The current World Snooker tour comprises of 128 professional players 3 of whom are honorary members (Steve Davis, James Wattana and Stephen Hendry) but the question on everyone's lips this week is, is that the right number? Such debate has been sparked by two blogs that 2015 Masters Champion Shaun Murphy has put on his website, calling for the main tour to be shortened to 64 and to then have a Challenge Tour where the other 64 and any added extras would reside. He goes on to suggest that at the end of each season, those ranked between 49 and 64 would be relegated down to the challenge tour, to be replaced by the highest ranked 16 from the lower tour.
The first question you'd ask Shaun is why does he think this? Well, as he explains on his blog, he believes all new players should have to work their way up through the Challenge Tour. He wants to make history of the days where people get invites on to the main tour based on one performance in an amateur or professional event. If players are good enough he says, they will rise through the ranks and onto the professional circuit, because as Barry Hearn said when he changed tournaments to a flat 128 structure "The cream will rise to the top". It always does. When that idea became a reality it was to give lower ranked players an equal chance of winning events as the top 16. Yet, the recent Shanghai Masters event in China saw Kyren Wilson come through 3 qualifying round matches in Barnsley, a wildcard match at the venue and a further 5 games in the main arena to win the trophy, while for the top 16, only 5 wins would've been required to take the trophy home. So on that score the format doesn't matter, if you're good enough - you're good enough.
What would 64 on the main tour provide? Well I think the way that events like the International Championships is formatted basically makes this one clear. 64 players are being taken to the main venue for this one in Daqing, China. Yet, as there are 128 players on tour, every man has to play a qualifying match...in Barnsley!!! As Shaun says in his blog "that doesn't get the juices flowing" and why would it? You're playing a one off match to qualify for an event that's being held on another continent in 4 weeks time.
Then the question continues to come up as to why they don't simply take 128 to each venue? Several reasons are sighted, mainly from the view of those in charge of the sport that there are clear contractual issues when getting a venue. Not only that, but when it comes to taking 128 to a venue like the UK Championships at the York Barbican or the Welsh Open in Cardiff, that doesn't work either. For example, the first round of the 2014 UK's was played behind closed doors with BBC's TV coverage not beginning until the beginning of the Last 64 round on the first Saturday. Then, as Shaun refers to on his blog, you get matches being played "out the back away from the lights and the action" with 4 tables being found out in the "Sports hall" outside of the main arena. With 64 players on tour alone, these problems would be a lot fewer in number as well.
After reading Shaun's blog in full (which by the way can be found here: http://www.shaunmurphy.net/news/time-for-a-restructure) I've been in touch with Shaun privately to get him to clarify certain aspects of his idea, and i'm sure he won't mind me sharing this on here. I asked him about how players would get on the Challenge Tour in the first place and how many would be taken on and off at a time, like with the main tour. In response to that he said that in the long term "there would be nothing wrong with having a large pool of players on the Challenge Tour". I then asked what he would do about the current Qualifying School system and he said that more than likely he'd keep that as a qualifying system for the Challenge Tour. He's also very clear about that being purely as a qualifying system for the Challenge Tour and NOT the main tour saying: "In my ideas everyone that wants to get to the main tour has to go via the Challenge. Everyone".
