2016 Ladbrokes Players Championship Grand Finals

[thecueview]

Hello everyone....hope you are all well!

Here is my preview for next week's Players Championship from Event City in Manchester

http://www.thecueview.com/2016-ladbr...e-preview.html

[DeanH]

Selby out again?
he has used the "personal reasons" before has he not?

[Odrl]

Selby out again?
he has used the "personal reasons" before has he not?

He missed the Shanghai Masters due to a death in the family, I believe, so that's three events this season. Might cost him the top spot in the rankings...

[ghost121]

I have thought for some time that all is not well in the Selby camp...

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Hello everyone....hope you are all well!

Here is my preview for next week's Players Championship from Event City in Manchester

http://www.thecueview.com/2016-ladbr...e-preview.html

Nice one, thanks.

[SnookerFan]

Rumour has it that Hendry will be commentating for ITV 4.

[Mr Snooker]

Will Mark Selby receive still his £4,000 first round prize money seeing as he as pulled out of the event or will he not be awarded it

[Odrl]

Shall we have a little preview of the PTC Finals?

I didn't pay much attention to this event in the past, and it annoyed me greatly that it was considered a major ranking event by various snooker journalists and statisticians. I think it's a little silly to put Perry's win in a best-of-7 event last year alongside Wilson's win in the Shanghai Masters, for example. That said, this event has moved in the right direction now, with longer matches at the weekend and a two-session final, so I think it deserves more respect than I gave it in the past. A lot of the top players have failed to qualify, so the field is not as strong as it could have been. The most notable absentees are Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Neil Robertson, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Joe Perry and Stephen Maguire.

I'm a little busy today, so a slightly abbreviated look through each section of the draw...

Quarter 1:

Matthew Selt v. Andrew Higginson
Ben Woollaston v. Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams v. Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy v. Liang Wenbo

Selby's absence means the first section is probably the easiest one here, and the only one with four players who have not won any major titles between them yet. Matthew Selt came in as Selby's replacement, originally 33rd in the seeding list, but in this section he is probably the favourite, or at least on par with Ben Woollaston. Both have reached major quarter-finals this season. Selt has actually reached two, but they were both in the first half of the season, whereas Woollaston's best run came just recently at the Welsh Open. Both have proved themselves capable of playing well in the short matches, so I expect the quarter-finalist to be one of these two. Andrew Higginson has not had any sort of good run in a major event for a long time, and it looks like his best years are behind him now. But as I said, this section is a fairly easy one, so I wouldn't rule anyone out. Jimmy Robertson is the fourth player and probably the "smallest" name here, but he has actually played alright at times this season, and he won his first couple of matches at the Welsh Open before running into O'Sullivan. It was his second consecutive run to the semi-finals of the Chinese PTC in Haining that got him here, and hopefully he can do himself justice. I will go for Woollaston to go through here.

This entire quarter doesn't have any players that have won PTC titles this season, but the second section is certainly stronger than the first one. Shaun Murphy is the player in form, winning the World Grand Prix in great style a week ago, and this tournament has an almost identical format. He has actually struggled a lot this season, failing to reach any major quarter-finals until March, but it looks like he is just finding his best form at the right time, with the World Championship approaching. The 1st round here features a rematch with Liang Wenbo, whom Murphy beat 4-0 in the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix, with a great performance. Besides that run, Liang also reached the final of the UK Championship this season, and he has finally started playing as well as he did in the 2008-2009 period, if not better. The third contender here is Mark Williams. Unlike the other two, he doesn't have any great form behind him, and he is one of the very few players here who have lost in the China Open qualifiers, which means this is his last tournament ahead of the World Championship. He was a finalist in this event last year, and actually bottled it a bit from 3-0 up, but that event was played in Thailand, where Williams generally plays better snooker than he does in the UK. Dominic Dale is the outsider in this section, with no notable runs in major events for the last two seasons. He also has quite a poor record against Williams and hasn't beaten him at all in the last eight years. Murphy is my pick in this section.

