2022 Welsh Open

[Neil Taperell]

Really enjoyed that Final ....what a draw he had to overcome to win it .

[Billy]

Had a friend round all day and forgot all about the final! So Joe won? What was the score? I switched on at about 10:10 when my mate left and it was already over.

[Odrl]

13 years experience of pro matchplay since then , i’d say he should be better , i’d say most top players are at least as good and harder to beat now than they were then , but i’m not sure about him , i’m mildly aware of his health problems but snooker is a relatively physically negligible game , i’d say hawkins for example is better now than then , why shouldnt walden be better ?

I guess it makes sense that most current top players are better than they were 14 years ago, otherwise they probably wouldn't be top players. I would say 11 of the current top 16 are better than they were 14 years ago, which is quite understandable as a few wouldn't have even started their career at that time. But only two or three of the top 16 players from 2008 are better players now than they were back then.

[trains]

I guess it makes sense that most current top players are better than they were 14 years ago, otherwise they probably wouldn't be top players. I would say 11 of the current top 16 are better than they were 14 years ago, which is quite understandable as a few wouldn't have even started their career at that time. But only two or three of the top 16 players from 2008 are better players now than they were back then.

Ok i’m good with that , you’re effectively saying that walden probably reached his maximum likely status level winning that 2008 shanghai masters ? i dont bet too much on snooker but he’s one of those players i wouldn’t put money on , just too shaky , too many misses for me , the same as what reanne evans said about kurt maflin a few days ago on the bbc wales open coverage.

[Odrl]

Probably in 2014 when he won the International Championship. That was really impressive. I think it was the first best-of-11 or longer tournament in many years that wasn't won by one of the really big names of snooker.

[balkend]

The standard is rising all the time , all players are playing on a higher level . There are so many opportunities and tournaments now , equipment is better . Happens in virtually all sports . Snooker is no different. Look at the big picture

[mikee]

Well done to Perry ,had his easiest match in the final of the Whole tournament.Strange that Trump managed to get there playing like he was ,could Lisowski have won if he had got there .Very weird event of winners and losers throughout .

[JimMalone]

Congrats to Joe Perry! After all those years finally at least a half-proper ranking title.

[JimMalone]

13 years experience of pro matchplay since then , i’d say he should be better , i’d say most top players are at least as good and harder to beat now than they were then , but i’m not sure about him , i’m mildly aware of his health problems but snooker is a relatively physically negligible game , i’d say hawkins for example is better now than then , why shouldnt walden be better ?

Developments for athletes or snooker players are just quite different and depend on many factors.It can be about health, it can be about other interests, it can be mental. It can just be how your style of play holds up over the years.
I mean look at Stephen Maguire. He's 40 right now and playing nowhere nearly as good as 10 or 15 years back.
On the other hand there are guys like Stuart Bingham, who began only playing well after hitting 35 years.

Generally I'd say that in today's game most players don't hit their highest level before they turn 30 and leave it before turning 45. Which leaves plenty of room, when you reach your zenith within this span and of course even then it always is a bit of an up and down. Interestingly in snooker it seems you can't play your best level for many years, maybe it's too demanding mentally.

[trains]

Developments for athletes or snooker players are just quite different and depend on many factors.It can be about health, it can be about other interests, it can be mental. It can just be how your style of play holds up over the years.
I mean look at Stephen Maguire. He's 40 right now and playing nowhere nearly as good as 10 or 15 years back.
On the other hand there are guys like Stuart Bingham, who began only playing well after hitting 35 years.

Generally I'd say that in today's game most players don't hit their highest level before they turn 30 and leave it before turning 45. Which leaves plenty of room, when you reach your zenith within this span and of course even then it always is a bit of an up and down. Interestingly in snooker it seems you can't play your best level for many years, maybe it's too demanding mentally.

I think some of that depends on the initial access and sufficient playing time on tables that respectably match those at for example victoria’s snooker academy in sheffield , si juahui for example is only 19 and looks a very good player , he’s already beat shaun murphy this season and his match against judd trump in the welsh open last 32 could have gone either way.

It would be interesting to get streams of chinese billiards and snooker association events to see how good their young players are and get an idea of how many good players china has.

[vmax]

If you learned the game on well napped cloths then playing with sidespin and allowing for the nap will be engrained into your subconscious, subsequently these faster cloths with practically no nap will be alien to your game. It would take a while to re-map your snooker brain to cope with the different conditions, wider deflection of the cue ball, less curve across the cloth, no drift with the nap across the table into the middles etc.
IMO a lot of the 80's pros went south after the introduction of the aramith phenolic resin ball late in that decade as the contact between the balls changed from what they were used to with super crystalate.
Equipment and conditions change all the time, I don't think Nadal would be able to handle the smaller headed wooden rackets used by Rod Laver and co as they were not only heavier but had a smaller sweet spot, so my argument is and always has been that the previous generations had only a few very special players because sport was more difficult then compared to now, Ronaldo would break his tiny tootsies kicking the old leather football that Stan Mortensen had to put up with.

[JimMalone]

I think some of that depends on the initial access and sufficient playing time on tables that respectably match those at for example victoria’s snooker academy in sheffield , si juahui for example is only 19 and looks a very good player , he’s already beat shaun murphy this season and his match against judd trump in the welsh open last 32 could have gone either way.

It would be interesting to get streams of chinese billiards and snooker association events to see how good their young players are and get an idea of how many good players china has.

With that sentence I was rather meaning something different: Even the best players like Mark Selby or Judd Trump have the odd poor season, despite you would maybe generally say when you look back in a few years that Trump was playing terrific from 2020 to 2025 (if he has two strong next seasons again), but there are dips within those time spans. Even Higgins and O'Sullivan back in the time, which nowadays you would maybe call their zenith had better and worse years.

[DeanH]

Not sure if this has been said already, but as you get older things change, some you can control/change (weight, etc.) but some you can not, such as eyesight and that is paramount for snooker players.

[trains]

With that sentence I was rather meaning something different: Even the best players like Mark Selby or Judd Trump have the odd poor season, despite you would maybe generally say when you look back in a few years that Trump was playing terrific from 2020 to 2025 (if he has two strong next seasons again), but there are dips within those time spans. Even Higgins and O'Sullivan back in the time, which nowadays you would maybe call their zenith had better and worse years.

i think in o sullivan's case he's just latched on to maximising making hay while the sun shines , also knowing that he lost earlier round matches in the past that he shouldnt , with higgins i think he was partly interested in bringing up his family earlier in the noughties which possibly accounts for less success during that time.

walden i think the collective sum of its parts for him over a sufficient number of years is he just isnt that good despite the odd good performance like his recent win over o sullivan , for selby and trump it possibly depends on what is meant by a poor season , if they play decently and lose quite a few times does it mean they have a poor season , personally i think its ok if they lose while playing well regardless of their ranking position , i dont take any notice of what commentators say about ' poor season ' you have to look at their performances more in depth i think.

[vmax]

Not sure if this has been said already, but as you get older things change, some you can control/change (weight, etc.) but some you can not, such as eyesight and that is paramount for snooker players.

Control of the bladder goes out the window as well My motorbike rides are now dependant on how many public toilets there are on the route, and they're dissapearing fast