After reading the first of Shaun's two blogs, I actually came up with my own idea about how the tour could be more efficient in terms of numbers, and I've based it much more on the system used on the PGA Golf Tour in America, where they have the main PGA Tour and the Web.Com Tour. Firstly, i'd have 80 men on the main tour. That allows more for players that choose not to enter certain events, without creating too many walkovers. When a full group does enter, you simply have a preliminary round prior to round one to get the numbers from 80 down to 64 for round one. This purely comes from an opinion that 80 is probably the number of players on tour that are good enough either now or in the very near future to make a good enough living. Arguably you can look at the numbers on the money list and say that anyone outside of the top 40 players is struggling to make ends meet, based simply on their prize money earnings. You might say that shortening from 128 to either 64 or 80 is a big drop, but not when you consider the amount of amateurs that have to be invited to events. If you take off the honorary members (Davis, Hendry and Wattana) you have 125 names. Then remove the regular non-entry's (Steve Mifsud, Ju Reti, Rouzi Maimaiti, Liu Chuang, Itaro Santos and Igor Figueredo) and you're already down to 119. After that, there are the players that in my view are simply not good enough, or at least not yet. Anyone that's made less than £15,000 in the last year and a half of play (so looking at the end of season projected seedings) would arguably do better to go out and get a full time job away from sport where they'd earn more money through a stable income. (Such players are: Thor Chuan Leong, Steven Hallworth, Lu Chenwei, Ian Glover, Lu Ning, Michael Leslie, Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Lee Walker, Tony Drago, David Grace, Chris Melling, Zak Surety and Barry Pinches)
If you had a Challenge Tour below the main tour players like those mentioned above would probably make the same money I've mentioned here, if the Challenge Tour was given the correct funding as it should be. Winning an event on the Challenge Tour would give lower ranked players a great confidence boost, and a place on the main tour at the end of the season with that money and confidence under their belt. As with Shaun's idea, I would promote and relegate 16 at the end of every season, while you can add 8 to the Challenge Tour every year through a Q School, while after every two years you relegate the bottom 16 players from the Challenge tour and make them re-qualify through Q School and the World and European Amateur events.
Poor old Barry Hearn has really gone through a thorough session of 20 questions lately on Twitter over this and he sights the fact that prize money going up being a sign that 128 tour players on tour being a sign that it's working. That's where I disagree. I believe that's a product of the growth of the game worldwide, giving more sponsors opportunities and tournaments, as the top players like Murphy give their all in events around the globe and do their upmost to promote the game in a positive manner, and that needs to be recognised too.
I asked Barry myself on Twitter about his opinion on the fact that out of 128 about 25% of the tour is either not good enough to "cut it" and by that I mean earn a living of any kind, or those that were regular non-entries (and by that I was referring to the likes of Ju Reti and Rouzi Maimaiti who got tour cards via the Asian Tour, only to continue only entering Asian Tour events.)
His response was:
"It's personnel choice and equal opportunity. It's how great businesses grow"
In my mind, if that's true here's a final few thoughts I want to leave you with. I wish to throw out into the open 2 words, perspective and versatility. To address the first of those, I believe whichever way you look at this argument depends on your perspective. As the man running the sport (whom I hugely respect for the job he has and continues to do) you know that you have a good business model which makes money and sense. As a fan like myself you think that 128 players is not best because of the old saying of "quality not quantity" idealising that having 64 or 80 players on a tour that you could take all of to a venue and see a lot less one sided fixtures with that, and many more competitive games. As a higher ranked player you want to be able to avoid playing first round matches a month before the competition fully starts in a totally different location in different playing conditions. You also want to be able to play in front of the big crowds and TV audiences that your talent and hard work has deserved. Meanwhile, lower ranked players outside of the top 64 don't want to lose their main tour playing privileges, but it must also be tough to progress when you're struggling to make money on the tour, and you know that if you can't break into the top 64 inside two years, you'll be sent back to the drawing board anyway.
The second word, versatility, is a massively important thing to have with any business. Being able to adapt to every situation that you come across and pleasing as many people as possible is not an easy thing to do and you have to work out the best way of doing that. TV companies, fans and sponsors all want to see the best players guaranteed at venues in every event. Meanwhile, the governing body has to juggle the demands of all of these people and keep in mind the best interests of the players also. At the end of the day, you want to keep your best players happy and motivated to give their all. As a number of tour players, whether a rigid 128 main tour offers you that versatility is up for debate, while you could give more players a taste of professional snooker life by having a main tour of anywhere between 64 and 80 and have a Challenge Tour that can continuously grow off of that, with as many players as you want to invite from around the world to help promote the best talent on to that main tour when they're ready to really breakthrough and take the world by storm, having proven themselves on a Challenge Tour.
