half were played out. What this saw was quite a large number of one-sided games once again as Neil Robertson got his second whitewash in Berlin in beating Xiao Guodong, while Judd Trump did lose a frame this time in his 5-1 win against Martin Gould. The 5-1 win for Mark Selby was much more comfortable than I'd have expected against Peter Ebdon, but it was still a match that lasted nearly 3 hours. Stephen Maguire was the other winner last night as he brought an end to the run of Mark King with a 5-2 win.

Yesterday's Last 32 Results:

Ryan Day 5-4 Ding Junhui
Alfie Burden 5-3 Michael Georgiou
Liang Wenbo 5-1 Li Hang
Stuart Bingham 5-3 Matt Selt
Mark Allen 5-2 Mark Williams
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Michael Wasley
Joe Perry 5-0 Jimmy Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-1 Mark Davis

Yesterday's Last 16 Results:

Neil Robertson 5-0 Xiao Guodong
Stephen Maguire 5-2 Mark King
Judd Trump 5-1 Martin Gould
Mark Selby 5-1 Peter Ebdon

Today's Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Ryan Day Vs Alfie Burden - Both of these guys were superb yesterday in their first round victories at the venue and both appear to be in pretty good form at the moment. Alfie Burden reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Tour event recently, and has actually won his meetings with Ryan Day, though the last of these was over two years ago so that's not too relevant. If Alfie plays like he did yesterday again today then he will surely push Ryan Day all the way here and has a great chance of reaching a big ranking quarter-final. Meanwhile, Ryan Day was brilliant in sticking with, and then eventually beating Ding Junhui to end the defending champions reign, and Ding Junhui was the only man who could stop him last season at the Tempodrome as the Welshman lost out in a semi-final deciding frame. A repeat of that run is certainly not out of the question, and it does seem that after a bit of a blip there for a time, that Ryan Day is back fairly close to his best game and I think that gives him the slight edge in this last 16 encounter.

Stuart Bingham Vs Liang Wenbo - Stuart Bingham is another guy in fantastic form at the moment after reaching the UK semi's and get his match sharpness up in the New Year by playing in the first four Championship League groups, and his performance against Matt Selt yesterday seemed to be quite brilliant with some great scoring from both players in pretty much all of the frames apart from the eighth and eventually final frame that did go on for nearly an hour on it's own. Stuart will be confident of winning this match, because these are the types of games that he is losing less and less of now that he can be considered one of the games top players, and he showed that yesterday in what was another very tricky game against Selt. Liang Wenbo has been in pretty inconsistent form for a while now however, and while he can play well one day, he equally play pretty poorly the next and that may well happen again today, and to be honest, there hasn't been much for Liang to shout about so far this season in terms of his tour results, and I can't really see that changing much here.

Shaun Murphy Vs Mark Allen - These two guys will be looking forward to the prospect of yet another big game against each other after their most recent semi-finals in last months Masters and last years Haikou World Open, both won by Shaun Murphy. Shaun is in superb form at the minute, and he showed that again with his scoring against Michael Wasley, and he knows that he will have to score very heavily again if he is to have any chance of beating his good friend Mark in another important game. Meanwhile, Mark Allen is also scoring very heavily, and he demonstrated that against Mark Williams yesterday and to be honest he didn't do a whole lot wrong in his last defeat to Shaun at the Masters, despite the score being 6-2 to Murphy such was how brilliantly he was playing. I think this match is more important though for Mark Allen though as he hunts down a piece of major silverware which is the only thing missing to his season so far, having already reached two full ranking event finals, but his scoring yesterday would suggest his form is as good now as it was during his very productive spell at the start of the season. Shaun's levels meanwhile probably won't be as intense as they were that week at Alexandra Palace and that was purely down to that extra determination from Shaun, which was probably as determined to win as I've ever seen him. It's bound to be a close encounter but I just fancy Mark to edge it this time.

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Joe Perry - When Joe Perry played Ronnie O'Sullivan at the World Championships over the much longer format of the best of 25 frames, Joe was ahead for much of the match against Ronnie, keeping the Rocket on the ropes and it was only in the last four frames that things turned and he lost the match 13-11. Today Joe will have much less time though between frames and sessions to think about the match overall and what he could achieve by beating O'Sullivan if he puts himself in that position. The one thing that hasn't changed since April is how well Joe is playing. He took the title at the Asian Tour event just a couple of weeks ago, and has continued that form on here by dominating Jimmy Robertson yesterday in that whitewash, and I fully expect Joe to give Ronnie another very good and close game. However, the one thing that good settle this match is the way that O'Sullivan could just get out in front at the start and totally dominate things, no matter how well Joe is playing which is what the current UK Champion did to Mark Davis who did little to nothing wrong in a 5-1 defeat. Ronnie was simply superb in that game and if he keeps that form up throughout the tournament he'll win it. It's as simple as that. Such form from O'Sullivan is unstoppable. He says he feels sharp and when O'Sullivan is sharp, beware the chasing pack.


Those matches are this afternoon and the winners of those games will be back on again this evening to play their quarter-final ties and the last 8 matches that are known so far are Neil Robertson Vs Stephen Maguire and Judd Trump Vs Mark Selby, so those already look like two cracking games and I'm pretty certain that there will be two more great affairs to join that. If I'm able to I will try and write a quick preview of the evening's quarter-finals after this afternoons games, but if I can't i'll definetly be back late on tonight with a look ahead to Semi-finals Saturday at the German Masters.

