Mark
Selby and Neil Robertson managed to avoid each other for years. Now they seem
to play most tournaments.
Selby
is difficult to play, even when you’re as good as Robertson. The never-say-die
attitude he demonstrates even when not at his best can be hard to contend with.
Just when you think you’ve got him, he fights even harder.
This
was certainly Robertson’s experience at the UK Championship when he seemed to
have the match in the bag at 4-0 only to lose 6-4.
The
Melbourne man played some top stuff to reach the Masters final but went down
10-6 to Selby, who battled without quite hitting top form.
So
their match in the quarter-finals of the World Open today is intriguing. Can
Robertson dominate this time or will Selby once again get under his skin?
Matthew
Stevens has been winning with Mark Williams’s cue as his has still not turned
up. He seems to have fared better with it than Williams has of late, recovering
from 3-1 down to beat Shaun Murphy 5-3 yesterday.
Stevens
faces Judd Trump today, who was superb yesterday in beating Nigel Bond 5-1. He
made three centuries and needs just two more to break Selby’s seasonal record
set last year.
Trump
has not been put under pressure yet. Even if he is, he looks really confident.
It’s a good time to be playing well. It’s March 1st so we can now
say that the World Championship starts next month.
Ding
Junhui is still going. Marco Fu failed to push him but John Higgins may do
after the Scot’s 5-0 dismissal of Stuart Bingham.
Mark
Allen wasn’t happy with how he played against Robert Milkins but the defending
champion won 5-2 and will face Ricky Walden, who did really well to recover
from 4-2 down to beat Welsh Open winner Stephen Maguire 5-4.
It's a great line-up, although you wouldn't know it from attendances. They've been poor and surely ticket prices and promotion of these events need to be addressed.
There are eight world class players in the quarter-finals and they deserve a good atmosphere.
12 comments:
Flying 5000 miles to play in a fly infested arena in front of a handful of constantly shifting spectators and press photographers who are less than conspicuous. Add to that, moisture dripping on to the table and malfunctioning spotlights.
The game's hard enough !
Something reeks at this tournament, and this Trump/Stevens match inparticular. Players' cues going missing and now Trump's tip being damaged in mysterious circumstances. Does this go on at all Chinese events?
Is this tournament being managed by Toytown Limited?
Flashing lights, badly behaving photographers, rows of empty £100 seats, cues lost in transit.
I suppose at least it has a sponsor.
Maybe the BA was the carrier??
Hopefully they shift it to the mainland soonest, it is a given that holidayresorts are less than
ideal.
So what on earth happened to Trumps tip and it is not overrelaxed not to do some warm up??!!
All the talk of China being the new snooker hotbed,obviously does not stand up if the attendances are anything to go by.Move the world championship to China?It would be better going to the Intl space station.
This Ding Junhui looks just like that Ding John Way who plays in the BBC events.
Dave - as a leading snooker journalist, you have the right to ask World Snooker for an interview so they have a chance to explain just what is going on at the World Open.
Why would you want to sponsor this tournament when once again the Brits (and a Ozzy) take most of the cash home.
It's a mystery to me.
Ding's cue case is worth a mention surely! Never seen one like that before.
Re 1.52
Are you really, honestly, under the impression that the whole industry of sports sponsorship is based on sponsors wanting their compatriots to win prize money?
Really?
Re 3:46
Of course not - try looking up the word "satire" in a dictionary.
Re 5.43
Maybe look it up yourself mate.
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