5.2.11

HITTING THE MARK

Mark Williams reached the UK Championship final a few weeks ago without really hitting the heights until the end of his semi-final against Shaun Murphy but was superb last night in beating Dominic Dale 5-2.

A huge crowd witnessed the twice world champion run through the first two frames in 20 minutes, notch up his 250th career century and eventually ease to the line.

Williams's great run towards becoming world champion in some ways began in Germany. He was runner-up to John Parrott in the 1998 German Masters in Bingen, won the Irish Open the next week, then the Welsh and Thailand titles, was runner-up at the Crucible and the following year lifted the biggest snooker crown of them all.

His game is back, his confidence is back and that makes him very difficult to beat.

Two Joes have returned to form after failing to do much of late.

Joe Swail often does this: tumbles down the rankings and then pulls out a great performance to arrest his slide.

He only won one match in a ranking event last season and was heading into the 50s on the list when the 2009 Welsh Open points were taken off - the Northern Irishman was runner-up in that tournament.

From somewhere, he has found the game to beat Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy on successive days.

His quarter-final opponent Marco Fu built on the confidence gained from his run to the Masters final to beat Mark King before his walkover against John Higgins.

Joe Perry had fallen to 32nd in the rankings but a 5-1 defeat of Ali Carter is a real confidence booster. Williams, though, presents an altogether tougher challenge.

The main televised quarter-final is Ding Junhui v Mark Selby.

For all Selby's obvious qualities he has still only won one ranking title and that was three years ago, although his two Masters victories mean that this doesn't tell the full story of his recent career.

Still, it's a statistic he will want to change and beating in-form players like Ding is the key to converting consistency into silverware.

18 comments:

EdVedd said...

And after forgetting Dott and Maguire one of these two will win the tournament

Matt said...

Dott and Maguire definitely have a good chance. I suppose anybody of these eight have a good chance of winning it. Great to see Germany back in snooker.

snooker155 said...

Ding will beat Selby 5-2

Anonymous said...

Joe Swail has been playing brillantly

Anonymous said...

Williams should get past Perry

Anonymous said...

Joe Swail should win a tournament it;s about time he did

Anonymous said...

Selby going downhill fast. Ali Carter has more character about him and is a better player.

Anonymous said...

After Ronnie's no-show Barry must have been angry and disappointed in equal measures. But I bet that all of that is now forgotten with the respectful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic support of the German audience for this tournament. I do hope that BH royally rewards Germany with more than one tournament per season. With such wonderful support Ronnie is the biggest loser not us.
To all those people who are always knocking snooker all I've got to say is "Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!!!"
Who needs O'Sullivan when we have Williams in such majestic and exhilarating form.

Anonymous said...

1226 go to the circus if u want peanut performing monkeys......or a ronnie exhibition.

Anonymous said...

Barry must be delighted with the turnout for this event - credit is due to Eurosport for their evangelism for the game.

hegeland said...

Indeed 1, all credit to Eurosport, who has played a most vital part in securing the future of snooker by spreading it outside the UK.

Indeed 2, I've not seen bigger crowds since CHina Open a few years ago or maybe the BH Masters at old wembley, also a few years back. After the miserable crowd sizes at the UK, this is great to see!

Peter Ebdon yesterday: "When a crowd can enjoy a longer more considered match like that one you see that they know their snooker and it's a pleasure to play in front of an audience like that."

There should have been a ranking event in Germany five years ago. Thank you Mr. Hearn, for showing some common sense and giving mainland Europe what they want.

Betty Logan said...

Rodney Walker was a true visionary selling the broadcast rights to Eurosport; he more than anyone has contributed to the global expansion of the game.

Anonymous said...

wrong as usual Betsy.
Hearn was selling snooker to Eurosport when Sir Rod was a mere glint in World snookers eye.

Anonymous said...

506, betsy is my nickname for him!

Anonymous said...

Dave

why cant eurosport show the other semi rather than this afternoons game ?

doesn't make sense we know the ability there we seen it over the days so why not give us a live match ?

Anonymous said...

Actually, Betty has a point, if not for Rodney Walker signing a deal to bring snooker to Eurosport, this event (and many more next season) would not be happening.....

Alpha

Anonymous said...

Germany deserves rankers. In China there are 90% empty seats so this is a welcome change. What a fantastic tournament.

Dexter said...

More suspicious betting today.

The Racing Post have an article at the ready.

Good tournament,,,,but,,,