European Masters 2017

[SnookerFan]

Just looking at Mark Williams vs Neil Robertson's head to head.

They've played lot in Championship League matches.

http://cuetracker.net/head-to-head/m...neil-robertson

[SnookerFan]

Wow. I've just noticed Billy Joe Castle's name in the draw. That's a good run for him, let's hope it continues.

[JimMalone]

Williams wins 4-2 against Robertson in an interesting match and should have a good chance in his quarterfinal against either Cao Yupeng or Billy Joe Castle.

[SnookerFan]

I want Castle to win.

[Kargetina]

I wasn't going to post this if Selby lost as i don't want to seem like a sour fan but i'm really not a fan of best of 7 in Ranking events once we're unto the last 16 and further. You make one mistake, your opponent has a good frame and suddenly you're 2:0 down and you have to win 4 of the next 5 frames.

There's a reason why Selby, Ronnie and Higgins have won 9 out of the last 11 World Championships. The class will rise to the top when tactics, skills and mental toughness are necessary. I feel these best-of-7 require neither tactics, patience nor mental toughness unless a decider is played.

Can you imagine if Mayweather was to box only 3 or 4 round fights...he would most certainly not be undefeated. There have been many fights where he was outboxed in the early rounds, but then he figured out his opponent and his superior skills and tactics prevailed.

We have two excellent 1/4 final matches tomorrow, Allen vs Trump, and Selby-Bingham and they could be over in an hour.

[Ethanat]

Boy am I glad Brecel is out. There's just something about his game that I don't like but can't put my finger on it. And Selby survived another decider.

[DeanH]

And Selby survived another decider.

He did have to use his usual tactic of slowing the game down by looking at a shot and around the table five times before going down and only to pop back up again, to put Lisowski off his stride

[JimMalone]

He did have to use his usual tactic of slowing the game down by looking at a shot and around the table five times before going down and only to pop back up again, to put Lisowski off his stride

It was a little surprising to me that Lisowski decided to unscramble that situation in the decider. Even though it was probably the best shot at that moment, but still with being 26 points back I would have thought he wouldn't mind a re-rack.
Jack is a player who I'd really like to have more success, but sadly with his very aggressive attitude I can't see it. Not in longer matches at least. You won't pot everything there and give your opponent to much chances. Would have nice to have him seen another quarterfinal here. Still I hope he will find a bit more consistency in his game this season.

[PatBlock]

He did have to use his usual tactic of slowing the game down by looking at a shot and around the table five times before going down and only to pop back up again, to put Lisowski off his stride

If you're so weak minded that your opponent's cogitation puts you off your stride, then you deserve lose.

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[DeanH]

If you're so weak minded that your opponent's cogitation puts you off your stride, then you deserve lose.

And I do think that is how Selby has won some of his matches, we have seen it many times
As we know snooker can be a cruel game - in the head - if your head is not "there" it can destroy whatever flow you may have and can be difficult to get the flow back within a match, and these short formats don't help with this regard.
I am sure this aspect is not something a player "practises" much (if at all) how to get the flow back, like the commentators sometimes say "he needs to pot his way back into the game" - to me this sometimes means for the player to do what they best (and practised and practised ad nauseam) and that is to get a pot or two and tis will bring back their flow
Lisowski last night tried but could not and when in this feeling errors occur with judgement and shot-choice, etc.

Look at ROS when he walked out on Hendry, and when he folded under Ebdon assaults to his flow; in the end he had to pay the (very expensive) services of Peters to get his head around this behaviour of the opponent (I know Hendry situation was different but related still ).

[Dave Walton]

And Selby survived another decider.

He did have to use his usual tactic of slowing the game down by looking at a shot and around the table five times before going down and only to pop back up again, to put Lisowski off his stride

Selby all over. Gamesmanship, he knows exactly what he's doing and it's wrong, he'll use every underhanded trick he can to annoy and put off his opponent.

[JimMalone]

If you're so weak minded that your opponent's cogitation puts you off your stride, then you deserve lose.

-

Totally agree with this.

[JimMalone]

Nice comeback by Mark Allen. 3-0 down, now it's 3-3.

[the lone wolf]

Is it me or are the TV table pockets playing generously?
I hope this is just a one off - much prefer to watch snooker on the tougher tables.... :snooker:

[JimMalone]

I wasn't going to post this if Selby lost as i don't want to seem like a sour fan but i'm really not a fan of best of 7 in Ranking events once we're unto the last 16 and further. You make one mistake, your opponent has a good frame and suddenly you're 2:0 down and you have to win 4 of the next 5 frames.

There's a reason why Selby, Ronnie and Higgins have won 9 out of the last 11 World Championships. The class will rise to the top when tactics, skills and mental toughness are necessary. I feel these best-of-7 require neither tactics, patience nor mental toughness unless a decider is played.

Can you imagine if Mayweather was to box only 3 or 4 round fights...he would most certainly not be undefeated. There have been many fights where he was outboxed in the early rounds, but then he figured out his opponent and his superior skills and tactics prevailed.

We have two excellent 1/4 final matches tomorrow, Allen vs Trump, and Selby-Bingham and they could be over in an hour.

It's undoubtly true that Best-of-7 is to short. I think at least the quarterfinals should already be Best-of-9 and of course this should also vary with the prestige, importance and reward of ranking tournaments (the more points and money a tournament is worth the more frames should be needed to win a match and the later rounds should always request a higher amount of needed frames to win than the earlier rounds), but this isn't a new issue and me and some others have lamented this before.