Selby survives scare on first day in Berlin

World Champion Mark Selby survived a scare in the first round of the German Masters yesterday as he saw his 4-1 lead against Anthony McGill evaporate, only to come back strong and win the deciding frame. Meanwhile, in the evening session, Neil Robertson and Judd Trump were comfortably through with whitewashes, while Stephen Maguire survived a David Gilbert fight back as Dave reduced a 4-0 deficit to 4-3 before the Scot closed the match. Two top 16 players did meet their end on day one however as John Higgins was comfortably beaten by an in-form Peter Ebdon and Mark King beat Barry Hawkins 5-3 in a lengthy encounter. Amateur Ashley Carty gave Martin Gould a good push and was level at 3-3 at one stage before Martin's class showed and he closed the match out 5-3. Finally, Xiao Guodong came back from the brink on two occasions trailing 4-3 and 47-0 in the eighth frame, and then trailing 50-0 in the decider against Liam Highfield before coming back to win that match 5-4.

Here's quick confirmation of yesterdays results in full:

Wednesday's Last 32 Results:

Neil Robertson 5-0 Fergal O'Brien
Xiao Guodong 5-4 Liam Highfield
Stephen Maguire 5-3 David Gilbert
Mark King 5-3 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 5-0 Michael Holt
Martin Gould 5-3 Ashley Carty
Peter Ebdon 5-2 John Higgins
Mark Selby 5-4 Anthony McGill

Today's play sees the final eight games of the Last 32 in this morning and afternoons sessions, while the evening session sees the four Last 16 matches that were created from yesterdays results in the bottom half of the draw, so I'm going to have a quick look ahead to those four matches now.

Thursday's Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Neil Robertson Vs Xiao Guodong - Neil Robertson seems to have played reasonably well against Fergal O'Brien yesterday, really just doing what he had to without being pushed particularly hard in the match. However, he has been playing well in the lead up to this tournament after reaching the Masters final and he'll take comfort from that and his victory last night. Xiao Guodong meanwhile, was pushed all the way by Liam Highfield and he did have to dig incredibly deep to win that match when he seemed pretty much destined to lose it for a large part of the game. That will give him confidence after a pretty quiet season so far on the tour, and a big result in this match to get into the quarter-finals could really kick start his season. However, Neil is the experienced man here and if things get tough I expect him to be able to grind out the result, and possibly begin to frustrate the young Chinaman.

Stephen Maguire Vs Mark King - Before I look at the current form of either player for this match, I'd like to point out one result I remember from the German Masters Last 32 in 2013 when Mark King whitewashed Stephen Maguire 5-0. Could the same thing happen here? Well a Mark King victory is never out of the question, especially when he's cueing well which it appears he was in his win over Hawkins last night. Although, Stephen Maguire is a much different prospect to Barry Hawkins here for Mark. Stephen is playing very well right now and seems to have his confidence back, which Barry really doesn't have right now. With Maguire playing pretty close to his best right now, I don't think there will be a repeat of two years previous.

Judd Trump Vs Martin Gould - Judd Trump didn't start his match off against Michael Holt brilliantly last night and he didn't play sparkling snooker in the first three frames, but Holty didn't put him under any pressure in the end and it was all very comfortable for Judd, who was then able to relax and play his best snooker at the end of the match with back to back centuries. He'll need a better start today though, otherwise Martin Gould is a much more likely candidate to hand out some punishment and make him pay for his misses. The one down side for Martin is that he doesn't seem to be on top form, and really had to grind out his win yesterday against Ashley, something he won't be able to do against Trump. Martin has also been unwell in the lead up to this event, which won't have helped his preparation, and if he's still feeling a little bit under the weather he could become pretty jaded if the match runs close, though personally I don't think it will go that far.

Mark Selby Vs Peter Ebdon - Finally, we have what looks to be the best tie of the four by some distance and one I'm really looking forward to here between two great players playing pretty well right now. Mark has of course been struggling this season, and hasn't been able to pick up the results he would like as World Champion and he has admitted that there's been a lot of pressure on him with the World Champion tag coming into every tournament, which reminds me a lot of when he was World number one for the first time and was struggling a little with his game, because the title of world number one was proving a lot of pressure for him to handle. Meanwhile, there's really no pressure on Mark's opponents, because they always know that all eyes are on Mark as world champion to perform, so if he comes up against someone in good form he's more than likely to end up in a very tough, close game and possibly be beaten. That is exactly what I see happening here with Peter. The former world champion is playing some really good stuff at the moment and he scored heavily yesterday against John Higgins, so a repeat of that form could see a repeat of that result. Meanwhile, things were not comfortable for Mark who looked more and more tired as the match went on against Anthony, and it was a long one as McGill came back and Mark started to make a few errors. The problem for Mark will be if he's still feeling the effects of jetlag having only recently travelled back from China and the Pool championships over there, because it can take a few days to get over. I fancy that if Peter can stick with Selby in the first part of the match, and draw it out a bit in the back half of the match, he'll be able to take it, but it will be a close one.


That's all from me then after a very enjoyable first day of the German Masters, with some much more enjoyable coverage by Eurosport with Colin Murray presenting coverage, with Neal Foulds, Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan in their studio area in the Tempodrome providing analysis. I'll be back tomorrow morning to look ahead to the remaining Last 16 games for Friday afternoon, and the two known quarter-finals for Friday evening.