International Championship 2013 - Discussion

[luke-h]

You notice Ronnie hardly ever asks to have it cleaned, from memory he has said it's a pet hate of his, maybe liang is a bit over paranoid about getting kicks which is bad thing to thinking all the time...

I think it's a stalling tactic to slow the game down, maybe it give's him time to slow down. as for ronnie he hardly ever get's that much kicks, or if he does he don't make that much of an issue from it.

[Odrl]

Shame about that miscue, but it was always going to be difficult anyway, with that red and pink on the side cushion. Still, a good 88 to go 5-0 ahead. Playing better than yesterday now. :smile:

[Odrl]

An outrageous fluke from Davis gives him the chance to finally win a frame. Still a longshot, but it's not over yet. :wink:

[streamer45]

Very solid performance by Selby to win 6-1!

[cyberheater]

Great win by Ding. He basically demolished Stevens. 6-1.

[Odrl]

Nice finish from Liang, another big break to win 6-1. Mark Davis wasn't good today, but it's still a promising sign for Liang, and I reckon he has a decent chance to beat Dott in the quarter-finals.

Not surprised by the Ding-Stevens scoreline, although I did predict a whitewash. :smile: Ding has now thrashed Stevens quite a few times and Stevens looks defeated before the match even starts.

Good QF lineup, especially the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter. All six of those players could potentially win it. Less likely for Perry and Day, but you never know. :smile:

[robertmac]

Ding seems to be the one to beat here.

He is playing good consistent snooker.

[Odrl]

A couple of thoughts on the quarter-finals...

Ryan Day v. Joe Perry: The "mystery" match really, as both players have been hidden away from the TV tables. I see that Day's match against Fergal O'Brien had a half-century in all nine frames, and Day is actually one of three quarter-finalists to make six half-centuries in the previous round, so you could say the standard of breakbuilding has been pretty high in this tournament. But Day's breakbuilding has never really been in question, it's the one element of his game he can rely on. He will have to cope with Perry tactically though, as well as mentally when the pressure comes on. A rare quarter-final for Day in these last couple of years and, on paper, a beatable opponent. Perry himself had two centuries against Mark Allen, but some of the other frames were quite close. He has had a good season so far, winning a PTC and playing fairly well in the Wuxi Classic. He is the opposite of Day in some ways, very reliable and very unlikely to do anything stupid, but does he have the firepower when he really needs it? He was 5-1 down to Jamie Jones in the 1st round, so I guess he doesn't really feel under pressure, because everything he does from now on is a bonus. He is a former semi-finalist of the WC and the UK Championship, so he has a strong record in the longer matches. These are still one-session matches, but there is a bit more time for the twists and turns. Perry to win 6-5.

Mark Selby v. Marco Fu: This should be a cracking match! Fu was very strong against Zhao, pretty much took every scoring chance he had, including one from behind when he needed all the balls to win. As I often say, he doesn't really have a weakness when he is playing well, and he is one of the best players in the world at breakbuilding around the black spot. He has also reached his highest level of consistency in the time I've been following snooker, and there seems to be a smaller chance he plays a bad match, especially this late in the tournament. Amazingly, Selby hasn't been on TV yet, so no clue how he is playing, except for the fact that he has just beaten a very classy opponent comfortably. If Fu doesn't have a weakness, what can you say about Selby... He certainly won't be leaving Fu with as many easy chances as Zhao did, and will certainly keep it tight if things start going against him. As I said before the tournament, Selby has won four of the nine best-of-11 tournaments he has played in, so you could say this is his favourite length of match. And how many times has he won them 6-5? I still remember the great match these two played at the UK in 2007, which included the longest-ever televised frame, Selby winning 9-7 on that occasion. I would love something like that here, and maybe I'm doing Selby a disservice because I haven't seen him play, but Fu looks strong... Fu to win 6-4.