Quarter 2:

Mark Allen v. Mark Davis
Mark King v. Sam Baird
Ryan Day v. Kyren Wilson
Rory McLeod v. Mike Dunn

Mark Allen is the 4th seed this week, and probably one of the favourites to win the title. A major title is actually all that's been missing for him this season. He won a PTC, reached the final of the Champion of Champions, and also two major ranking semi-finals, including the recent Welsh Open. Would he trade his consistently good results for Murphy's title and a bunch of early exits? I suspect he would... Mark Davis is a dangerous 1st round opponent for anyone, although Allen has a good record against him, and beat him 5-1 when they played in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters this season. Apart from Shanghai, we haven't seen Davis at the business end of any major events, and a slightly weaker field this week could give him a good chance to do something. Mark King is another danger, and unlike Davis, he actually has quite a good record against Allen, and he generally does well against the top players. As for Sam Baird, I wouldn't want to rule anyone out in these short matches, but he is surely the outsider here. I will go with the obvious choice and predict Allen to reach the quarter-finals from this section, especially since he failed to qualify for China, so this is his last event before the WC.

The match between Ryan Day and Kyren Wilson is among the more interesting ones in the 1st round here. Wilson has been the better player this season, winning the title in Shanghai and reaching the semi-finals in Berlin, although the last two events have been poor for him. Day has played alright as well, with two major quarter-finals since the new year. I suppose Wilson must be considered the favourite, since he is now a proven winner and has looked like a top player all season, whereas Day is still waiting for his first major title. Wilson won 5-4 when they met in the quarter-finals of the German Masters last month, and he also beat Rory McLeod in the same tournament, 5-4 from 4-1 down in the last32. McLeod has qualified for this event by winning the Ruhr Open in October, so he has proved he can be dangerous in the short matches, although this is certainly a "grander" event, with more at stake. And like the previous three sections, this one also has an outsider, Mike Dunn. A very experienced player who actually had some major success not too long ago, reaching the semi-finals of the 2014 China Open, but it would be a surprise to see him at the business end this week. I think whoever wins between Wilson and Day will go on to reach the quarter-finals, and I actually have a feeling it could be Day, in spite of what I said above.

Quarter 3:

Marco Fu v. Alan McManus
Tom Ford v. Ricky Walden
Martin Gould v. Judd Trump
Allister Carter v. Graeme Dott

Marco Fu won the PTC in Gibraltar just before the new year, but his two best runs in the majors this season were actually in the best-of-11 format, the quarter-finals of the International and the UK Championship. He is quite a consistent presence at the business end of tournaments these days, but he is not winning major titles, kind of like Allen. Fu opens with a match against Alan McManus, who had a minor resurgence a couple of seasons ago, but we don't see him at venues much anymore. There are fewer real outsiders in the bottom half, but McManus is one of them. It will be interesting to see how Ricky Walden plays this week. Prior to the World Grand Prix, the biggest disappointment of the season was surely Murphy, but I think Walden has taken over that title now. He missed out on the Champion of Champions and the World Grand Prix, and he lost in the qualifying stages of several ranking events, so he is under pressure to get something out of this season now. A very dangerous player at his best, but his form is very suspect at the moment. Tom Ford hasn't done much this season either. He's qualified for this event thanks to a run to the final of the very first PTC in Latvia in the summer, and he had a decent run in the UK Championship, but other than that he's been unimpressive. He beat Selby in the World Grand Prix two weeks ago though, so he can't be underestimated. I think Fu is the man to beat in this section.

Martin Gould and Judd Trump meet in the best prospect of the 1st round, although you could argue that Murphy-Liang is an equally exciting one. Gould has been the better player of the two this season, finally winning the big title he was due. It was the German Masters in Berlin, where he actually played Trump in the quarter-finals and beat him 5-4, but the match wasn't as exciting as many had hoped. Trump hasn't won any major titles himself, but he has played some very impressive snooker at times. He seems to be going trough a similar phase Robertson went through a while back, playing most of his best snooker in the early rounds, then going out just as he is starting to look like a great contender for the title. The other two players in this section are both very capable of going through themselves, and we could see a couple of rematches from the German Masters, where Trump beat Ali Carter and Gould beat Graeme Dott. Carter qualified for this event by winning the Paul Hunter Classic in August, but his performances in the major events have been underwhelming for a while now. A run to the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix is his best this season, and since that's the most recent event, perhaps his form is going in the right direction. Dott beat Carter the last four times they've played though, so he will fancy his chances here. That said, the short format isn't his favourite, and he's only just squeezed in as the 30th seed. Tough section to call, but I'll go with Trump.