The only other thing that is left for me to say is that, while the possibilities for change may be endless, it is not for me to decide that, I merely want to give my view on how I see these possibilities. At the same time I intend no disrespect to any members of the playing tour, or to Barry Hearn and Jason Ferguson and all of the other people at World Snooker who have worked so hard in recent years to reignite the game.
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Friday, 2 October 2015
International Championship Qualifying Final Day: Pag's Punts
The final day of International qualifying brings with it a final offering of Andrew Pagett's recommended bets. To summarise the last 24 hours of play, last night we saw wins for Day, Guodong and Gilbert while Shaun Murphy did his business on Lu (Chenwei)... and you thought I was going to leave that little pun out. Today it was easy for McGill, Brecel, Holt, Joyce, while Craig Steadman beat Li Hang 6-2 and Daniel Wells surprised me a little by beating Rory McLeod so easily 6-1. This afternoons matches are proving slightly slower, with Jamie Burnett and James Cahill really dragging out their opening four frames.
So then, this is what Andrew thinks is a worthy look in for tomorrow...
Here Andrew has done another 5 fold including some very close calls. Joel Walker to beat Robbie Williams is his first selection and that is a match I've thought about more than most as I think they're pretty evenly matched. Aditya Mehta still seems a little bit short given his form this year to beat Ian Glover, while Zhao Xintong will again be a dangerous customer i'm sure, and Pag agrees going for him to beat Stuart Carrington. Jamie Jones is a brilliant price to beat Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, and i'd say the same about Mike Dunn to beat Mitchell Mann. Those prices shown there may also have changed since Andrew sent this to me on Wednesday afternoon, so again check around as Boylesports may not still be the best priced on this.
Other than that, that will be all from me until next weeks Ruhr Open in terms of tournament blogging, while an interesting debate over the last few days may see an interesting opinion piece arrive on the blog in the next couple of days.
So then, this is what Andrew thinks is a worthy look in for tomorrow...
Here Andrew has done another 5 fold including some very close calls. Joel Walker to beat Robbie Williams is his first selection and that is a match I've thought about more than most as I think they're pretty evenly matched. Aditya Mehta still seems a little bit short given his form this year to beat Ian Glover, while Zhao Xintong will again be a dangerous customer i'm sure, and Pag agrees going for him to beat Stuart Carrington. Jamie Jones is a brilliant price to beat Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, and i'd say the same about Mike Dunn to beat Mitchell Mann. Those prices shown there may also have changed since Andrew sent this to me on Wednesday afternoon, so again check around as Boylesports may not still be the best priced on this.
Other than that, that will be all from me until next weeks Ruhr Open in terms of tournament blogging, while an interesting debate over the last few days may see an interesting opinion piece arrive on the blog in the next couple of days.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
International Championship Qualifiers Day 3: Pag's Punts
After a winless couple of days in the International Championship qualifiers, Andrew Pagett is back for more with another punt for Friday's play. Today so far we've seen a couple of major shocks as Robert Milkins was beaten 6-4 by Darryl Hill, and Stephen Maguire was simply thrashed 6-2 by Noppon Saengkham. Sean O'Sullivan also scored a nice 6-3 win against Robin Hull and Jack Lisowski showed signs of the work he's put in with Terry Griffiths by beating Hossein Vafei Ayouri 6-3.
So after all of that, there are still 4 games to be played this evening including a man that features regularly on the blog in Shaun Murphy, but it's time to look ahead to Friday's play with Andrew's bet.
What we've got here is an interesting five fold, where Pag's gone for the outsider in two very close games to call with Michael Georgiou to beat Dechawat Poomjaeng and Crucible qualifier Craig Steadman against Li Hang. Other than that, he's chosen Mark Joyce to beat Hamza Akbar, in Akbar' first professional match, Anthony McGill to beat James Wattana and Rory McLeod to beat Daniel Wells as his other 3 selections. I think it's a brave shout that had the best odds with BetVictor when Andrew put this on yesterday so it's worth having a check again possibly.
Other than that, we'll have the final Pag's Punts of the week tomorrow evening before Saturday's final day of International qualifying.