Ding Junhui v. Peter Ebdon: Looking forward to this one as well... Ebdon won their last big match, in the semi-finals of the China Open last year, after beating Robertson in the previous round, just like here. Before that, Ding had (and still has of course) a pretty good record against him, which includes some very convincing wins. Ding doesn't really seem fazed by anything this season. He has done the business when he has been the favourite, and he has beaten the other top players more often than not as well. He's found a slightly slower pace around the table and has certainly cut down on any complacency. There is no doubt that Ding is capable of playing better snooker than Ebdon at this point in time. But the thing with Ebdon, when he plays well, he plays really well. His scoring against Robertson was probably the best we've seen from him since that China Open tournament in 2012. He made a couple of mistakes though, particularly some poor tactical choices under pressure, and it would be lucky if Ding was as forgiving as Robertson. Before the tournament I said that form "comes and goes", so I feared that Ding's form might go, but it clearly hasn't. Not yet anyway, so I think he might take this one 6-3.

Graeme Dott v. Liang Wenbo: Dott is another player we haven't seen, which is a bit of a shame, because he himself described the match against Maflin as one of the best he had ever been involved in. Nice to see him reach a ranking quarter-final after a pretty long drought, he's had quite a few good runs outside of the UK in the past, but not so much in recent times. I thought Davis was solid enough to punish the somewhat sloppy Liang, but he was poor. Dott is an even classier player than Davis, probably favourite to dominate the tactical stuff, and certainly scores well enough to take advantage. I guess a possible problem could be the fact that Liang is a bit on the slow side and Dott has struggled against such players in the past. But one thing Liang will not do is go negative. The long balls have mostly been going in for him, especially when he's really needed them, but the scoring has been a bit suspect. He has played a couple of loose positional shots when the balls were at his mercy, snookering himself behind balls and such, and he has also missed a couple of sitters, most notably the two pinks against O'Sullivan and another pink against Davis in the 2nd frame. One thing that is there, however, is the confidence. He clearly feels comfortable with the atmosphere and with his own game, and he is also a great fighter, so I can't see him being overwhelmed here. Not much history between the two, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. My feeling is that Liang will take it, maybe 6-4.

Should be a good day of snooker. :smile:

[streamer45]

Great start for Selby, 2-0 , both frames behind and both frames cleared to the black, quality stuff!

And now Fu pulls 2 back and it's 2-2.

Promising match!

[Odrl]

Yeah, it's good for Selby that he did make those two clearances, because he's allowed Fu in first in every frame so far...

[DeanH]

Perry 6 - 1 Day
Well, that is a surprise, not that Perry won but by the score line.
Perry has not been on form laterly (the current subject of the week) but he made 3 centuries in this match (hopefully this has been mentioned by the commentators instead of being Robertson making centuries )
Well done Perry

[Odrl]

Perry 6 - 1 Day
Well, that is a surprise, not that Perry won but by the score line.
Perry has not been on form laterly (the current subject of the week) but he made 3 centuries in this match (hopefully this has been mentioned by the commentators instead of being Robertson making centuries )
Well done Perry

Yeah, Hendon described it as one of Perry's best-ever performances. Couldn't make a mistake all morning. :smile:

Selby against Fu hasn't been as fluent as I'd expected, but Selby has now taken control of the match. Needs one more to reach the semi-finals. If he goes on to win the tournament he will hold three of the four biggest titles in the game. :wink:

[cyberheater]

A great example of picking balls off the pack by Marco Fu in the penultimate frame.

[Odrl]

Strong frame from Fu to force the decider. Selby will be kicking himself if he loses this, because he only needed one more ball at 5-3. But he is a master of these 6-5 victories... :smile:

[cyberheater]

Strong frame from Fu to force the decider. Selby will be kicking himself if he loses this, because he only needed one more ball at 5-3. But he is a master of these 6-5 victories... :smile:

If he looses this I wonder if he'll regret not taking that tricky red along the black cushion.