It hasn't been a vintage Betfred.com World Championship yet but it's only day six of 17 and the second round line-up is brimming with quality.
So far, 12 members of the top 16 are through with Stephen Maguire and John Higgins well placed to join them.
There are some mouth-watering matches to come.
Ronnie O'Sullivan continues his title defence against Mark Allen, which should be a fast flowing, high scoring affair.
Stephen Hendry takes on Ding Junhui, just as he did last year, beating him 13-7.
Mark Selby faces Graeme Dott in a contest I think could be very close.
Ali Carter against Neil Robertson promises to be another entertaining affair.
Shaun Murphy plays Marco Fu in a repeat of this season's UK Championship final, which was a poor match that was nevertheless gripping right to the end.
I sometimes wonder if best of 25 frames in the last 16 is too long as there have, in the past, been a lot of runaway victories.
I don't think there'll be many this year.
i think the lowest scoring losers amount of frames in the second round will be 8 or more
ReplyDeletetop quality!
What's all this about Murphy's wife threatening to issue divorce papers during his match yesterday? No wonder he struggled to beat Higginson with that playing on his mind...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of total-number-of-frames-per-match:
ReplyDeleteI think there is too small a difference between the semifinals' 33 frames, and the final's 35 frames. Why not best-of-41 frames in the final? 8-8-8-8-9, or maybe 10-10-10-11. That would also mean that it is first-to-21, which, as we all know, is UNBEATABLE!
The first years at the Crucible, the final was played in best-of-49 frames!
The public are short-changed because in the first round you get 9 and up to 10 frame sessions but after that it's 8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8 with the odd 9 thrown in for good measure. If they kept up with round 1 the next two rounds should be best of 27 not 25 (9,9,9) and the semis at least best of 37 (9,9,9,10)
ReplyDeletei look at it the other way in that in the first round the public are overchanged
ReplyDeleteI am keeping my eyes on the Ding v Hendry, Fu v Murphy and Dolt v Selby encounters. These 3 are hard to call
ReplyDeletehendry
ReplyDeletefu
selby
anon 12:01 - my choices are same as you actually - but it will be at least 13-11 for these matches i believe
ReplyDeleteanon - who cares?
ReplyDelete