German Masters

[culraven]

1991 according to eurosport

[Csmith]

I reckon if Brecel won the tourny it would serve as a big kick start for his career - give him that true belief of his potential.

I hope so, but if I remember rightly milestones for him are often followed by slumps. Hopefully he's gotten over whatever causes that. I still would like to see him put a bit more work into his safety game, but scoring is pretty strong. According to cuetracker he is scoring 50+ breaks every 2.84 games. Not many doing better than that this season. From what I've seen though, he will need to tighten up his game before he starts regularly knocking off the top players.

[DeanH]

German Masters

as Jimmy White said (this morning?) Luca needs to move to the UK and play more to move his game to the next level. He is back with Chris Henry I believe hence his current improvement but as you say he does tend the fluctuate in event performance greatly.

[Csmith]

as Jimmy White said (this morning?) Luca needs to move to the UK and play more to move his game to the next level. He is back with Chris Henry I believe hence his current improvement but as you say he does tend the fluctuate in event performance greatly.

That makes sense. He has lost I think most of his matches against top players this season, but does well against anyone midrange or below.

[mikeyd100]

I hope so, but if I remember rightly milestones for him are often followed by slumps. Hopefully he's gotten over whatever causes that. I still would like to see him put a bit more work into his safety game, but scoring is pretty strong. According to cuetracker he is scoring 50+ breaks every 2.84 games. Not many doing better than that this season. From what I've seen though, he will need to tighten up his game before he starts regularly knocking off the top players.

Yeah, needs a bit more of a matchplay gameplan maybe ?
Good point from Dean too... get over to UK... practise with the more hardcore pro's.

[DeanH]

just waiting for Eurosport repeat of yesterday's match, specifically Trump/Gould which I saw the first part-session and missed the last session, hope it is as good in vision as it seemed from the WS LiveScore

[DeanH]

Yeah, needs a bit more of a matchplay gameplan maybe ?
Good point from Dean too... get over to UK... practise with the more hardcore pro's.

well it was JW who said it, but I have mentioned it before but Luca was probably too young to leave home back then :wink:

[DeanH]

excellent, the Eurosport repeat starting at the point I had to leave it

[Odrl]

excellent, the Eurosport repeat starting at the point I had to leave it

That's nice of Eurosport. :smile: I wish they were as accommodating for me as they are for you. But alas, we're not getting any live snooker on Eurosport International all day, so I'm stuck with streaming.

Both matches are tough to call today. Martin Gould has been a more common presence at the business end of major events than Graeme Dott in recent seasons, but of course Dott has the advantage of having won major titles before, while Gould's best result thus far is the final in Australia at the start of this season. The head-to-head favours Dott, but it's mostly the early rounds of events, so this will the most important match they've ever played against each other. The German Masters stands out from other tournaments in one really annoying aspect, the semi-finals feature players we haven't seen play all week, so we don't really know what to expect. We can only assume Dott is playing really well, since he was quite happy with his performance against Maguire yesterday, and statistics show that he made five breaks over 50 in his whitewash of Tian Pengfei in the 1st round, which is all you can ask for really. Gould could have gone out yesterday if a couple of positional shots had worked out better for Trump in the decider, but he did well to hang on under pressure, which is not usually his strongest point. Both of these players play a very fast and attacking game, I would even say Dott plays a little too fast for his own good these days, so it should be an exciting game. As I said, we haven't seen Dott play yet, so I might be underestimating him, but I'm going with Gould to win 6-4. Should be close in any case though. :smile:

We have Kyren Wilson against Luca Brecel in the evening, in what will be the first-ever match between them, if I'm not mistaken. I quite like the idea of Wilson winning this tournament, as it would be his second major title of the season, and it would be quite reminiscent of Neil Robertson's first really good season in 2006/2007. The reason I say this is because the major contenders for titles in snooker have been largely the same for a few years now, and Wilson would be the first player to join that group since Trump in 2011 probably. He has battled through three deciders so far and was on the verge of losing in two of his matches, so you certainly can't fault his fighting qualities and his play under pressure. I have no idea how well Brecel played against Maflin and Joyce, but we saw his 1st round match against Zhao Xintong, and I would say he was quite lucky to have such an easy game, because Zhao had a bunch of scoring chances in that match. Still, one only needs to play better than their opponent, and I'm sure Brecel has improved with each round. This is his second major semi-final, and he played quite well in his first one, so I don't think the occasion will get to him here. It should be another close match. Wilson to win 6-5. :smile:

Hoping for a good day of snooker. :smile:

[DeanH]

what a crowd!

[DeanH]

hmm, less said about that frame the better :wink:

[crocodile]

Just watch the end of the Trump/Gould match but boy......what the **** is going through Judd's mind at times?! How can he not clear the table with 2 reds left on the table in the decider is beyond any comprehension. He stunned the black way too hard. A simple follow with the cushion would have put him in prime position for the last red. He's another one joining Brecel's club of guys "having all the tools but not the toolbox", as said the other day (even though Brecel is through to the semis....for once! I really don't understand how Trump can be so prone to bonhead plays like this. anyone can be subject to pressure, bad decisions, you name it....But we're talking a simple clearance (for his level anyway) in the last 8 of a PTC event.

Anyway, the final lineup is very unusual and, I'm afraid, not very appealing (no offense to the players here but still....). All the big guns are buried and the only real entertainement could come from Brecel me thinks. I can't say I'm chomping the bit at seeing Dott v Gould to be honest :/

I dunno ... makes a refreshing change to see a few outsiders in the semis! And you never know - Dott/Gould could turn out to be a more interesting contest than it might look on paper.

[svendh]

anyone got a link to a good es2 uk stream? the ones on haha or similar are rubbish. pm only please

[DeanH]

have you tried snookerroom.tv?
noticed since he added the Auto resolution, it does go fuzzy as it resets the levels but NO adverts and sometimes has the commentary as well

[svendh]

thanks dean, but i think it is time to get eurosportplayer