So after all of that, there are still 4 games to be played this evening including a man that features regularly on the blog in Shaun Murphy, but it's time to look ahead to Friday's play with Andrew's bet.
What we've got here is an interesting five fold, where Pag's gone for the outsider in two very close games to call with Michael Georgiou to beat Dechawat Poomjaeng and Crucible qualifier Craig Steadman against Li Hang. Other than that, he's chosen Mark Joyce to beat Hamza Akbar, in Akbar' first professional match, Anthony McGill to beat James Wattana and Rory McLeod to beat Daniel Wells as his other 3 selections. I think it's a brave shout that had the best odds with BetVictor when Andrew put this on yesterday so it's worth having a check again possibly.
Other than that, we'll have the final Pag's Punts of the week tomorrow evening before Saturday's final day of International qualifying.
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Pag's Punts: International Championship Qualifiers Day 2
After two sessions of play so far in the International Championship Qualifiers there have been plenty of interesting results and close finishes. Andrew Pagett's recommended bet for the first day fell foul with Mark King losing out 6-2 to Ian Burns in a surprise result.
Chris Wakelin survived a scare against Peter Lines, seeing his 4-0 lead evaporate but still winning the final 2 frames to win 6-4, while Joe Swail came back from 5-3 down against Allan Taylor to win that one 6-5. Other deciding frame finishes in the early play saw Thepchaiya Un-Nooh beat Hammad Miah and Mark Allen come through a great match with Scott Donaldson.
Pagett has another recommended accumulator for the second day's play in Barsnley, so here is what he has picked out:
Chris Wakelin survived a scare against Peter Lines, seeing his 4-0 lead evaporate but still winning the final 2 frames to win 6-4, while Joe Swail came back from 5-3 down against Allan Taylor to win that one 6-5. Other deciding frame finishes in the early play saw Thepchaiya Un-Nooh beat Hammad Miah and Mark Allen come through a great match with Scott Donaldson.
Pagett has another recommended accumulator for the second day's play in Barsnley, so here is what he has picked out:
Once again, Pagett has gone for a fivefold accumulator that pays out at nearly 10/1 with Bet Victor, who are shown to have the best odds on this bet via Oddschecker. In all, Pagett's gone for Jimmy Robertson to beat Lu Ning (1/3), former Masters and UK Champion Matthew Stevens to overcome Fraser Patrick (4/11), Stephen Maguire against Thai opponent Noppon Saengkham (2/9). In two tighter matches to call, Pagett has opted for Finland's Robin Hull to beat Sean O'Sullivan (4/5) and Iran's Hossein Vafei Ayouri who is an outsider 7/4 against the talented Jack Lisowski.
All the very best of luck to those of you that follow Pagett's recommendation for Thursday's play and don't forget that the two-time Welsh Amateur Champion will be back again for the final two days of International Championship Qualifying with more betting tips.
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Pag's Punts: International Championship Qualifying Day 1
Over the next four days there is a feast of snooker action taking place in Barnsley as the International Championship Qualifiers get underway. This tournament is played on the new flat structure, instead of the tiered one which the first two full ranking events of this year have been played under. That means that the matches played at Barnsley will be the Last 128 round, so 60 games in all will be played as the games of the defending champion and World champion (Ricky Walden and Stuart Bingham) and the two highest seeded Chinese players (Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo) are held over to the venue in China, in a system that was announced last year.
The format sees 15 games a day on each of the four days, with 6 morning games (9.30am), 5 afternoon games (2.30pm) and 4 evening games (7.30pm) for these best-of-11 frame ties.
For those of you in and around Barnsley, entry is free to the Metrodome to watch the games great stars in action. To pick out a few of the big favourites in action, Mark Allen plays on Wednesday morning, Mark Williams on Wednesday afternoon and Mark Selby and Michael White are both in two of Wednesday's four evening games. Barry Hawkins, Robert Milkins and Ali Carter are all playing on Thursday morning, with Matthew Stevens, Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire on Thursday afternoon, while Shaun Murphy plays on Thursday evening. Friday night sees the appearance of Neil Robertson, and on Saturday John Higgins, Joe Perry and Judd Trump all enter proceedings.