Quarter 4:

Ding Junhui v. David Gilbert
Michael White v. Luca Brecel
Tian Pengfei v. Robert Milkins
Barry Hawkins v. Michael Holt

It's nice to see Ding Junhui playing well again. He is not quite at his best yet, but he had a good last month, with runs to the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open and the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix. It's encouraging that he is fighting and winning close matches again. David Gilbert actually has a surprisingly good record against Ding, but I would still make him the underdog in their match. Gilbert had his moment of glory when he reached the final of the International Championship this season, and I kind of expected him to struggle to follow that result up, as has proved to be the case. Another player who has played well this season is Luca Brecel, a somewhat surprising finalist in the German Masters, and he had a decent run to the last16 of the Welsh Open as well, losing 4-2 to Ding. The remaining couple of events this season will tell us whether Brecel is finally ready to join the top players. Michael White is probably a little ahead of him at the moment, although he too is yet to win a proper major event. His performance in Cardiff was encouraging as well, as he beat some really strong players on his way to the quarter-finals, before completely collapsing against Allen and losing 5-0. His consistency has improved to the point where I now expect him to play well in most events, so he could be dangerous this week. I think Ding is the man to beat in this section though.

And we conclude with the only slightly weaker section in the bottom half, with no major history between the four players. Barry Hawkins is the 2nd seed this week, but since Selby has withdrawn from the tournament, Hawkins is actually the highest player on the seeding list for this event. Unfortunately his results in the major events this season have not been as good as in the PTC series, as he is yet to reach a major ranking quarter-final. But then again, this was the case last season at this time as well, and he went on to reach the business end of both the China Open and the WC, so not all is lost. Of course Hawkins did manage to reach the final of the Masters this season, so it's not been all bad. Michael Holt has had an interesting season as well. He hasn't reached the business end of any major events, but at the same time, he's won at least one match in every major event he's played in, and I'm pretty sure he is the only player in the world for whom that's true. Robert Milkins is also here, having his worst season in six years. It was unexpected to see him playing so well in his late 30s, but perhaps his best really is behind him now, as younger players such as Brecel and White are making a more serious push towards the top16, making things harder for the likes of Milkins or Mark Davis. Tian Pengfei hasn't had a major highlight this season, but he qualified for both events where consistency is the key, the World Grand Prix and this one. It's nice to see him playing well again, and the draw here is quite favourable for him. That said, the safest bet is probably still Hawkins.

Possible QF line-up:

Ben Woollaston v. Shaun Murphy
Mark Allen v. Ryan Day
Marco Fu v. Judd Trump
Ding Junhui v. Barry Hawkins


There we are. It probably won't be my favourite week of the season, but we should still see some decent snooker. :smile:

[Odrl]

Liang Wenbo is a real master of throwing frames away. Some of his pots are ridiculous, such as the red from the jaws of the yellow pocket, or that thin cut when the balls were virtually touching, but then he misses a sitter and leaves an easy clearance on for Murphy. There is no way he should be 3-1 down in this match. :smile:

I enjoyed Ding's performance earlier, looks like he will be one of the men to beat this week. :smile:

[gmoore23]

Is Hendry now part of the itv team

[thecueview]

The Cue View's Day 1 Review...

http://www.thecueview.com/2016-ladbr...-1-review.html

[scottley]

I have thought for some time that all is not well in the Selby camp...

Can i ask what you base that on?

[SnookerFan]

Is Hendry now part of the itv team

Yes he is.

[the_unrepentant]

The audiences are a little thin on the ground so far....

[scottley]

The audiences are a little thin on the ground so far....

Its reflected in the amount of posts on here too, we're well into day 2 and this is only the 15th post, a lack of big names ain't helping either, not many people stayed up to watch Dunn v McLeod last night i bet lol