The 2017/2018 snooker season has drawn to a close, as the curtain came down on Monday night with Mark Williams lifting the World Championship trophy at the Crucible. The season has been bigger and better than ever with tournaments all over the world, and the class of '92 have really dominated things and shown that they are far from done yet.
Over the next three days I'll be reviewing the snooker season from start to finish, looking at the major tournament winners and the big stories from the events. Today, part one will look back at the season opening Riga Masters up until the English Open in mid-October.
The Riga Masters in Latvia saw the realisation of a major ambition for Ryan Day as he collected his very first ranking title. It had been a long time coming for Day after a number of near misses, including at the World Grand Prix at the back end of the season previous. There were plenty of big stories from the event, starting with a first professional victory for Germany's Lukas Kleckers. He took care of defending champion Neil Robertson 4-3 to record a remarkable result, following a walkover from his last 128 qualifying match. Unfortunately for Kleckers this would prove to be his only victory in his debut season on the tour.
One man that threatened to steal the headlines at one point was Ken Doherty. The 1997 World Champion had fallen off the tour at the end of the season previous and was invited back by World Snooker on a two-year invitational tour card along with Jimmy White. From ball one Doherty was a man on a mission and would ultimately reach the semi-finals before narrowly falling 5-4 to Stephen Maguire. Ryan Day meanwhile was also a 5-4 winner in the semi-finals against fellow countryman and soon to be World Cup partner Mark Williams. Day had also overcome Barry Hawkins, Robert Milkins, Kyren Wilson and Joe Perry on the way to the final and showing that he was worthy of his first ranking title. Day surged into a 4-0 lead in the final against Maguire and would soon cross the line a 5-2 winner.
The players then paired up at the beginning of July for the World Cup in Wuxi. 24 countries took part with the best two from each nation being invited to represent their home nation and attempt to lift the title. The event is no stranger to surprises when in 2015 Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong shocked the snooker world when they triumphed for China B. The same pair lined up again with plenty more experience to attempt to defend this title and they came close. After sneaking through the group stages ahead of Brazil, they narrowly defeated a Belgium side that included Luca Brecel before falling short against England.
The runners up from 2015 Scotland failed to advance from the group stages along with Neil Robertson's Australia, Marco Fu's Hong Kong side and the Republic or Ireland featuring Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien. The quarter-finals were packed with quality though. The China A side of Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo saw off the Welsh duo of Day and Williams. Thailand looked strong as they saw off fellow underdogs Iran. The English pair of Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins needed a final frame to see off Northern Ireland's Mark Allen and Joe Swail.
Then in the semi's Ding and Liang would take care of business once more to knock out Thailand and set up a final with the other big favourites for the tournament in England. No-one could have been too surprised to see the two pairs battling out for the title, and despite falling 3-1 behind, Ding and Liang would forge a comeback to win 4-3 and make it back-to-back World Cup's for China since its re-introduction to the calendar.
After a couple of smaller invitationals on the calendar, a gold medal win Kyren Wilson at the World Games and some pre-qualifiers at the Preston Guildhall for events at the beginning of the Autumn, serious business returned in mid-August with the China Championship. This was the first time the event had been played as a ranking event, after John Higgins took the title in a 16-man invitational in 2016. A strong line-up headed to Guangzhou in search of glory but the top players did not show their best form. In a dramatic Friday's last 32 action, all of the top six seeds for the event were shown the exits as continued surprises meant that only one of the top 11 seeds for the event made it to the last 16.
That man was Shaun Murphy and he certainly took advantage blitzing Stephen Maguire 5-0 before overcoming Zhou Yuelong and 12th seed Ali Carter to make it through to the first big final of the year. The shocks continued though in the bottom half of the draw as Mark Williams fell to Li Hang and Luca Brecel came from behind to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in two dramatic quarter-finals. That left the two to battle for a place in the final, with both players eyeing a maiden ranking title. If you expected a nervy affair because of that you would have been absolutely right. It turned this way and that but eventually the Belgian would run out a 6-5 winner and book a meeting with Murphy in the final.
Given his pedigree and experience Murphy would have been the much fancied favourite coming into the contest, and this did show in the early stages as he took a 3-1 lead. Things did not continue going his way though and Brecel very quickly found his feet as Murphy seemed to run out of steam. Four straight frames put Brecel 5-3 up, though Murphy won a crucial black ball frame to end the first session just 5-4 behind. However, this did not faze the Belgian as he took the first two frames of the evening to lead 7-4, before Murphy pegged him back to 7-5. Then it was Brecel that took a crucial frame on the black to regain his three frame advantage and head to the interval 8-5 ahead and just two from the biggest win of his career. Those two frames were not a long time coming as the thirteenth frame really seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Magician and it was Brecel who took the title and a huge £150,000 first prize.
