Shaun Murphy compiled two centuries in defeating John Higgins 6-2 to win the inaugural Sportingbet.com World Series grand finals at the Portimao Arena in Portugal tonight.
Murphy, beaten 18-9 by Higgins in the world final six days ago, appeared sharper from the off and highlighted his victory with runs of 122 and 100.
He receives a cheque for 50,000 euros for winning the grand finals following World Series events in Jersey, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow.
“It’s always nice to win. I was disappointed to lose last week but the only tournament on my mind coming here was this one,” Murphy said.
“I’ve been playing well for weeks and weeks. If my safety game had been better I’d have competed more in last week’s final and I made an effort tonight not to try and go head to head with John in the safety department but to go for my shots and it worked.”
Higgins is co-promoter of the World Series. The first year has not been without its problems and mistakes but it has been effective in exploiting the growing European market and seven events are planned for 2009, the first of which takes place next weekend in Killarney, Ireland.
“It’s been great,” he said. “Hopefully this is just the start and we can look forward to taking snooker to more countries where it’s new.”
The first match in Portugal attracted around five spectators. The final had close to 350, many of whom queued up for autographs at the end, and their appreciation for the sport is a sign that something has been started here that can lead to expansion in the years to come.
18 comments:
Was it 50,000 euro's Dave?
Sorry - my error, now corrected
350 spectators isn't much for a Grand Final but what can you expect in a country with only 7 snooker tables? (according to Dave's last estimations) ... one has to start somewhere! It's also not surprising attendance was close to nil on Friday, a working day. People would rather travel to watch the big names. I'm absolutely certain though that had it been held in Moscow as initially planned it would have attracted a full house.
Dave I would be interested if you could elaborate on the pros "return on experience" with the 6-reds and 10-reds. What they see as pros and cons. What would be their alternative proposals if any... If others are interested aswell, idea for an article mebbe?
Thanks!
Well done to all concerned. I am really impressed that no-one pulled out citing exhaustion from the World Champs. The fact that so many top players made the effort and showed commitment is great.
Well played Shaun
and well done the players and the referee for knowing that the final was best of 11.
Delightful to see so many spectators. Should they return I hope they do something about that camera angle.
I enjoyed watching the final on Eurosport, I wanted to see some of Luca's matches but unfortunately missed them.
Portugal was a bit of a surprise, but I guess if things fall through with one venue (country), then you're running out of options. At least there was positive feedback back from Portugal.
Well done Murphy, he's been taking a bit of stick lately but he really is good for the game, snooker would be poorer without him.
I was amazed to see the second season starting so soon, but it's great to see. Snooker is back on the telly next weekend "out of season". You can't really argue with that.
I hope the World Series goes from strength to strength.
Even The Sun had some positive words for Higgins and the World Series, ...although they did call it "the splinter tour". Muppets.
Andy
Off topic but does anybody know if the Jiangsu Classic will be held this year?
what is the jigsaw classic? is that part of the world series?
Who has put it together? If you look at the World Snooker calendar there's certainly a few pieces missing.
I was told it would be on but there's no sign of it yet
Monique - everyine has different opinions on the shorter format. I spoke to one ex-world champion who hated 10 reds but loved 6 and another ex-world champion who loved 6 reds but hated 10, so you will never get everyone to agree
I didn't think it did any harm in Portugal but I prefer the standard 15 reds version and the crowd at the final seemed to enjoy it as well
Dave H said...
I was told it would be on but there's no sign of it yet
Monique - everyine has different opinions on the shorter format. I spoke to one ex-world champion who hated 10 reds but loved 6 and another ex-world champion who loved 6 reds but hated 10, so you will never get everyone to agree
1:56 PM
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Dave, i read that as they both loved 6 but hated 10 reds
??
All well in the end, good final.
But not promoting Luca Brecel seemed to miss the whole point of
promoting.
Yes I meant one loved 10 and hated 6 and the other loved 6 and hated 10
thanks
it just goes to show that no matter what WS or this series do, there will always be different opinions on what works best.
i still think WS are going the right way, slowly.
I have to say the audience figure really is very good considering. I honestly didn't think they would get over 100-150, well done!
i thought theyd have quite a bit more to begin with, so that "failure" was "made right" with the build up on traffic. well done!
Firstly, the provisional dates are on World Snooker's official website, and the Jiangsu Classic WILL be held from June 3rd - 7th in Wuxi, China.
Secondly, I can't believe 350 came to watch the final. On the first Friday I was struggling to see 1 person. It was interesting to watch the 10 reds snooker, even though in some matches the players seemed a little casual.
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