UK Championship 25/11 - 7/12

[Odrl]

So, only the final remains, and it promises to be a great match. :smile:

I could probably repeat most of what I said about Ronnie O'Sullivan yesterday. He was somewhat lucky to get such an easy draw in this tournament, and probably would have gone out early if someone like Graeme Dott was in his quarter. He took full advantage and slowly played himself into the tournament, and it gave his injury the chance to get better, so there is no reason why he shouldn't now produce his best snooker of the tournament. Yesterday he was let off the hook a little, he was all over the pace in the first five frames, but Bingham couldn't pot a ball for the next three frames and let him back into the match. After that O'Sullivan made some nice breaks to finish off the match. His long potting is still a worry, because it's not getting him chances at the moment, and his safety hasn't been strong enough to compensate for that either. It usually gets better towards the end of matches though, and this is the only two-session match he will play here, so he has lots of time to play himself into form.

Judd Trump was the opposite case yesterday, he started really well and hardly made a mistake in the first six frames, but then played pretty poorly for the rest of the match. He was going for a lot of very ambitious shots, but they weren't going in, and he certainly showed some nerves towards the end as well. Looking at the tournament as a whole, Trump has definitely been the best player so far. He has made the most centuries, even though he had a walkover in the 1st round, and he has been impossible to keep away from the table, mostly going for tough pots with great confidence. He got an early lead in all of his previous matches, then fought to get over the line, yesterday's 6-4 win being his closest. But let's be fair here, Trump too had a fairly comfortable route to the final. He was drawn into the toughest quarter on paper, with the likes of Day, Allen and Ding his likely opponents during the week, but he avoided all of them. If yesterday was the first real test for both players, today will be the first time neither of them is a clear favourite.

They have had some good matches in the past. If we take the 2011 China Open as the point when Trump became a top player, he certainly enjoyed the more success for the next year or so. He won a great PTC final in Antwerp, which was as good as best-of-7 matches can possibly be, he then beat O'Sullivan 6-5 in the 2011 UK Championship, going on to win the event, and he followed it up with a very impressive 6-2 win over O'Sullivan in the Masters a month later. At that point O'Sullivan was struggling badly and was actually on the verge of dropping out of the top16, but things turned around for him when he won the 2012 German Masters, and so did his record against Trump. He first beat him 5-3 in the 2012 Welsh Open, in a high-quality match, then won their WC semi-final 17-11 in 2013, and most recently of course won that great final in the Champion of Champions. I think the pattern in most of those matches has been Trump getting the first chance in most frames, with his superior long-potting, but O'Sullivan's superior scoring and touch in the balls has often made the difference in his favour.

If you are a fan of coincidental patterns, this is Trump's 8th major ranking final, and he won his 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th, but lost his 2nd, 4th and 6th. So that would suggest it's time to lose one again. On the other hand, if you take the Champion of Champions final as his 8th major one over a long distance, it would be time for a win again. O'Sullivan's statistics are much simpler and more impressive. In the last two years and a half he has played eight major finals and won seven of them, only losing the 2014 World final. He has a habit of raising his game for these occasions, and he very rarely puts in a mediocre performance. Having said that, in all this time he has probably never reached a final in such an unimpressive way as this week.

Trump was eager to play down his own chances in the press conference yesterday, calling O'Sullivan a massive favourite. Well, the last time anyone did something like that before a big match was Shaun Murphy in the WC, when it was clear he was more interested in admiring O'Sullivan than actually playing to win, and of course he lost with a session to spare. I hope Trump doesn't approach this match with such a pathetic mindset, and his comment is more to do with trying to put pressure on O'Sullivan, while still having confidence in his own ability. If he can't compete now, when he is clearly playing the better snooker of the two, he has no hope of ever being a champion like O'Sullivan. I am always reluctant to predict O'Sullivan losing in a big match like this, but I think the gap between the two players this week has been big enough for Trump to be favourite today, so I will go for Trump to win. O'Sullivan has battled well so far though, and he has the class and the experience to make a match of it. Trump to win 10-7. :wink:

Should be a great day of snooker again. :smile:

[amsel]

Hope Ronnie wins, but I wouldn't mind if Trump finally starts showing his potential and becomes a dominant force in the game. I think he'll be the only reason I'll continue watching snooker when Ronnie retires.

[daffie]

Now that's dedication!

Catch you a bit later....

[bingo]

Thanks for that. I shall wake up for the night session so I can view the finish of the match

[daffie]

will the final be played over 2 sessions?

Yes the afternoon session starts at 13:00 UK time and the evening session at 19:00.

[Ramon]

yeah 5 ranking wins in 15 years .. big deal!

which one is it ??? whisky or cocaine ??

[scottley]

theres only one winner, great few days of snooker though, bring on the Masters.

[bingo]

will the final be played over 2 sessions?

[Masterdoctorgenius]

With the way ROS played today, who knows. Trump has been the better player over the course of the week.

most of the time ronnie is adifferent animal in finals the last few years. since 2012 won 6 of 7 finals. a peak selby overcame ronnie . many said trump would win the CoC but

[Ronnie's tip]

The biggest deciding factor tomorrow will be Ronnie's long potting, and his safety. All week both of those have been lacking. Missing long pots by a mile (two of his matches he had 30%, today was 50% I think), and he's been hitting his safety's far too soft, or simply messing them up.

It is kind of hard to predict since tomorrow is a new day, but if we went on the evidence of the tournament so far, Trump will take the lead early on. Then it depends how well he does mentally. I'm going 10-7 Trump.

Either way, can't wait.

Hopefully the BBC have epic entrances as I think the atmosphere will be electric. Always felt the UK + Masters should have a similar type entrance to the world final (with all being a bit longer and a bit less rushed).

Anyway, lets see

[robertmac]

Trump has been playing extremely well and he
can certainly beat O'Sullivan so it should be an
interesting final. Lots of one visit snooker I would
imagine and who can capatalize on the other's
mistakes may make the difference.
Looking forward to it.

[snookerball]

Tomorrows final is probably going to be of a lower standard than the CoC final.

[Dr_Doctor]

I feel like leaving my predictions:

Judd will start off well and make a good lead against Ronnie. Then the rocket will gradually raise his game and win the UK title. I'd love to see Judd win but he hasn't been consistent enough in my opinion.

[Odrl]

Very enjoyable evening of snooker in the end. I love a good scrap on the colours, so the last two frames were fun to watch. :smile:

It should be a great final tomorrow. It's hard to predict the winner, but I will think about it in the morning. :smile:

[P.Smith]

Judd Trump failing in his attempt to throw the match there.

It was actually pretty spectacular how much he fell apart after going 5-1 up, almost as spectacular as watching Maguire play THAT badly at the start of the match.

Anyway, I couldn't be more pleased, I'm going to see the final live tomorrow and Judd/Ronnie is a dream final for me. Lets just hope they live up to the hype and deliver something worth my money.