2017 China Open

[Odrl]

So, is Trump week continuing tomorrow morning, or will Murphy-Williams be Eurosport's choice for a change? :wink:

Judd Trump v. Hossein Vafaei: Trump has been the comfortable favourite in every match he's played this week, and he's handled that position very well. His scoring is quite reliable at the moment, so it's unlikely that he could be beaten by anything less that a very solid performance from his opponent. He hasn't really been tested yet, although Tian made a decent effort today but just left it too late. Vafaei is the only real outsider still left in the tournament, reaching his first major quarter-final outside of the short format. Statistically his performances this week haven't really stood out in any way, and without actually seeing him play, I am not really sure what to expect from him. He's already played Trump twice this season and lost comfortably both times, so I will play it safe and go for Trump to win 5-2. :smile:

Shaun Murphy v. Mark Williams: As I implied above, this is the match I would prefer to watch in the morning. We have two players who have struggled at times in the longer events in recent years, so it's a pleasant surprise to see them both at the business end this week, and one of them will be going even further. It's amazing that they haven't met at all outside of the short format since that famous semi-final in the 2010 UK Championship, a match that provided great drama and a little bit of controversy as well. Williams prevailed on that occasion, but it's Murphy who will start favourite tomorrow. Is he ready for a fight though? He's won all of his matches very comfortably so far, while Williams is more "battle-hardened" after today's comeback against Higgins. My gut feeling says that Williams could win this one, but for some reason I always call his matches wrong, so I will ignore it this time and go for Murphy to win 5-4. :smile:

Ding Junhui v. Kyren Wilson: Another interesting prospect. The last time these two played each other in China was in Shanghai 2015, and the match went down to the final ball, Wilson prevailing 5-4, then going on to win his first major title. They also played in the Masters a few months ago, and it was Ding who won fairly comfortably in an unremarkable match. This week Ding has mostly played well, scoring heavily when he was allowed to find his rhythm in matches, but today things weren't going smoothly for him and he showed some frustration. He too has avoided the top players so far, so this is his first real test. We haven't seen Wilson play at all, so it's difficult to say what kind of a challenge he is likely to present for Ding, but he is a proven winner and he seems to like playing in China. He had not won a single match at any venue in 2017 prior to this week, so it's nice to see him find some form again. I think this will be a close match, and I will go for Ding to win 5-4. :smile:

Mark Selby v. Stephen Maguire: Before the tournament I said I wasn't expecting any miracles from Maguire this time, but here he is again, only three wins away from securing that top16 spot ahead of the World Championship. But of course if he were to do it, I think the WC would be the last thing on his mind, because winning a major title would surely be way more important for a player who has suffered a pretty long title drought now. We know his top game is as good as anyone's, and he is well capable of beating Selby on the big stage. In fact, he beat him the last time they've played, and he generally has a pretty good record against him. Selby was under pressure today, on the verge of going out against Higginson, but he somehow found a way to win, as he so often does. He is very reliable in these matches and rarely puts in a disappointing performance, so I think the result will largely depend on what kind of a day Maguire is on. Once again I will play it safe and go for the obvious choice, Selby to win 5-3. :smile:

Should be a good day of snooker. :smile:

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

The red at 40 is actually unbelievable, especially when he was nowhere close to winning the frame at that point.

That red was one of the best shots I've ever seen. I presumed he was playing it in that green pocket.

Are the bags generous? That final black looked a mile wide to me.

[streamer45]

What a win for Vafaei

[Erwan_BZH]

Well, well well.......Such a huge scalp for Vafaei as he kocks out in-form Trump 5-3 ! Didn't see that one coming despite all teh talent Vafaei has.

[DeanH]

great match and a great result for Hossein Vafaei
as mentioned during the Welsh Open, I met Hossein and he is a nice chap, and is known backstage to be a powerhouse on the table and at last has had the opportunity to show it on the "big" stage.
Hope it all continues

[JimMalone]

Should be a good day of snooker. :smile:

The start was definitely great. I only managed to see the last three frames of Williams - Murphy. That was some of the best snooker I've seen Williams play in the last years though. He was potting as good as in prime and suddenly a title in Beijing that would bring him back to the Top 16 right in time for the World Championship seems realistic.

Therefore he would have to beat Hossein Vafaei next, who once again showed us his great talent and defeated Trump 5-3. Saw only the last few balls of that match. Can't even say I'm that surprised, because someday Trumps great run had to come to an end.
An intriguing semifinal definitely. The two-time world champion who tries to come back to the Top 16 against one of the most promising yongsters.

We had two surprises in the morning session and I feel that we will see at least another one in the afternoon. I see them as very possible in both matches.

[Neil Taperell]

Great result from Vafaei , out of all the players left in the tournament , i wanted him to win it .

Not many breaks in the Williams / Murphy match , a fairly low scoring affair .

[Odrl]

I was happy to see they chose Murphy-Williams as the main match this morning, although the other match turned out to be the closer affair in the end. Still, it was interesting viewing and certainly not as one sided as the scoreline suggests. Apart from the final frame, all the frames were tightly contested and came down to one or two shots in the end. Williams did indeed play well, potting some lovely balls when he needed them, but things could have gone differently had Murphy not made some unexpected mistakes when he had his own chances. :smile:

I only saw the part of Trump-Vafaei that Eurosport showed in their broadcast, which was not much. But judging from the breaks made, Vafaei must have played really well and Trump was probably not prepared for that today. He does have a habit of thrashing his opponents when they don't put him under pressure, but he suddenly didn't look as comfortable when Tian Pengfei started to play well against him yesterday, and today he was second best.

