Betway 2019 UK Championship

[motorhead]

Only saw Selby's last frame, that red towards the end of it was truly amazing, felt like those frame winning shots, he was so unlucky there with the kiss on the reds Then of course the pink in the center cost him.

[Cue crafty]

I doubt that very much, he was visibly seething towards the end.

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I'm sure you're right Pat but just cannot understand the crazy double shot off the end of the pack and then that mental cut back in the middle!?!?! I like a punt on a shot but those two were sky high tariffs. Maybe the lithium has stopped working...or it could be a new artistic way of losing a match that he discussed with Damien?

Back of hand bereftly touching forehead, me doth thinketh he has run out of new ideas to be "special"

only joshing, I love watching him play well, just don't get this nonesense.

[Neil Taperell]

Very pleased for Matthew Stevens , should have won far more in his career . Hendry was right in his commentary last night , he spends too much time looking at angles . Average shot times are too high .

He also mentioned about Selby and looking at the same shot/angle more than once …….i.e ' Just get on and play the shot! '

[PatBlock]

...or it could be a new artistic way of losing a match that he discussed with Damien?

PMSL. Ah yes, that'll be it CC. He's priceless isn't he. Simple frustration, venting of, he REALLY wanted this one. EOS.

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[PatBlock]

Only saw Selby's last frame, that red towards the end of it was truly amazing, felt like those frame winning shots, he was so unlucky there with the kiss on the reds Then of course the pink in the center cost him.

That was some red wasn't it, as you say, felt like the prelude to a match winning break. Very pleased for Matthew though.

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[JimMalone]

That was some poor stuff yesterday evening from Selby and Stevens. Couldn't control the white, missed many chances. Still would have thought that Selby would find a way to win, certainly when he took the hard fought 9th frame to earn a 5-4 lead. But those days seem to be over - at least for now. Now we get a quarterfinal of two guys, who should have won much more in their career than they actually did.

My picks for the quarterfinals:
Ding - Liang 6:4
Higgins - Yan 6:4
Maguire - Stevens 6:3
Allen - Bond 6:3

[shmeeko69]

Very pleased for Matthew Stevens , should have won far more in his career . Hendry was right in his commentary last night , he spends too much time looking at angles . Average shot times are too high .

He also mentioned about Selby and looking at the same shot/angle more than once …….i.e ' Just get on and play the shot! '

I'm glad Stevens won that. Just can't take to Selby and his cautious approach. Not good for the game or the spectators.

[Odrl]

What an interesting QF line-up we have... 20 years from now someone will probably browse through these results and think this line-up was pretty typical. They have 7 UK titles and another 8 finals between them, and one of the players is still only a teenager who is likely to add a few more to that number in the future. I think the names are a little misleading though, when you consider where these players are at this point in time.

For all the talk about depth in snooker these days, all the biggest titles have actually been shared between a fairly small number of top players. When I say "biggest titles", I mean the tournaments that have at least a best-of-11 format throughout, namely the World Championship, the UK Championship, the Masters, the International Championship and the last two editions of the China Open. We've had 18 of these events in the period of the last four years, but only six different winners. Selby is at the top with 6 wins, O'Sullivan has 4, Trump 3, Robertson and Allen 2, and Mark Williams 1.

If you look at the players that are still involved this week, Mark Allen immediately stands out as the player that is part of that winning group at the moment. Higgins hasn't won an event of this size since 2015, Ding hasn't won one since 2013, Maguire since 2004, Stevens since 2003 (the UK title that year is actually his one and only ranking title to date), and the other three have never won an event of this size. That would suggest Allen is the man to beat at this point, and anyone else winning would either be the highlight of their career or their biggest success in a long time.

For me, Ding against Liang is the match of the round. I've criticised the standard of play this week, but Ding is actually the one player who's had to play well to get here, facing the 17th and the 1st seed along the way. There were a few misses between him and O'Sullivan yesterday, but nothing like the struggles we saw in almost every other match. If all players continue to play to the standard they've shown so far, Ding is the clear favourite to win the title for me. Liang will be tough though. They don't meet a lot on the big stage, but all three of their previous big matches were really interesting, all extremely close with Ding winning in the end. Their last16 match at the Crucible two years ago was just fantastic. Liang's mother passing away last week seems to have inspired his good run here, and if you think back to how John Higgins played in the months just before and after his father died in 2011, he hardly lost a match in that period. I guess that can happen... I think Ding will be too strong though. Ding to win 6-4.

