The
four semi-finalists in the China Open are evenly matched in terms of age,
ranking and titles.
Neil
Robertson, 31, has won the most ranking titles with six to his name and has
also been world champion. He is looking for his first major ranking event
success since winning the 2010 World Open.
Shaun
Murphy, 30, is also a world champion. He has won four ranking titles, the most
recent the 2011 PTC Grand Finals.
Stephen
Maguire, 32, a former UK champion, won his fifth ranking title last month at
the Welsh Open.
Mark
Selby, 29, the reigning UK Championship and Masters champion and back as world
no.1, has won three ranking titles.
So
it’s a quality line-up and any of the four players left has a claim on the
title.
However,
I’m sure Murphy would admit he could easily have gone out yesterday when he
trailed Jack Lisowski 4-2. Murphy did not storm back with three brilliant
frames, as is often his way, but exploited his clearly nervous young opponent’s
mistakes effectively.
Maguire
dismissed his performance as ‘garbage’ in beating Stuart Bingham 5-1 but the
Scot has played consistently well for the last few months and, crucially, has
been getting the results.
Selby
seems to have got out of the trough of form which followed his Masters success in
January and had too much for Mark Williams.
Robertson
was in danger of getting sucked into a game which better suited Marcus Campbell
but made three sizable frame winning breaks in amongst all the safety.
I
wouldn’t describe the semi-final line-up as the ‘usual suspects’ because this demeans
the people involved. Each of them is a world class snooker player, each of whom
has won big titles on big stages.
It
sets the tournament up for a thrilling weekend as the battle of Beijing enters the final strait.
6 comments:
Why are Eurosport starting their coverage of the semi-finals an hour after the matches start when there is nothing at all on the channel during this blank period?
How refereshing, a whole day without anybody on this blog calling others "an idiot" or anybody threatening to "smash their face in".
Neat bit of software in use this afternoon on the Robertson match, where after a miss, a white circle was displayed on the monitor so the ref could replace the ball exactly.
Presumably belongs to Chinese TV company - would be good to see at the Crucible.
Wow, what a final in prospect with Selby/Robertson. These two have been as good as anyone this season.6.30am start and with the clocks going forward as well, it's still worth getting up for I'd say.
I'd price this one up as 5/6 Selby - Robertson 6/5.
"Neat bit of software in use this afternoon on the Robertson match, where after a miss, a white circle was displayed on the monitor so the ref could replace the ball exactly."
I'm amazed they have just thought to implement this, as soon as hawk eye came out this was the obvious thing to do to solve the issues around replacing balls, I thought of this many years ago. I hope they use this at Shefield, and put an end to all the fussing.
Hi David. Another great day's play, today, in my view.
Selby played well, to beat Murphy, 6-2, to reach his second China Open final, in three years.
Robertson and Maguire, both played great. Robertson did well, to come back from 4-2 down, to win 6-5.
The 2013 Bank of Beijing China Open final, is a repeat of the 2013 Masters final, in London.
Mark Selby .V. Neil Robertson.
I can not wait for that one, tomorrow. It should be a cracker.
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