Murphy did not have long to lick his wounds though as he dashed back from China and headed to Furth for the Paul Hunter Classic just a few days after losing the final. Not as many big names were in attendance here but that did not stop the second seed surging through the field to make his second final in the space of a week. Murphy overcame Adam Stefanow, Sam Baird and Ken Doherty on the opening day to book his place in the last 16. On Saturday it was the turn of Mark Selby as he saw off Michael Holt, amateur Michael Williams and Joe Swail on the way to booking his spot in Sunday's draw. Joining him there was one of the amateur qualifiers in George Pragnall. After coming through the amateur rounds in the two days prior to the main stages getting underway, Pragnall received a walkover thanks to the withdrawal of Mark Williams. Following that he completed deciding frame wins against a former tour player Barry Pinches and seventh seed David Gilbert, before eventually falling short 4-1 in Sunday's last 16 to Mitchell Mann.
Mann was one of the surprise packages of the event as he made it all the way to the semi-finals before losing out to Michael White. The Welshman had already overcome top seed Selby and Ian Burns before beating Mann to book his place in the final. There he would meet Murphy who on the day overcame Zhao Xintong and Ben Woollaston before coming from 3-1 down to beat Jamie Jones 4-3 in the semi-finals, booking a second final appearance in the space of a week. Though as you will find out in part 3, Jones would have the last laugh when the pair met against at the Crucible.
Murphy again could not cross the final hurdle and was always chasing matters against White who led 2-0 and 3-1 before finishing with a run of 97 to complete a 4-2 win and take home his second ranking title.
Then it was back over to Asia as the tour headed out to the Indian Open via the World 6 Reds Championship in Thailand that was won by Mark Williams. Anthony McGill was the defending champion and he did a great job of defending the title. After defeating the home player Aditya Mehta in the heldover first round game, McGill took out Ashley Hugill, Rory McLeod, Hossein Vafei, Zhang Anda before completing a tight semi-final win against Mark King put him in back-to-back finals.
Meanwhile, of the eight quarter-finalists, four of them were competing in their very first ranking quarter-finals. Zhang Anda fell to McGill 4-0, Elliot Slessor was beaten 4-2 by Mark King but would soon go on to better his best ranking finish at the Northern Irish Open and Liam Highfield was whitewashed by John Higgins. Then there was Xu Si who was in his rookie season on tour and he thumped David Gilbert 4-0 to make it into his first semi-final.
The week though belonged to John Higgins. After a tight first round win against Zhao Xintong 4-3, Higgins went from strength to strength. Next up was a 4-2 win over Martin O'Donnell and a 4-1 win over Michael Holt to book his quarter-final place. After the whitewash of Liam Highfield, Higgins then ended the run of Xu Si with a 4-2 victory. Facing fellow Scot and defending champion Anthony McGill, Higgins ran out a comfortable 5-1 winner, securing his 29th career ranking title and getting his season off to a fine start.
The players then headed from India out to Yushan in China for the World Open and this time it was China's number one who ran out victorious. It was also another good week for Luca Brecel. After winning his first ranking title in China just a month earlier, Brecel got off to a flying start in Yushan with a 5-1 win over Mike Dunn. Deciding frame wins against Daniel Wells and Cao Yupeng followed before another 5-4 win against Indian Open runner-up McGill to get through to the semi-finals. Brecel gave it his all but came up short in the semi's against Ding Junhui, but it showed that his victory in Guangzhou was no accident.
Kyren Wilson showed the first signs of what was to come for the rest of his campaign as he surged through to the World Open final. After a last 64 walkover, Wilson overcame Michael Holt 5-3 and then beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh by the same scoreline. Then in the quarter-finals Wilson really hit top form. Taking on Mark Williams, he lost the first frame to a century from the Welshman who would not score another point in the match. Three centuries followed from Wilson and a further break of 71 in a sublime performance. The semi-finals saw him match up with Mark Allen for the first of many big meetings in the 2017/2018 season, and in an incredibly tight match it was Wilson who won a tense decider to book his place in the final.
Ding Junhui was just too strong though and never looked in trouble during a tournament that included a 5-1 win over Joe Perry, a whitewash of Xiao Guodong as well as a dominant 10-3 win against Kyren Wilson in the final to record his 13th major ranking title.