With the sheer choice of matches, ex-pro Andrew Pagett has been able to pick a variety of bets out for readers this week, starting with the matches on Wednesday. Here is who Pagett is backing on day one of the International Qualifiers:
The format sees 15 games a day on each of the four days, with 6 morning games (9.30am), 5 afternoon games (2.30pm) and 4 evening games (7.30pm) for these best-of-11 frame ties.
For those of you in and around Barnsley, entry is free to the Metrodome to watch the games great stars in action. To pick out a few of the big favourites in action, Mark Allen plays on Wednesday morning, Mark Williams on Wednesday afternoon and Mark Selby and Michael White are both in two of Wednesday's four evening games. Barry Hawkins, Robert Milkins and Ali Carter are all playing on Thursday morning, with Matthew Stevens, Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire on Thursday afternoon, while Shaun Murphy plays on Thursday evening. Friday night sees the appearance of Neil Robertson, and on Saturday John Higgins, Joe Perry and Judd Trump all enter proceedings.
With the sheer choice of matches, ex-pro Andrew Pagett has been able to pick a variety of bets out for readers this week, starting with the matches on Wednesday. Here is who Pagett is backing on day one of the International Qualifiers:
As you can see in the above picture Pagett has picked out a fivefold accumulator on Mark King to beat Ian Burns (8/15), Irishman David Morris to beat Sanderson Lam (4/11), new Shanghai Masters champion Kyren Wilson to beat Malaysia's Thor Chuan Leong (1/5), Joe Swail to beat Allan Taylor (2/5) and finally, Alan McManus to win an All-Scottish affair with Ross Muir (2/9).
As always Pagett has gone through the odds comparison site Oddschecker to find the best odds for the readers and as shown above, Bet365 are best price on this offering odds of just over 3/1 overall. All the best of luck if you follow Pagett on this selections and keep an eye on the blog as the former Crucible Qualifier will be providing a bet for each day of qualifying this week.
Monday, 21 September 2015
Stat Attack: Shanghai Masters Review
After Kyren Wilson's fantastic victory in the Shanghai Masters, beating Judd Trump 10-9 in the final to win his first ever ranking event, it's time for me to look back on some of the weeks snooker with some well selected statistics.
One of the first interesting statistics that I've picked out, looks at unlucky Michael Holt. In the 4 main tournaments this season, Holt has lost to either the eventual tournament winner, or losing finalist. In the Riga Open and Australian he lost to the runners up in Tom Ford and Martin Gould. That was before losing to Ali Carter in the Paul Hunter Classic semi-finals and this week in Shanghai he lost to Kyren Wilson in the Last 16. So clearly, Michael Holt isn't playing badly at all this season and ending up unlucky with the draw.
In terms of a century count this week, I think the final tally's may reflect the overall usual Chinese conditions. 11 centuries were made in the 14 Last 32 matches, 4 centuries in the Last 16 games, just 1 in the quarter-finals, 2 in the best-of-11 semi-finals and 1 made by Judd Trump in the final. That totals up at 19 centuries for the final stages of the event.
Kyren was the 53rd seed for this years Shanghai Masters. That meant he had to play 9 matches in all, 7 of which were against players seeded higher than him. In all he played Vinnie Calabrese (5-0), Mark King (5-3) and Anthony McGill (5-4) in the qualifying stages to make it to Shanghai, before playing wildcard Wildcard Wang Yuchen (5-1) on arrival. Wins against Perry (5-2) , Holt (5-1) and Ding Junhui (5-4) to make it down to the one-table set-up where he then overcame Mark Allen 6-1 and finally Judd Trump (10-9).
This years final was also the 3rd in the last 5 Shanghai Masters to go to a decider, two of which have seen Judd Trump as the loser after this year, the other being his 10-9 loss to John Higgins in 2012.
