UK Championship 2021

[Delphi]

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He sure can pot a ball...saw him live in local tournaments this summer, again a few weeks ago and more in 2 weeks.
Made a 147 on one of those and i remember one final where he won best of 5 3-0 with 3 centuries...in 25 minutes

[Starsky]

Jordan Brown springs to mind ….he’s not the shoe in we think he is . Obviously massive favourite but he’s not unbeatable

I agree Neil, Ronnie isn’t the player he once was and he is much more beatable now. The problem now is that most players are beat by Ronnie before they hit a ball….. Jordan Brown isn’t one of them .

[Starsky]

It’s a pity Vafei is playing Lisowski now as i would have liked it see both players go deep.
I presume Ronnie and Wilson will get through which leaves them playing each other in the quarters. That will be a massive match in the context of this competition .

[mikee]

I would like to see Lisowski or Gilbert win this one ,I liked the way Gilbert dug in yesterday against Allen ,he really looked like he wanted it .

[Danger Steve]

It would be nice to see a new face get to a final. HV is in decent form at the moment and looks to be playing with a bit of self belief now after some good recent victories. Could go far!

[neuronic]

What a battle between Hamilton and Walden, both struggled but there were some great tactical battles there, shame it didn't go to the decider. Well played Anthony, that was tough.

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Loved it, despite them both struggling. Felt like snooker from better times... guess I'm officially an old geezer now.

[JimMalone]

A rather unexepcted line-up in the round of 16 we've got here. For the semifinals and final I would have hoped to have at least one or two more expierenced and constant top players still in contention, but maybe one of the remaining men, some of them who can play excellent snooker on a given day can surprise us.
Who might make it?

Upper half:
Jordan Brown (33) - Anthony McGill (16)
These are actually two players I could see giving anybody here a good fight and maybe even go all the way. McGill has been tipped as a future top player already around 2015, but never fulfilled the hopes and his potential. But with two strong Crucible performances he has spurred new hope. He really needs to find consistency and it would be about to time to shine at another event.
Jordan Brown on the other hand has shown last year that he can pull together a fantastic run and also showed - as did McGill at some previous occasions - that he has no fear of big names and can hold his nerves.
I think this will be a really close match, hard to pick. My gut feeling says I'll go with Brown on this one.

Anthony Hamilton (56) - Luca Brecel (40)
It was quite fun to see the last frames of Hamilton vs. Walden, but also a bit sad how little they made out of their chances. While Hamilton certainly has advantages on the tactical side I think Brecel will rather take his chances and win.

Kyren Wilson (5) - Ben Woollaston (53)
It will be quite interesting to watch Wilson now. He might feel he has a really good chance for a big title here, given that in the logical order only Ronnie O'Sullivan is to put in front of him. So how can he cope with the pressure? Especially if he faces O'Sullivan in the quarters, maybe thinking: If I just can past him, I'm really close. Well for him I hope that is not the way he will think, because then he will certainly lose. However while Wollaston has scored a fine win over Yan I think Wilson will win here, as nowadays he really is very consistent. If you look at his past season he hardly had an early exit.

Noppon Saengkham (44) - Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)
Obviously O'Sullivan is the tournament favourite right now - maybe along with Wilson - but he is so experienced and has been in this situation so often, that this won't really matter. Contrary, usually his confidence is growing than and he is even harder to play. In scenerys like this, when all the other big names are out, O'Sullivan very often capitalized on this. Well, you can say this is natural. So where can he struggle? Obviously the huge match would be in the quarterfinal against Kyren Wilson, but can Saengkham give him a good match? I think the Thai has well shaped all-around game, but as I said I think O'Sullivan will be extra motivated now.

Bottom half:
Matthew Selt (35) - Barry Hawkins (14)
Hawkins is the last big name remaining on this side. Generally his game has decreased a bit over the last couple of years, but at the end of last season he seemed to play better once again. So far he hasn't had problems yet. Selt is rarely an easy player, as Trump noticed, but I still think Barry will take this. Maybe he finally snatches his big title.

David Gilbert (22) - Andy Hicks (102)
Actually it is David Gilbert, who might be my top pick to get to the final from this half. Over the last few years he has consistenly shown good results and I really have come around to like his all-around game. He showed really grit and mental strength (the latter one sometimes a weakness of him) in his comeback against Mark Allen and while I think in a final he could struggle again, I see him winning comfotably against Hicks.

Zhao Xintong (26) - Peter Lines (106)
Could this really be a breakthrough for the Chinese talent? I've always been more impressed by Yan and Zhou, but Zhao certainly is gifted and it would be about time he shows a great result, since he's already 24. I was really surprises he beat Higgins, but usually he disappoints soon after a good win and I actually see him having troubles with the tactical game of Lines. So I'd actually go with the old man here. But whoever wins this I doubt he will make the final.

Jack Lisowski (15) - Hossein Vafaei (63)
This will be a very quick match, not many tactical battles, so probably not my cup of tea. Vafaei has played excellent against Selby and had less troubles than I expected against Xiao, while I haven't seen Lisowski. Still over the last couple of seasons Jack has found some consistency so you would have to make him the favourite here. This should win, whoever has better long pots today and makes more of his chances.

[JimMalone]

Loved it, despite them both struggling. Felt like snooker from better times... guess I'm officially an old geezer now.