After some more qualifiers for the upcoming International Championship, the players were soon on their travels once again with the European Masters in Belgium. World number one Mark Selby got off to a flying start when he overcame Zhao Xintong 4-1 in the early rounds, making a century in every frame he won during the contest. Selby then saw off Lu Haotian and Jack Lisowski who would go on to become two of the big ranking movers by the time the campaign drew to a close. Stuart Bingham was to prove Selby's downfall but not before he had beaten the home favourite Luca Brecel in the last 16 as well. Those 4-2 wins helped to set up a semi-final clash with Zhou Yuelong who was in his very first ranking semi-final. Zhou produced a strong showing but just fell short in the end, with Bingham clinching the last three frames in a 6-4 win.
The week though would belong to defending champion Judd Trump. After two easy wins in the first two rounds, Trump had to survive a big scare against Martin O'Donnell, eventually coming through 4-3 to move into the last 16 and keep his defence on track. David Gilbert was Trump's next victim before an excellent quarter-final with Mark Allen see him hold off the Northern Irishman with another 4-3 win. Despite losing the opening frame, maximum comfort was soon reached in the semi-finals when he took on Cao Yupeng. Cao was in his first ever ranking semi-final and would later use the experience of this match to better effect in the Scottish Open. Trump though ran out a 6-1 winner this time to set up another final with Bingham, and was eyeing revenge for the 9-8 victory Bingham had inflicted on him in the Welsh Open final earlier in 2017.
In a tight final there was always very little in the contest but ultimately Trump would win back-to-back frames from 7-7 to take a 9-7 victory and defend the title he won 12 months previously in Romania.
Finally in part 1 of the season review, all 128 players on the tour took a trip to Barnsley for the opening home nations event, the English Open. This event was the first sign of the dominance that would follow at the back end of the year from Ronnie O'Sullivan. There were also some early upsets including a last 128 exit for Marco Fu, while Ding Junhui and Mark Allen would fall a round later at the last 64 stage alongside Barry Hawkins. It was also at this stage of the tournament when defending champion Liang Wenbo displayed some of the form that saw him lift the trophy in Manchester twelves months previously. A sublime 147 maximum break in his 4-3 second round victory against Tom Ford was an excellent moment that also earned him a £40,000 bonus.
His defence did not last much longer when he was thrashed 4-0 by young Yan Bingtao in the last 32. It was also in the third round that world number one Mark Selby's challenge ended. His 4-1 loss to Xiao Guodong was played out on one of the outside tables after earlier TV and streamed matches had over run and this was a decision he later remarked about on Twitter, though in fairly light-hearted fashion. There was also controversy in round three surrounding Stuart Bingham and Hossein Vafei. The Iranian came out on the right side of a deciding frame, but Bingham later used social media to criticise his opponents conduct. As it turned out, this would be Bingham's last match on tour until the end of January after he received a 3 month suspension for betting offences.
It was an excellent week in Barnsley for a couple of younger players. Jack Lisowski was one of these as he made the quarter-finals to equal his best run in a ranking event. Lisowski overcame his good friend Judd Trump and another left hander in Mark Williams on the way to the last eight, before falling 5-2 to O'Sullivan. Meanwhile, Switzerland's Alexander Ursenbacher proved to be a revelation as he made it all the way to the semi-finals. Starting out the week with a win against Anthony Hamilton, who was still struggling with a back problem, he would later defeat Shaun Murphy 4-1 in the last 16 before thumping Paul Hunter Classic champion Michael White 5-0 in the quarters. His run was eventually ended by Kyren Wilson who booked his place in a second final in the space of a month as his excellent form continued to build.
The week was all about O'Sullivan though. The Rocket made it to the last 16 for the loss of just three frames, but it was at the fourth round stage when he played out the first of many matches in the campaign with old foe John Higgins. The match went the distance but O'Sullivan had the edge required to win 4-3. After ending Lisowski's hopes he then held off Anthony McGill 6-4 to reach the final, where a sublime O'Sullivan rattled in four centuries to defeat Wilson 9-2 and draw back level with Higgins on 29 ranking titles.
So with wins for Ryan Day, good performances for the likes of Murphy, Wilson and Williams as well as victories for O'Sullivan and Higgins, the first third of the season was certainly a great teaser to what would follow when the biggest events came around.
Next up in part 2 we will look at the return of Mark Williams to the winners circle further victories for O'Sullivan, a dramatic Scottish Open as well as the first two triple crown events of the season.
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