2017 World Championship - Main Event

[The Rook]

That was a thing of beauty! The Padawan conquers the master! Wonderful sportsmanship and genuine love shown for the game.

Now I want battle royal to be held in a Ding - Selby final that goes down in history and tops 18m viewers!

:snooker:

Perhaps if you ask Higgins or Maguire/Hawkins to make some amendments through deed poll, your wish might come true.

[Stony152]

Ding is easier to understand than Higgins or Maguire.

[Cue crafty]

Perhaps if you ask Higgins or Maguire/Hawkins to make some amendments through deed poll, your wish might come true.

Sorry all - it's become difficult to type after 6 pints!

[ken147]

It really doesn't! People like to think it does but I watch all matches closely and you always see one player get more run than another and quite often its them that wins at this level.

Yes some players are more lucky than others, aka Trump. This is true for all sports and when luck comes your way you should take advantage of it, just what Ding did to win the frame for the match.

[wake_up_bomb]

An interesting thing to note about the Ding-O' Sullivan match is that there were 23 breaks of at least 50 in 23 frames. The only frame that didn't have a half century was frame 17, but there were two in frame 22.

Looking back, Ronnie played that dreadful shot with the rest leaving himself a difficult black when he should have cleared up and lost the respotted black frame. That's what really cost him the match, particularly the shot with the rest where it looked a formality for him to clean up.

He also might want to think about his ranking, as he's not a world number 14. He should be way higher in the rankings than that. If you look at the other quarter-finals, Higgins has beaten Kyren Wilson easily, Selby thrashed Fu, and I haven't seen much of the Hawkins-Maguire match, but it looks pretty mediocre standard (5 fifty breaks and no centuries in the first 14 frames by comparison). If he'd played that standard against the sort of opponent he should have been playing in the quarter-finals then he would have won, probably quite easily.

[armstm]

as usual with a Ronnie defeat in the worlds I have the view that his opponent didn't outplay him but that he self-destructed. I can think of maybe the 2007 quarterfinal with Higgins where the opponent genuinely was the better player. it's self-inflicted, self-destruction in second session and once his confidence goes he never recaptures it in the same session. it is just one of those personality traits that makes him vulnerable. quarterfinals seem to be his favourite time for hitting the self-destruct button.

[Odrl]

What's happened with the tables today? That kind of red that Maguire potted a couple of minutes ago wouldn't have gone in earlier in the tournament. :smile:

[fredkite]

Well done Ding..and awesome to see Ronnie showing him the respect he deserves....great match

Well done to Ronnie there, it's obvious that he has a lot of respect for Ding.

[The Rook]

An interesting thing to note about the Ding-O' Sullivan match is that there were 23 breaks of at least 50 in 23 frames. The only frame that didn't have a half century was frame 17, but there were two in frame 22.

Looking back, Ronnie played that dreadful shot with the rest leaving himself a difficult black when he should have cleared up and lost the respotted black frame. That's what really cost him the match, particularly the shot with the rest where it looked a formality for him to clean up.

He also might want to think about his ranking, as he's not a world number 14. He should be way higher in the rankings than that. If you look at the other quarter-finals, Higgins has beaten Kyren Wilson easily, Selby thrashed Fu, and I haven't seen much of the Hawkins-Maguire match, but it looks pretty mediocre standard (5 fifty breaks and no centuries in the first 14 frames by comparison). If he'd played that standard against the sort of opponent he should have been playing in the quarter-finals then he would have won, probably quite easily.

Maybe, but I think it is fair to say that Fu and Wilson played well beneath their level. Fu's A-game is good enough to beat anyone who isn't playing their best.

[Odrl]

After all the frustration over the course of almost two full sessions, Maguire is still hanging in there, only one frame behind now. Big frame coming up. :smile:

[JimMalone]

If Hawkins wins this match we will have a pretty strong semifinal line-up also going by rankings. It would be just the third time this century (after 2002 and 2014) that all four semifinalists are among the Top 8 in the world.

[wake_up_bomb]

Maybe, but I think it is fair to say that Fu and Wilson played well beneath their level. Fu's A-game is good enough to beat anyone who isn't playing their best.

That is true, but would you rather play Fu, Wilson or Ding? Ronnie has a good record against Ding, but clearly he is the most dangerous.

[Ben04uk]

I really don't get why Thorne is still employed by BBC. He had a very mediocre career. His personal life hasn't exactly been squeeky clean. And mostly because he's just not a very good commentator. Doherty and Griffiths are also painful to listen to, but at least they were great players and have a certain standing in the snooker community.

Thorne revolutionised commentary when he started talking the viewer through what was going through the mind of the player as he was break building. Perhaps you prefer Dennis Taylor going on about how much he would like to see Ronnie O'Sullivan on Strictly Come Dancing. I really hope they use Peter Ebdon for the Semis and Final. Thorne, I'm sure, will not be. BBC's preferred pairing our Taylor + 1 and Virgo + 1

[Ben04uk]

Its funny, I bet 100% people in China want Ding to win and I'm sure 100% of people in Scotland wanted Hendry to win in the 1990's. For some reason people in England want a variety of people to win. I wonder if any Chinese snooker fans want someone else to win? I guess we'll never know.

[OmaMiesta]

Its a really important thing, especially at this level. A lot of those safety shots were poor and turned out so fortunate and put Ronnie in a lot of trouble. People will say Ronnie played poor but when you are playing an opponent who is getting these flicks and putting you in trouble its so hard to take.

Agreed, by no means did Ronnie play poor, he arguably was the better player between the two amongst the balls but it was a combination of lucky rolls and very unusually poor safety by Ronnie that made the difference in the match. Not to mention Ding was in top form and punished Ronnie every chance he got despite the match looking like it could turn any minute.