You are not alone. I liked it as well.

[balkend]

A rather unexepcted line-up in the round of 16 we've got here. For the semifinals and final I would have hoped to have at least one or two more expierenced and constant top players still in contention, but maybe one of the remaining men, some of them who can play excellent snooker on a given day can surprise us.
Who might make it?

Upper half:
Jordan Brown (33) - Anthony McGill (16)
These are actually two players I could see giving anybody here a good fight and maybe even go all the way. McGill has been tipped as a future top player already around 2015, but never fulfilled the hopes and his potential. But with two strong Crucible performances he has spurred new hope. He really needs to find consistency and it would be about to time to shine at another event.
Jordan Brown on the other hand has shown last year that he can pull together a fantastic run and also showed - as did McGill at some previous occasions - that he has no fear of big names and can hold his nerves.
I think this will be a really close match, hard to pick. My gut feeling says I'll go with Brown on this one.

Anthony Hamilton (56) - Luca Brecel (40)
It was quite fun to see the last frames of Hamilton vs. Walden, but also a bit sad how little they made out of their chances. While Hamilton certainly has advantages on the tactical side I think Brecel will rather take his chances and win.

Kyren Wilson (5) - Ben Woollaston (53)
It will be quite interesting to watch Wilson now. He might feel he has a really good chance for a big title here, given that in the logical order only Ronnie O'Sullivan is to put in front of him. So how can he cope with the pressure? Especially if he faces O'Sullivan in the quarters, maybe thinking: If I just can past him, I'm really close. Well for him I hope that is not the way he will think, because then he will certainly lose. However while Wollaston has scored a fine win over Yan I think Wilson will win here, as nowadays he really is very consistent. If you look at his past season he hardly had an early exit.

Noppon Saengkham (44) - Ronnie O'Sullivan (4)
Obviously O'Sullivan is the tournament favourite right now - maybe along with Wilson - but he is so experienced and has been in this situation so often, that this won't really matter. Contrary, usually his confidence is growing than and he is even harder to play. In scenerys like this, when all the other big names are out, O'Sullivan very often capitalized on this. Well, you can say this is natural. So where can he struggle? Obviously the huge match would be in the quarterfinal against Kyren Wilson, but can Saengkham give him a good match? I think the Thai has well shaped all-around game, but as I said I think O'Sullivan will be extra motivated now.

Bottom half:
Matthew Selt (35) - Barry Hawkins (14)
Hawkins is the last big name remaining on this side. Generally his game has decreased a bit over the last couple of years, but at the end of last season he seemed to play better once again. So far he hasn't had problems yet. Selt is rarely an easy player, as Trump noticed, but I still think Barry will take this. Maybe he finally snatches his big title.

David Gilbert (22) - Andy Hicks (102)
Actually it is David Gilbert, who might be my top pick to get to the final from this half. Over the last few years he has consistenly shown good results and I really have come around to like his all-around game. He showed really grit and mental strength (the latter one sometimes a weakness of him) in his comeback against Mark Allen and while I think in a final he could struggle again, I see him winning comfotably against Hicks.

Zhao Xintong (26) - Peter Lines (106)
Could this really be a breakthrough for the Chinese talent? I've always been more impressed by Yan and Zhou, but Zhao certainly is gifted and it would be about time he shows a great result, since he's already 24. I was really surprises he beat Higgins, but usually he disappoints soon after a good win and I actually see him having troubles with the tactical game of Lines. So I'd actually go with the old man here. But whoever wins this I doubt he will make the final.

Jack Lisowski (15) - Hossein Vafaei (63)
This will be a very quick match, not many tactical battles, so probably not my cup of tea. Vafaei has played excellent against Selby and had less troubles than I expected against Xiao, while I haven't seen Lisowski. Still over the last couple of seasons Jack has found some consistency so you would have to make him the favourite here. This should win, whoever has better long pots today and makes more of his chances.

Well done Jim , interesting read on matches. Odri used to do this for the WC once upon a time

[fkhan]

Well done Jim , interesting read on matches. Odri used to do this for the WC once upon a time

Yeah I miss odrl's detailed analysis.

[JimMalone]

Well done Jim , interesting read on matches. Odri used to do this for the WC once upon a time

Yeah I always enjoyed reading them.
I also used to do some detailed analysis before the World Championships and also other bigger tournaments on here, but it costs a bit of time and it didn't seem to interest people too much so I stopped it.

Thanks for the gentle feedback though, despite I didn't go much in detail, maybe I'll start to do this more regularly again.

[PatBlock]

Lot of mistakes from Ronnie so far, if he keeps making therm this lad could well hoover up the remaining bits, but I think that's the only way Noppom's going to win today, doesn't seem able to win in one visit, not so far anyway.

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[fkhan]

Lot of mistakes from Ronnie so far, if he keeps making therm this lad could well hoover up the remaining bits, but I think that's the only way Noppom's going to win today, doesn't seem able to win in one visit, not so far anyway.

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Ronnie is there for the taking. I think Noppon is bottling it.

[PatBlock]

Ronnie is there for the taking. I think Noppon is bottling it.

You're not kidding! How the hell did Noppon manage lose frame 6??

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[fkhan]

You're not kidding! How the hell did Noppon manage lose frame 6??

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Players like Un-Nooh, Noppon etc play Ronnie's stature more than the game itself.