A decider is something that Neil Robertson isn't enjoying at the moment. He lost 5-4 to Jamie Cope in round one, now meaning that in the last 7 matches he's lost, spanning back to the German Masters, he's lost 5 of those games in a final frame shoot-out. Although, in the interest of fairness to Neil, he's also won 5 deciders in that period, 3 of which came in his win at the Gdynia Open.
Kyren Wilson's week sees him as the big ranking mover, up 32 places to a new ranking of 22 in the world, and No.18 on the provisional end of season rankings, although there is plenty of time for that to change.
The big loser in the world rankings post Shanghai was Xiao Guodong, after his runners-up money from 2013 came off, sending him down 9 places to 32nd.
It may come as a slight surprise that there was only one whitewash in the final stages in Shanghai, as Judd Trump overcame Robert Milkins 5-0 in the Last 32, while the highest break of 140 from Luca Brecel came in one of only three frames he managed to win, losing 5-3 to Mark Allen in round one.
"One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9."
The form continued on this front for John Higgins as he beat Liang Wenbo 5-1 in this opening round match, making it 7 from 7 now for John against Liang.
"One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday."
Well, White couldn't put this right either, as Davis overcame him for an eighth time in eight meetings, 5-1 in the first round.
"When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field."
Again this statistic can continue on to next year as Kyren Wilson is not only a first time winner in Shanghai, but a first time ranking winner full stop.
"Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history."
Shaun was certainly happy to add to his deciders played in Shanghai, which is now 9 in 7 years during the final stages, and 5 Last 32 matches in a row in Shanghai that he's taken into a final frame after he came back from 4-1 down to beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 in round 1 this week.
"Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul."
On this front Martin was a very dangerous player in Shanghai beating Barry Hawkins and former champion John Higgins before losing from 4-2 ahead against defending champion Stuart Bingham. That makes him 10 wins from 13 this season while he now averages a break of 50 or above in every 2.39 frames.
That's just about it from me on my statistical review of the weeks events in Shanghai. Just remember, any feedback on this new feature to the blog is welcome, while if there are any particular statistics you would like to know again the comments section of the blog or by tweeting me @CueActionBlog are to ways you can get your opinions across.
One of the first interesting statistics that I've picked out, looks at unlucky Michael Holt. In the 4 main tournaments this season, Holt has lost to either the eventual tournament winner, or losing finalist. In the Riga Open and Australian he lost to the runners up in Tom Ford and Martin Gould. That was before losing to Ali Carter in the Paul Hunter Classic semi-finals and this week in Shanghai he lost to Kyren Wilson in the Last 16. So clearly, Michael Holt isn't playing badly at all this season and ending up unlucky with the draw.
In terms of a century count this week, I think the final tally's may reflect the overall usual Chinese conditions. 11 centuries were made in the 14 Last 32 matches, 4 centuries in the Last 16 games, just 1 in the quarter-finals, 2 in the best-of-11 semi-finals and 1 made by Judd Trump in the final. That totals up at 19 centuries for the final stages of the event.
Kyren was the 53rd seed for this years Shanghai Masters. That meant he had to play 9 matches in all, 7 of which were against players seeded higher than him. In all he played Vinnie Calabrese (5-0), Mark King (5-3) and Anthony McGill (5-4) in the qualifying stages to make it to Shanghai, before playing wildcard Wildcard Wang Yuchen (5-1) on arrival. Wins against Perry (5-2) , Holt (5-1) and Ding Junhui (5-4) to make it down to the one-table set-up where he then overcame Mark Allen 6-1 and finally Judd Trump (10-9).
This years final was also the 3rd in the last 5 Shanghai Masters to go to a decider, two of which have seen Judd Trump as the loser after this year, the other being his 10-9 loss to John Higgins in 2012.
A decider is something that Neil Robertson isn't enjoying at the moment. He lost 5-4 to Jamie Cope in round one, now meaning that in the last 7 matches he's lost, spanning back to the German Masters, he's lost 5 of those games in a final frame shoot-out. Although, in the interest of fairness to Neil, he's also won 5 deciders in that period, 3 of which came in his win at the Gdynia Open.