In spite of trains' advice, I watched it with the sound on again, so here is my customary complaint about Studd's commentary... He was talking about Murphy's season at the start of the match, and he said Murphy had reached four major semi-finals this season. Now, I know my personal definition of what constitutes a major event is not shared by most commentators and snooker journalists these days, but if literally every event on World Snooker's calendar is a major one, what is the point of using the word at all? Murphy has in fact reached five semi-finals this season. One was in the UK Championship, one of the most prestigious events we have. Another one was in the China Championship, a new event with great prize money and slightly longer matches, so you could call that a major as well. Then we have the "tier 2" events that have become the most common in the Hearn era, the events that start with best-of-7 matches in the early rounds, then adopt the traditional format from the quarter-finals onwards. Murphy didn't do well in any of those events. And finally, we have the events that have best-of-7 matches throughout and end with a one-session final, such as the Indian Open and the Gibraltar Open, another two events where Murphy was at least a semi-finalist. If you class even these as major events, you may as well skip the word major, because World Snooker never stages minor events according to your classification. :wink: Oh, and of course Murphy also reached the semi-finals of the Watford circus act, but that deserves its own unique description, probably one that would be censored on here. :wink:

Looking forward to both matches this afternoon, particularly Selby-Maguire. :smile:

[adebisi10]

Give us Williams - Maguire final!

[mikeyd100]

Well done young Kyren - dismantled Ding 5-1 !!!

[Odrl]

Surprisingly one sided stuff this afternoon. Wilson played really well against Ding, never looked to be under much pressure. He definitely seems to have the mental strength to win the big tournaments, he just isn't producing this sort of form consistently enough yet. The key moment of the match seemed to be Wilson's comeback in the 5th frame to take a 4-1 lead, and right at that point I was disturbed and had to step out for a minute, so I missed the most interesting part. :smile:

The other match was typical Maguire, chances in every frame, but he made too many unforced errors, and he seemed to get angry at himself pretty much straight away, which made it impossible for him to compete with Selby. For the most part Selby did very well to take advantage, making a couple of nice clearances. He only really played badly in the 4th frame, otherwise it could have been 5-0. :smile:

[Byrom]

Come on willow

[Odrl]

I am quite excited about tomorrow's matches. :smile:

Williams and Vafaei both played very well today, so I'm hoping they can keep it up tomorrow. Williams has been known to put in a poor performance once he gets to the business end of an event in recent times, even when he is the favourite to win, like he was against Ben Woollaston in the semi-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open. Vafaei is in unfamiliar territory here, appearing in his first major semi-final, so I suspect the match could be a little bit nervy.

Selby stands out among the four semi-finalists here as the only player who is consistently winning tournaments, so I think he will be under the most pressure. He does tend to deal with pressure very well though. :smile: Wilson has perhaps impressed me the most today (or should I say yesterday?), and if he can repeat the kind of performance he produced against Ding, I think he has every chance against Selby as well. He certainly won't be gifting him the kind of frames Maguire was in the previous round. Their match in the World Championship last season was quite intriguing, Selby taking a 6-0 lead at the start, but once Wilson got going he was able to get within two frames of Selby, and he matched him in every department for an extended period of the match.

I will go for experience in the first match, Williams to win 6-3, and for a surprise in the second one, Wilson to win 6-4. :smile:

[JimMalone]

I am quite excited about tomorrow's matches. :smile:

Williams and Vafaei both played very well today, so I'm hoping they can keep it up tomorrow. Williams has been known to put in a poor performance once he gets to the business end of an event in recent times, even when he is the favourite to win, like he was against Ben Woollaston in the semi-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open. Vafaei is in unfamiliar territory here, appearing in his first major semi-final, so I suspect the match could be a little bit nervy.

Selby stands out among the four semi-finalists here as the only player who is consistently winning tournaments, so I think he will be under the most pressure. He does tend to deal with pressure very well though. :smile: Wilson has perhaps impressed me the most today (or should I say yesterday?), and if he can repeat the kind of performance he produced against Ding, I think he has every chance against Selby as well. He certainly won't be gifting him the kind of frames Maguire was in the previous round. Their match in the World Championship last season was quite intriguing, Selby taking a 6-0 lead at the start, but once Wilson got going he was able to get within two frames of Selby, and he matched him in every department for an extended period of the match.

I will go for experience in the first match, Williams to win 6-3, and for a surprise in the second one, Wilson to win 6-4. :smile:

That's the final I would have also guessed. And the first part of this is near as Williams leads Vafaei 4-0. The former world number one continues where he left against Murphy, potting lovely balls.

[Odrl]

A nice win for Williams this morning. I think that 3rd frame really broke Vafaei's resolve, Williams potting a plant to the middle and clearing up from 50 behind. Vafaei wasn't really making any major mistakes, but the difference in experience did show this morning. Still, this was the best run of Vafaei's career so far, and I expect a few more like that next season. :smile: