Jamie Cope is known as ‘the shotgun’ and anyone who has witnessed, close up, his rapid-fire cue action will understand why.But it isn’t all show: he has already appeared in two ranking tournament finals and is certainly good enough to start winning titles.
He was a talented junior and remains the only player to have made a 155 break – the maximum possible – in witnessed practice.
Cope is not much of a talker in interviews, whether through shyness or because he’s unsure of what to say.
This is not necessarily a bad thing from his point of view: the less you say, the less you can get yourself into trouble.
But sportsmen and women who are successful outside of merely playing have recognised they need to develop and push their personalities.
Perhaps the Hotshots campaign will help Cope to do this.
Nobody could seriously claim he is lacking when it comes to doing the business on the table.
His long potting is frighteningly good, indeed as good as anyone. He destroyed John Higgins in last season’s Maplin UK Championship, which suggests no fear of reputations.
But a dodgy shot selection cost him victory over Peter Ebdon in the first round of this year’s World Championship and he will have to develop a better safety game to rise the rankings still further.
Cope would be an asset for the top 16. Indeed, it is hard to believe he failed to get in after reaching two ranking tournament finals during the 2006/07 season.
He lost out 9-5 to Neil Robertson in the Grand Prix and 9-5 to Graeme Dott in the China Open. It was defeat to Judd Trump in the World Championship qualifiers that season that cost him promotion to the top 16.
His defeat to Ebdon at the Crucible similarly cost him this year.
Different players do, of course, have different characters.
As a teenager, Ronnie O’Sullivan was gregarious. Stephen Hendry was reserved.
Cope is closer to the latter but it didn’t do Hendry any harm and I get the feeling we’ll be seeing plenty of what Cope can do on the table in the years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment