2016 World Championship discussion

[RaveDave]

Ronnie you mug. How can you lose to Bazza ffs. ANYONE winning now apart from Higgins, Selby or Hawkings would be fine with me. Except Robbo or Smurf and they are out luckily. Higgins I lost all respect for after his scandal and Selby and Bazza are incredibly boring to watch.

I always wonder with Higgins as well since that incident if he feels a bit guilty about how people think of him and maybe in his mind he thinks it is better if he doesn't win and maybe tries less? Or maybe he would throw a match? We just don't know. I don't think he would really want to win the final because of all the backlash he would get, unless his conscience is clear and I doubt that. hmm.

I hope Ding wins. Failing that, Marco or Mark.

[Chappy5]

Ronnie you mug. How can you lose to Bazza ffs. ANYONE winning now apart from Higgins, Selby or Hawkings would be fine with me. Higgins I lost all respect for after his scandal and Selby and Bazza are incredibly boring to watch.

I always wonder with Higgins as well since that incident if he feels a bit guilty about how people think of him and maybe in his mind he thinks it is better if he doesn't win and maybe tries less? Or maybe he would throw a match? We just don't know. I don't think he would really want to win the final because of all the backlash he would get, unless his conscience is clear and I doubt that. hmm.

I hope Ding wins. Failing that, Marco or Mark.

My thoughts to.

I hate Higgins and if he wins i will vomit.

Ding or Fu i would like to see win from who is left.

[Rane]

So much for my predictions. An interesting lineup for the quarter, except McManus I think they´ll all have a chance. It looks like a Higgins - Selby final again, which would be great, but I hardly would call it a surprise if it´s someone else.

I found this quote from Kyren Wilson. Looks like he has learned the lesson that Trump refuses to learn: "I’d describe myself as a battler, I can flow when I want to, and when I’m scoring heavily I’ve shown that I can reel off frame after frame. But sometimes that’s not good enough and you have to have another game to fall back on."

[throtts]

A massive congrats to the Hawk. ROS made a huge statement at the Welsh Open with his superb relaxed play and I honestly believe it was his way of sending a bullying of the head message to other players before this World championship. He knows more than any other player that this game is played within the head, they all have the technique but they do not all have the same amount of bottle. Him seeing Hawk not intimidated shocked him and then the pressure reverted back on him, big time, so the mind games just didn't work.

I for one knew Hawk wouldn't be intimidated even after The Masters drumming, he proved that against ROS in their World Final.

Posters stating its a boring WC now are having a laugh. All players left will have a good chance to win and we should not get the run away one sided victories, which, come on, are boring. Looking forward to the games ahead because there going to be mistakes, good drama and loads of pressure. Selby is going to be dangerous now, he is the Predator and will now lock in to concentration mode, imo.

[travisbickle]

Just got home to find the last person who could stop Higgins has just gone out. I'm certainly no ROS fan but a Higgins win would be a disaster. Really hope the wheels comes off when he finally faces some quality opposition. Unfortunately, Selby and Ding both look fragile and the rest of them won't be able to cope with his B game, let alone anything better.

History isn't on Higgins side. No 40+ year old has reached the final since 1988.
And with 3 of them in the top half its looking good for Ding to make the final.

[RaveDave]

A massive congrats to the Hawk. ROS made a huge statement at the Welsh Open with his superb relaxed play and I honestly believe it was his way of sending a bullying of the head message to other players before this World championship. He knows more than any other player that this game is played within the head, they all have the technique but they do not all have the same amount of bottle. Him seeing Hawk not intimidated shocked him and then the pressure reverted back on him, big time, so the mind games just didn't work.

I for one knew Hawk wouldn't be intimidated even after The Masters drumming, he proved that against ROS in their World Final.

Posters stating its a boring WC now are having a laugh. All players left will have a good chance to win and we should not get the run away one sided victories, which, come on, are boring. Looking forward to the games ahead because there going to be mistakes, good drama and loads of pressure. Selby is going to be dangerous now, he is the Predator and will now lock in to concentration mode, imo.

It is always a bit boring without Ronnie lets be honest. As cliche and boring as it sounds, Ronnie is by far and away the most watchable player.

[P.Smith]

I always get a little bit more excited about a tournament once Ronnie is out actually...

[snookerfran]

History isn't on Higgins side. No 40+ year old has reached the final since 1988.
And with 3 of them in the top half its looking good for Ding to make the final.

Yeah but no Chinese player has ever made the final... So I guess none of the top half is going through.

[shmeeko69]

History isn't on Higgins side. No 40+ year old has reached the final since 1988.
And with 3 of them in the top half its looking good for Ding to make the final.

If it's stats you're after then, here's one to cancel out the above. The last three time Higgins has reached the
Crucible QF's he's gone on and won the title.

Do I think he'll win it - NO.

[shmeeko69]

I always get a little bit more excited about a tournament once Ronnie is out actually...

There's seems to be always a love hate thing with Ronnie. Yes, most of us want him in the game and doing well, but there's the
other side of us that are glad when he's out.

[shmeeko69]

I've put a little thought in these quarterfinal matches and can't see anything but favourites going to semifinals. Higgins maybe can lose to McManus in first round but you'll rarely see him missing a chance like this, then you have Hawkins who's coming from one of the biggest victories in career to face Fu and Ding versus Williams who's, as we all know, a great player but didn't really show anything special and have tendency last couple of years to ruin great opportunities like this one. I think the closest match should be Selby - Wilson where all the pressure is on the world number one, especially now when Kyren showed that he can really stand up to pressure altrought in the end I think that Selby will go trough.

I think the most difficult match to predict is Wilson v Selby and to a lesser extent Fu v Hawkins.

[thommo335]

I'd love to see a Higgins , Selby final

So would I, then I can do something else on bank holiday Monday rather than watch these two.

[P.Smith]

Nothing would please me more than for Selby to prove absolutely everybody on this forum wrong and become a two time champion of the world. The sour grapes would be epic!

In other news, where has all the Higgins bashing on this forum come from?

[throtts]

There's seems to be always a love hate thing with Ronnie. Yes, most of us want him in the game and doing well, but there's the
other side of us that are glad when he's out.

Yes, because we don't want to see a run away victory like The Masters. Ronnie and Hawks one was so boring. The game yesterday evening was fantastic, how posters can say the tactical frames are boring is beyond me. I still did not rule out ROS in that last frame, even when he was behind by 50 odd. But the blue in off was just hit with too much screw due to pressure and adrenaline.. Wow, its so hard to pick a winner now..

[Rane]

Nothing would please me more than for Selby to prove absolutely everybody on this forum wrong and become a two time champion of the world. The sour grapes would be epic!

In other news, where has all the Higgins bashing on this forum come from?

Higgins has beaten O´Sullivan too many times, and then there are the newspaperstory in 2010? I don´t remember the exact year.