Higgins against Yan is probably second on my list. This could be another close one. I guess Higgins not being part of that winning group I mentioned earlier is slightly misleading here, because, unlike the others, he has actually been a real contender in those events recently. But then again, Yan is the only player still in this tournament who has actually won any kind of standard snooker event this season, even if it was only best-of-7s. It's 1 each between these two on the big stage, with neither match being particularly close. I think this one will be. Yan has perhaps impressed me a bit more, but I think Higgins can close the gap in form with his experience here. Still, I'll go for Yan to win 6-4.

Maguire and Stevens? Seems like a match that would have been really fun to watch 15 years ago, but not so much now. :smile: In fact, it is well over a decade since they've met outside of the short format. Maguire was actually my pick to make the QF from his section, but I did say his section was weak on paper. Stevens is more of a surprise, but it's fair to say his section didn't produce any great snooker this week either. They both struggled last night. Maguire was lucky White gifted him a few frames through sloppy play, while Stevens was lucky Selby was so bad I suppose. Still, there is a clear favourite for me. While Maguire's match with White was full of mistakes, there were still a few breaks being made, while the other match was almost completely devoid of high scoring. Therefore I have to go for Maguire to win, 6-4.

Allen against Bond is the match that interests me the least. It could still be close though. Bond is a great fighter, while Allen tends to make life difficult for himself and get involved in lots of these 6-5 results... It would be kind of interesting for Bond to play Yan in the final, as the age gap would be even greater than Davis-Ding in 2005, but let's be honest, it's not going to happen. Allen to win this one, 6-3.

It's just unfortunate I have such a busy day today, so I might have to catch up with all of the matches in the late hours tonight, or perhaps even tomorrow morning. I will enjoy it anyway though. :smile:

[vmax]

All players mentioning that the tables are playing heavy, hence the lower standard than we usually expect and the likes of Bond and Stevens playing in conditions that they were used to back in the day. If these conditions stay then Allen will suffer the most if he has to hit the ball harder and I can't see him winning the title. For me its Ding's great chance to return to the top, but my heart will be with Liang following the loss of his mum, clear that he's playing for her now and understandedably so.

[JimMalone]

For me its Ding's great chance to return to the top, but my heart will be with Liang following the loss of his mum, clear that he's playing for her now and understandedably so.

Me too. Would be a wonderful story if Liang wins the title.
But I also wouldn't mind see Ding winning a big title again. He's my second choice.

[narl]

If Higgins keeps playing like this his newly respliced thai cue is gonna end up in the bin pretty quick.

[the_unrepentant]

The dreadful quality continues today. I don't recall ever seeing a tournament with such poor positional play and mistakes. Is it the table? Maybe but these guys are professionals and should be able to adjust accordingly. I'm sure that main match table can't be this unplayable as suggested?

[Ronnie's tip]

I'm curious to hear any theories as to why Higgins has so often underperformed at the UK + Masters? He's won 3 + 2 respectively but when you consider he's 3rd on the all time ranking titles list, he really should have a few more than that. 13 years since he made a Masters final and 9 years since he won the UK - not even making a semi final since then.

I think Higgins would be better off playing a few less tournaments but more on the practice table, though apparently he hardly practices now.

[Cue crafty]

The dreadful quality continues today. I don't recall ever seeing a tournament with such poor positional play and mistakes. Is it the table? Maybe but these guys are professionals and should be able to adjust accordingly. I'm sure that main match table can't be this unplayable as suggested?

And continuing into this evening so far. Top pro making club player errors isn't great for TV viewing. Ok it's kinda nice to know it's not that easy even for them. Surely it must be to do with the table, as how can so many play so bad?!? Not just one or two really is it....

[Cue crafty]

If Higgins keeps playing like this his newly respliced thai cue is gonna end up in the bin pretty quick.

Don't understand why when John decided on a new cue, that he didn't just get Raymo to make him one to spec. Do you know why he wanted to change?