Welsh Open 2014 - Discussion

[armstm]

he is a player ronnie has a bad record against which plays on ron's mind. it will be interesting, i hope it gets tight

Entertaining match. I knew it would be a good one. Good to see Higgins through to a quarter final again, too bad I can't see him beating Ronnie.

[Odrl]

Should be a great quarter-finals day...

Ding Junhui v. Joel Walker: By far the most one-sided prospect. There was always a chance of an outsider coming through in the top quarter, because Maguire and Mark Davis were the only really strong players on paper, and Maguire turned out to be injured as well. So Walker was the player to take advantage, coming through three deciders in four matches, which shows he can hold his nerve in tense situations. But does he also have the firepower to match Ding in a big match? None of his previous matches were televised, so I can only say that I have no idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing him play today. :smile: As for Ding, yet again he finds himself at the business end of a ranking event, and he is a big favourite to reach the semi-finals now. He has become one of those players who just win by default, unless they have a really bad day or someone plays really well against them. He is always going to win a couple of frames with big breaks, and he has become too solid to be outplayed in the scrappy frames by the younger players, so I can only see one winner here. Ding to win 5-1.

Ronnie O'Sullivan v. John Higgins: This is the match I'm looking forward to the most. It's their first meeting in a major tournament since the 2011 World Championship, so almost three years. The roles have been reversed, O'Sullivan is the World champion and the man to beat now, while Higgins is waiting for a return to form. Both were pretty convincing in the early rounds, O'Sullivan winning all of his matches 4-1 so far, while Higgins had three whitewashes before that tense match against Trump yesterday. It was exactly the kind of match Higgins used to be great at, but not in the more recent past, so it was good to see him getting through one again. It could give him some confidence, although looking at his face after the match, it looked more like another cause for concern. :smile: O'Sullivan certainly doesn't have much cause for concern, he played crap when he could get away with it against Pinches, but he raised his game when he needed to for the last two matches. We haven't seen any nonsense from him this week, and there isn't an obvious weakness in his game either, apart from a couple of lapses of concentration perhaps. He is clearly the favourite on paper, but this match reminds me of O'Sullivan's matches against Williams in recent years... I was always reluctant to make Williams favourite, even when he was clearly playing the better snooker. Higgins has won eight of their last nine major meetings, and won their PTC match in Bulgaria at the start of the season, so I would give him every chance here. Higgins to win 5-3.

Mark Selby v. Joe Perry I had a feeling we wouldn't be seeing these two in the quarter-finals, but of course it isn't much of a surprise, considering the way they've been playing all season. Perry has had an amazing season, one of his best ever, certainly the best since his patch in the top16 a couple of years ago. This is his fifth QF appearance of the season, on top of two runs to the last16, so he has been a really consistent presence at the business end of tournaments. Selby has been as well, but of course for him it's all about winning tournaments, and he hasn't won one yet this season. He played pretty well in his last two matches, although his opponents did make quite a few mistakes, so he hasn't really had to work all that hard. But to only lose two frames in four matches is pretty impressive. Perry's games weren't televised, so it's hard to say how well he is playing, but he had a reasonably hard draw, so it can't be too bad. :smile: He beat Selby 4-0 in this tournament last season, but lost to him in the German Masters, also roughly a year ago. Apart from those two matches, their history is mostly minor matches, or matches too long ago to be relevant. I can see this one going close, Selby to win 5-3.

Marco Fu v. Barry Hawkins: And finally the match I assume won't be televised, which is a great shame, because it's arguably the second best prospect of this round. Hawkins in particular hasn't had much luck in that regard, not getting on TV at all this week, even though he played three very interesting opponents in the previous three rounds. It's not surprising that two of those went to a decider. I don't know the stats, but it feels like Hawkins plays deciders almost every match, with mixed success. The last two tournaments saw him lose in a pretty frustrating way, 6-5 to Walden in the Masters and 5-4 to Day in Germany, but this time he has survived. Fu has not let it get that close in his matches, which is a credit to him, because he had a pretty tricky draw. His scoring is strong once again, he made a couple of lovely breaks against Williams yesterday, including two crucial clearances from behind, and he was a ball away from making it a third time as well. He has gone from one of the most inconsistent to one of the most consistent players in the world right now. He has still played a couple of poor tournaments, but once he gets past a round or two, you just don't expect him to play a bad match anymore. He is one of only four players to win any significant tournament this season, and considering three of those are still here, there is every chance it stays that way. I find this one very tough to call, but since Hawkins hasn't had the chance to impress me yet, I will go with Fu, 5-4. :wink:

Looking forward to it. :smile:

[scottley]

Ding 1-0 up, no coverage so far.

[scottley]

1-1 in fact.

[cyberheater]

Ding 1-0 up, no coverage so far.

It's shameful. I love the fact that Eurosport keep saying in the advertising blurb that they are 'the' station for snooker. "Never miss a ball" they say. Round spherical objects to them.

[scottley]

Im watching on sport lemon, rubbish coverage this whole tournament has been! When they would sooner show a repeat of a previous match than switch to the other live table its a poor show!

[Odrl]

Bad frame to lose for Walker. He had quite a few chances to take the lead, but Ding takes it in the end, with a good break around the pink spot.

[neuronic]

Anyway: O'Sullivan vs Higgins is coming up, the later was showing increasing form recently, the former... well, it's the Rocket.
I'm a bit excited.

[JeeSe]

O'Sullivan V Higgins on after this Ding Walker match?

[cyberheater]

Is the O'Sullivan vs Higgins meant to be televised?

[streamer45]

Great clearance by Walker!

[stephenm2682]

Is it only 1 table now?,

[cyberheater]

The O'Sullivan vs Higgins match is on after the Ding match for folks who didn't know.

[DeanH]

Is it only 1 table now?,

only for the first two matches today, then back to two tables for the evening session

[DeanH]

Welsh Open 2014 - Discussion

question for you guys:
say if Joel won this event but still does not carry his tour card to next season, what would happen? has such a position ever happen in the past?