One of Mark Williams's great skills is finding a way to win when he's not at the top of his game.
He has an old fashioned, stubborn, never-say-die attitude and it's served him well in many tournaments where he's only hit form at the business end.
And we're now at the business end of the 12bet.com UK Championship, where today the Welshman faces Shaun Murphy in the semi-finals.
Murphy has played the better snooker of the two in the tournament but that does not guarantee a thumping win for the 2008 champion today.
It's worth remembering that, for all his obvious class, he still has only three ranking titles to his name.
His form worryingly collapsed between his superb Premier League semi-final victory over Marco Fu and his defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final.
Nevertheless, Murphy's fine quarter-final victory over Neil Robertson certainly means he enters today's match as favourite.
John Higgins awaits in the final after his masterclass in big match snooker against Mark Allen last night.
6 comments:
Think Murphy will beat Williams it will be close. Well done to John Higgins for coming back after a six-mouth ban to reach the final of the UK Championship. The EPTC events defintely helped John didn't it. He's played well against Lee who would have won with a 96% success pot rate against any other player. Dott who played well but came under-pressure and Higgins won in the final frame and Maguire who again seemed to just fail at the important point of the match. And Allen who missed crucial pots at the wrong time.
Higgins/Murphy or Higgins/Williams should be a good final.
Higgins' achievement is simply amazing. By his own admission he left his cue untouched for almost 6 months. That has to be the best display of raw talent we have seen. O'Sullivan has that talent as well but abuses it regularly, unlike John.
The victory speech he is likely to deliver on sunday will be anticipated by many. That Kiev meeting, despite him being 95% exhonerated, is still the elephant in the room. Sad but true.
anyone know the answer to the following?
how many ranking events (inluding the current uk) has there been since june 2004?
(dont include the ptc events)
out of the total of ranking events since then how many has ronnie won?
thanks
8:36 ... for fanboy questions go somewhere else. this is a blog for snooker fans, not for ronnie fans.
what a match by Mark Williams.... the finish was something else.
At 8:36
If I'm not mistaken since 2004 World Championships there were 44 ranking tournaments (including the current one) and ROS has won 7. He's been runner-up on 6 occasions. He's also won 10 major non-ranking titles in that period. You can look it all up on Wikipedia.
But I just really wanted to say: well done Mark Williams! One has to be a truly great champion to pick himself up like Mark did at 8:6 and win the remaining 3 frames. And that final long red in the ultimate on - what a shot under pressure! Terrific stuff!
10.35 grow up
i am anything but a ronnie fan
i am trying to find out the answer to settle a bet AGAINST a ronnie "fanboy".
next time open your mouth before you put your foot in. its less of a stuggle
@ dzie. thanks. hopefully someone else has the same calculation (or very close to) for me to win my bet
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