Kyren Wilson's week sees him as the big ranking mover, up 32 places to a new ranking of 22 in the world, and No.18 on the provisional end of season rankings, although there is plenty of time for that to change.
The big loser in the world rankings post Shanghai was Xiao Guodong, after his runners-up money from 2013 came off, sending him down 9 places to 32nd.
It may come as a slight surprise that there was only one whitewash in the final stages in Shanghai, as Judd Trump overcame Robert Milkins 5-0 in the Last 32, while the highest break of 140 from Luca Brecel came in one of only three frames he managed to win, losing 5-3 to Mark Allen in round one.
Previous Stats Review
To really review the event in terms of statistics, it's worth having a look at some of the stats I picked out in my original Shanghai Masters Statistics Preview..."One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9."
The form continued on this front for John Higgins as he beat Liang Wenbo 5-1 in this opening round match, making it 7 from 7 now for John against Liang.
"One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday."
Well, White couldn't put this right either, as Davis overcame him for an eighth time in eight meetings, 5-1 in the first round.
"When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field."
Again this statistic can continue on to next year as Kyren Wilson is not only a first time winner in Shanghai, but a first time ranking winner full stop.
"Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history."
Shaun was certainly happy to add to his deciders played in Shanghai, which is now 9 in 7 years during the final stages, and 5 Last 32 matches in a row in Shanghai that he's taken into a final frame after he came back from 4-1 down to beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 in round 1 this week.
"Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul."
On this front Martin was a very dangerous player in Shanghai beating Barry Hawkins and former champion John Higgins before losing from 4-2 ahead against defending champion Stuart Bingham. That makes him 10 wins from 13 this season while he now averages a break of 50 or above in every 2.39 frames.
That's just about it from me on my statistical review of the weeks events in Shanghai. Just remember, any feedback on this new feature to the blog is welcome, while if there are any particular statistics you would like to know again the comments section of the blog or by tweeting me @CueActionBlog are to ways you can get your opinions across.
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Trump Vs Wilson in Shanghai final
The final of this years Shanghai Masters will see Former UK Champion Judd Trump take on rising star Kyren Wilson, as a new name will be put on the trophy, the ninth in nine running's of the event.
Judd came through the first semi-final early in the day against defending champion Stuart Bingham. It was a brilliant start to the match with 4 quick fire frames being shared as Trump took the first and fourth with runs of 95 and 100, while Bingham's contributions of 98 and 118 were sandwiched in between. At this stage it looked like this could go all the way, but after the interval Stuart lost his way. A break of 47 wasn't enough to win him the fifth and Trump cleared with 39 to steal the frame. He needed a couple of chances to win the sixth and at 4-2 he looked in control. After Judd countered with 62 following an early 48 from Stuart, he let Stuart back into the frame and the match at 3-4. That didn't last long though, as Judd dominated the eighth frame, breaks of 45 and 46 doing plenty in putting him one away from the final at 5-3. Stuart Bingham had a chance at the beginning of the ninth, but he pushed the boat out once too many, leaving Trump in to avenge his World Championship semi-final defeat, as a run of 62 won him the match 6-3.
Kyren Wilson meanwhile was very dominant in his semi-final against Mark Allen. The first frame saw him gradually work away a 54 point deficit to win the frame on the final black and move 1-0 ahead. He progressed that lead in frame two with a break of 73, while a 68 after earlier chances for Allen moved him 3-0 in front, halfway to his first major final. Mark had plenty of chances in frame four to put his first one on the board, but another colours clearance from Kyren saw him win the frame on the black again to lead 4-0 at the interval. There was still a job to do for Wilson after the break, and he set about it perfectly with a contribution of 60 doing the damage in frame 5 to go 5-0 in front, needing only one of the next 6 to reach the final. Mark managed to avoid the embarrassment of the whitewash, but it wasn't long before Kyren's big moment came, as a break of 30 levelled up the scores in frame seven before he finished it with a run of 50, to not just but beat Allen, but give him a real thrashing.
Prediction: Wilson to win his first ranking event with a thrilling 10-9 win.
