On Day 4 of my look back at the best performers of the calendar year 2014, we take a trip back to April on the baize and remind ourselves of why Neil Robertson was the snooker supremo:
It feels like a long while ago that it was April and with the China Open and the first week and a half of the World Championships being the main events of this month there were plenty of players to choose from for the Player of the Month award in April, but one man sort of stood out from everyone else and that man was Neil Robertson.
Neil Robertson's April consisted of him making the final of the China Open in true battling style despite being really ill with a virus that he said, had he known the extent of it, he wouldn't have bothered flying out there and one particularly impressive performance out there was his semi-final thrashing of Ali Carter after 4 very tough matches, 3 of which went to deciders.
When he went into the World Championship he had 2 very impressive sessions after hanging on in matches somewhat, but he really pulled away in the final session against Trump in the Quarter-final and then the last couple of sessions against Mark Allen in the Last 16.
While all of this was going on there was also another thing at the back of Neil Robertson's mind and that was thoughts of making a century of centuries in a season. Having missed 2 opportunities to get the 100th in the final session against Mark Allen the pressure was truly on when he was behind to Judd Trump and stuck on 99 centuries. Eventually in the final session Neil was able to make the 100th century and you could see that such a historic milestone meant a huge amount to him as he celebrated quite a bit when he made it. This may be a once in a lifetime event so to be able to complete it certainly makes him worthy of the Player of the Month award by right but also a place in the history books.
But here now are a couple of matches and sessions of play that outline why he is my Player of the Month for April:
Neil Robertson 13-7 Mark Allen (Last 2 sessions) - Going into the second session of this match the scores were level at 4-4 and the game really needed someone to grab it by the scruff of the neck. Neil Robertson looked like he may do exactly that as the session began here and he made a lovely 72 to start the session. However, Allen hit back immediately with a 71 to level, and this trend continued on to a point where Neil Robertson found himself 6-7 behind with Allen making breaks of 77 and 84 either side of the interval. From here Robertson played some quite brilliant snooker. He levelled up the match with a brilliant break of 137 (his 99th century of the season) and then followed up by showing the other side of his game to kind of grind out the final 2 frames of the session and lead 9-7 going into the final session with 13 the target for a quarter-final spot in the World Championships.
Neil then went into top gear coming back the next day as he started off with breaks of 59 and 69 to open up a real gap at 11-7 and make it very tough for Mark Allen to get back into the match as he was really dominating proceedings at this stage, having taken the match by the scruff of the neck as someone really needed to do with the pair trading frames to get to 7-7. Knowing that he then had such a large lead and was really dominating the match as a whole the pressure was off Neil Robertson a bit and he started to search for that 100th 100 of the season. In the 19th he got to 94 and missed the final black for that illusive century and then on 92 in the 20th and final frame he missed a relatively simple red down the cushion needing the red and black for that 100th ton.
This match really does show how Robertson could quite easily pull away from his opponents, no matter how well they were playing at the time which was really a feature of his season.
Neil Robertson 13-11 Judd Trump (Final Session) - This match was a prime example of what Neil Robertson could also do when he wasn't playing well during parts of the season, a particular theme when he had that virus in Beijing but also in this World quarter-final where after the first 2 sessions Neil Robertson had done well to stay with Judd Trump and only finish 6-9 behind with a good 2nd session from 6-2 down really setting up a potential comeback in the 3rd and final session of this match.
Robertson started off the session well winning the opening 2 frames of the session with hardly vintage snooker making breaks of 52 and 40 to close to 9-8 and putting the pressure back on Judd Trump. Judd responded by winning the next 2 frames to regain his 3 frame lead at the last mid-session interval. From there though it was Robertson that started to improve in more than one aspect of his game as Judd just started to tail off. It was breaks of 44 and 70 that got Neil back to within 1 frame at 10-11 and then Neil Robertson made the historic and long awaited 100th century of the season with a break of 101 bringing on some not so small celebrations from Robertson but also to level the match at 11-11 and at this stage with Robertson dominating the game in all aspects at this stage he'd played himself into favouritism for the match. From there a couple of 30 breaks in the next were enough to keep Trump away from the table and go one away from victory at 12-11. Then in the blink of an eye Robertson took the 2 chances that were then being gifted to him such was the nature of the game and the fact that Trump had slowly been worked into ground. In the end that combination of clever tactical play and good scoring just working Trump down was the catalyst to the 13-11 win and a place in the semi-finals.
Those couple of sessions of those couple of matches just outline what a clever player as well as a heavy scorer that Neil Robertson is and coupled with his performances over the whole of April in somewhat testing conditions, it's a clear reason why my Player of the Month for April is Neil Robertson. Tomorrow we move on to May, as I reveal my stand out player from the 5th month of the year
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