Ryan
Day has quietly started to recover his world ranking and is 22nd on
the latest list.
He
was once as high as sixth but endured a poor run of form which left him
fighting to stay in the top 32.
Who
knows why form deteriorates? Sometimes there are off table reasons, usually
unknown to followers of the sport. Other times it’s just that confidence gets
dented by the odd close defeat and is hard to recover, even with so many
playing opportunities.
Day
is a very heavy scorer when he gets going. He is certainly good enough to have
won a ranking event without having quite done it. He has three defeats in
finals so far.
The
Welshman was a member of the original WPBSA young players of distinction scheme
in 2000, which also included Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter. It
also featured a couple of players who were less successful.
In
fact, Day had already served notice of his potential by recovering from 4-0
down to beat Steve Davis 5-4 in the Welsh Open at Cardiff.
I
vaguely recall someone excitedly coming into the press room and declaring that
Day would ‘definitely be a world champion.’
I’ve
heard this said about so many players that the World Championship would have to
be played most weeks to make it possible.
It’s
the worst thing for a player to hear, particularly at a young age: it’s the
easiest thing for anyone to say but they don’t have to play the shots, endure
the pressure or cope with the burden of expectation.
Ryan
has had a very good career but a big title is missing. The good news is that
there is still time.
He
beat Ding 10-9 from 9-6 down at the Crucible last season, although his
quarter-final against Matthew Stevens saw him lose all eight frames of the
middle session. I was later told he had had a migraine before this session.
Today
he plays Neil Robertson in the International Championship in Chengdu. This
match is a good barometer of where Day is. If he can win or at least push
Robertson close with a strong performance it will bring back more confidence. A
heavy defeat would be a setback.
He’s
only 32 but there’s always a danger when a player drops out of the top 16 that
they aren’t quite going to get back.
Matches
like today’s against Robertson can make all the difference.
14 comments:
Good start by Day, but lost his way as Robertson moved up a gear.
I guess 6-3 is closer to "pushing close with a strong performance" than a "heavy defeat"...
Halleluja !!!
Who'd have beleived it ?
Just watched coverage of the International Championship from China.
Guess what, one camera shot of the whole table.
No switching cameras. No zooming close ups of players's complexions. No following of object ball's journey toward the pocket. No second guessing which pocket is being aimed at. Just a full shot of the table showing every aspect of every shot.
What a pleasure.
A model for the future, please god !
Dave
You were commentating on the John Higgins match this morning. In frame four John is leading 51-47 and has his opponent in a snooker. He misses and hits the pink - the eurosport scores changes to 57-47 then changes to 55-47.
I presumed it was a mistake on eurosports coverage but the frame finished when his opponent potted the pink to put him eight up with seven on. Had the six point penalty been applied it would have been six up with seven on the table and he would have needed the black. Why was this not noticed?
I'd have to go back and look at it again but the score on the graphic isn't taken directly from the arena so any discrepancy would have been by the marker. The TV scorer would have been following suit if he corrected it - rightly or wrongly. Also, the graphics aren't done by Eurosport but the host broadcaster.
Eurosport take the whole package, in this case from a Chinese TV company.
Dave & the team add the commentary but have no control over the pictures, sound or score graphics from each table.
This is the case for most Eurosport covered snooker, which is fine by me.
I know its off-topic, but do Pontins in Prestatyn still host any kind of snooker events?
Another off-topic post, do you know if the qualifiers for the UK in Sheffield will be open to the public?
Why do people think I am having a go at Eurosport?
My issue is the error and why did none of the players or the referee notice it.
It was initially given as a six point foul then changed to four - The score on eurosport tv coverage changed initially from 51 to 57 then back to 55.
Where the pictures were taken from is an irrelevance. Did the marker score it as a six then change it or did the chinese tv company score it as a six then when they checked the markers score change it back to a four?
The white hits the pink - it is a six point foul and means that later in the frame Cao Yupeng would need to clear up to win the frame - position from pink to black might have been tricky - given that Dave said that the fourth frame was pivotal in the match this is a huge error by the marker, players and the referee!
This is actually already looking to be one of the top 3 tournaments on the whole calendar.
Big audiences, quality arena set-up, good TV production, lots of price money, longer-than-usual-match legnth, competent chinses refs etc.
A quality arrangement in every aspect. Brilliant!
It's a good question Aidan and as I said I'll try and go back to check
Looking like a good tournament so far. What a difference two extra frames make.
As an aside, I'm liking Alan McManus's commentating. Is he going to be a permanent addition to the Eurosport team?
I'm going for Trump v Robbo final. Picked Allen as finalist on morning of last 16 day in belgium so let's see if I can go one better.
Selby suggesting he might be playing better and Ding is due...
...take it all back re cameras.....obviously the floor cameramen were on a break or their cameras were malfunctioning. Normal dizzying, constant switching service has resumed !
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