I'm sure it will be a cracking final either way and it's just a shame it won't be shown live on Eurosport, so you'll have to wait for the highlights later on or find some kind of stream on the internet. Otherwise, the next you'll hear from me on the blog is my stat attack round-up of what we've seen during this weeks tournament.
Judd came through the first semi-final early in the day against defending champion Stuart Bingham. It was a brilliant start to the match with 4 quick fire frames being shared as Trump took the first and fourth with runs of 95 and 100, while Bingham's contributions of 98 and 118 were sandwiched in between. At this stage it looked like this could go all the way, but after the interval Stuart lost his way. A break of 47 wasn't enough to win him the fifth and Trump cleared with 39 to steal the frame. He needed a couple of chances to win the sixth and at 4-2 he looked in control. After Judd countered with 62 following an early 48 from Stuart, he let Stuart back into the frame and the match at 3-4. That didn't last long though, as Judd dominated the eighth frame, breaks of 45 and 46 doing plenty in putting him one away from the final at 5-3. Stuart Bingham had a chance at the beginning of the ninth, but he pushed the boat out once too many, leaving Trump in to avenge his World Championship semi-final defeat, as a run of 62 won him the match 6-3.
Kyren Wilson meanwhile was very dominant in his semi-final against Mark Allen. The first frame saw him gradually work away a 54 point deficit to win the frame on the final black and move 1-0 ahead. He progressed that lead in frame two with a break of 73, while a 68 after earlier chances for Allen moved him 3-0 in front, halfway to his first major final. Mark had plenty of chances in frame four to put his first one on the board, but another colours clearance from Kyren saw him win the frame on the black again to lead 4-0 at the interval. There was still a job to do for Wilson after the break, and he set about it perfectly with a contribution of 60 doing the damage in frame 5 to go 5-0 in front, needing only one of the next 6 to reach the final. Mark managed to avoid the embarrassment of the whitewash, but it wasn't long before Kyren's big moment came, as a break of 30 levelled up the scores in frame seven before he finished it with a run of 50, to not just but beat Allen, but give him a real thrashing.
Final Preview
Judd Trump Vs Kyren Wilson - These two guys have been excellent this week, and are thoroughly deserving of their places in the best-of-19 frames final. The first thing I want to mention is that if Kyren does beat Judd in this final it will be the start of brilliant things for him. The run this week should secure his place in the World Grand Prix and if he were to win it would also move him into the top 32 from down in the 50's of the rankings where he started the week and get him into November's Champion of Champions. The only time he's really come close to being beaten this week was against Ding Junhui whom he beat 5-4. Otherwise he boasts a 5-2 win against Perry, a 5-1 win against Holt and a 6-1 win against Allen, all quality, experienced players. Can he make it one more to win the event? Absolutely. In my view he's been the best player this week by quite a way of anyone else at times. He's showed no fear and plenty of bottle so far, and if he gets himself into a winning position, he'll obviously be nervous like any player would be, but I don't believe he'd bottle it or throw it away. Judd Trump though will certainly not take it for granted that he will win, just because Kyren is has never made a final before in his professional career. He's experienced enough by now to know that he should play the same way against everyone and I believe that he hasn't quite been at his best this week. His match against Milkins was a breeze and he could easily have been beaten by Matt Selt, whilst Mark Williams didn't take the chances that he had. However, he has improved through the week with his best performance coming today against Bingham, but I still believe he's not a certainty to win this one tomorrow. The key to this match is going to be whether Wilson shows more nerves at the start and end of the match if he gets in a good position, or whether he takes his chances and plays in the same fearless manner as the rest of the week. At times this week I wondered whether he was going to be able to keep his run going and he has answered those questions emphatically.Prediction: Wilson to win his first ranking event with a thrilling 10-9 win.
I'm sure it will be a cracking final either way and it's just a shame it won't be shown live on Eurosport, so you'll have to wait for the highlights later on or find some kind of stream on the internet. Otherwise, the next you'll hear from me on the blog is my stat attack round-up of what we've seen during this weeks tournament.
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