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Originally Posted by JimMalone
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This question is a little difficult to answer, because the number of rounds and the number of players at the venue change from tournament to tournament, and of course different formats have been used down the years as well. I'm not sure about the short-format stuff, but I do remember that the 2004 UK Championship had the top8 in the world all go out before the quarter-finals. It was said at the time that it was the first time that had ever happened in a ranking event. :smile: -
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Thanks for that info. Didn't remember that 2004 UK Championship was that crazy. For any reason I always think Maguire beat O'Sullivan in the final or semifinal and not already in the second round.Originally Posted by Odrl View Post
Difficult to compare though, as the top seeds there only entered in the second round.Comment
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Yeah, I think Maguire and O'Sullivan played even before the TV stages. That was at a time when the rankings were only updated at the end of the season, so there were huge discrepancies between the official and the provisional rankings. Maguire was officially outside of the top16, but provisionally he spent most of that season battling Stephen Hendry for the second place in the rankings. Amazingly he then drew O'Sullivan in the 1st round at the Crucible, so we had a 1st round match between two top4 players in the provisional rankings, and they also happened to be the reigning World and UK Champions. O'Sullivan had played Maguire in the 1st round the previous year as well, and even then Maguire was the reigning European Open champion, so you can't say O'Sullivan has had a lot of luck with his Crucible draws. :smile:Originally Posted by JimMalone View Post
Anyway, a great win for Zhou Yuelong, although the match was very fragmented and low scoring. Gould played on for a number of snookers in three of the frames, and each time Zhou looked very uncomfortable and conceded some points. He needs to work a little on his tactics in situations like that. :smile: His second ranking quarter-final, and the first one outside of the short format. Can he go further? I'm not so sure, I think Murphy will be taking his chances against him better than Gould did today. :smile:
Mark Williams also through and the draw has opened up nicely for him. Also good to see Brecel doing well again, especially this early in the season. :smile:Comment
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I see we have the usual Bundesliga crap on Eurosport this weekend, so in a way it's good that the final is on Tuesday. :smile:Comment
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Ah well, another 5-0... Difficult conditions today, lots of kicks and big bounces. O'Sullivan is usually very good at handling that sort of thing, but even he was a little bemused early on. He played pretty well all in all, a nice total clearance to finish with. Dott on the other hand was just all over the place.
It looks like it will be a better match on the other table. Li Hang has just worked incredibly hard for a 70-something break to take a 3-1 lead at the interval, very well played from him. :smile:Comment
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Well done to Li Hang, his first major ranking quarter-final, and he had to work very hard to get there. Stevens helped a little of course, but that was no surprise. :smile:
McManus and O'Brien are still in the middle of the 6th frame in the mean time. Should reach midnight in China. :smile:Comment
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You could have bet, that this match would take a very long time...Originally Posted by Odrl View Post
Definitely a very strange line-up in the quarter-final. It's nice to see some other players having success for once, but I would have liked one or two more top-players heading into the decisive rounds of the tournament.
O'Sullivan is back in the Top 10 with todays win, where he belongs and can climb way higher during this tournament. Williams and Carter cement their Top 16 places as for now and Zhou will enter the Top 30 for the first time.
As for the quarter-finals:
Zhou - Murphy: Think Murphy will take his chances more carefully as Gould or even Selby. 5-3 to Murphy.
Carter - O'Brien/McManus: Whoever he plays, I think Carter is the favorite here and will win.
O'Sullivan - Brecel: Luca was in good form so far and he might give O'Sullivan more of a match than his opponents so far, but Ronnie will win 5-3.
Li - Williams: This is the most difficult one for me to choose a winner. I liked what I saw from Li today and I haven't seen anything from Williams at this tournament, but his results seem pretty good. So 5-4 to Williams.Comment
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Watching the O'Sullivan vs Dott match on Eurosport ( replay) just now and noticed the crowds seem very good, is it just his games or are they up in general?This is how you play darts ,MVG two nines in the same match!
https://youtu.be/yqTGtwOpHu8Comment
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I'm afraid it's mostly his games or so it seemed to me. Even at the Zhou - Selby game there were many empty seats yesterday.Originally Posted by itsnoteasy View PostComment
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I actually had the feeling the crowds were alright, certainly above average for the Chinese tournaments anyway. :smile:Comment
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It varies pretty much from what I get. Today at one match (Li vs. Stevens I think) it was filled quite good, yes. But at another one (Zhou vs. Gould) there were lots of empty seats. Could also be the other way around with the matches.Originally Posted by Odrl View PostComment
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Yeah, not at all what I expected. Only two of my eight picks have made it, and at least four quarter-finalists are complete surprises. I will go along with your predictions here, I think the higher seeds will probably get through to the semi-finals.Originally Posted by JimMalone View Post
Murphy hasn't done a lot in China over the years, but last season he showed some consistency to reach the quarter-finals in three of the four events, so it's no surprise to see him at the business end again. The draw has opened up for him as well, so this could be a good chance for him to win his first event outside of the short format in two and a half years. Zhou has rarely been in a position like this, so I think we could see some nerves from him. Usually he is pretty good under pressure, in his first match for example, he trailed 4-2 and finished with breaks of 80, 104 and 94, but against Selby he was all over the place when he had a chance to claim a big scalp. We saw how Murphy punished Maguire's mistakes today, and I suspect he will have too much for Zhou as well. They've played twice in the past, in the last two UK Championships, and Murphy won convincingly both times. Murphy to win 5-1.
Not much to say about Carter and O'Brien, we haven't seen either of them play this week, so it's complete guesswork. Obviously Carter is the better player and he is back to challenging for major titles, so he surely must be considered the favourite. O'Brien is a bit like Ebdon though, most of the time he plays mediocre stuff, but once or twice a season he shows some form and can be very tough to crack. This is his first major quarter-final in three years, so he is already having a good week, win or lose. I think it will be close, but I will go for Carter to win 5-4.
O'Sullivan-Brecel should be a good one to watch, especially as they've never played outside of the qualifiers. O'Sullivan doesn't make it to the business end of the Chinese events very often, so it's nice to see him here. The draw has opened up really nicely for him, only three other top players still in the tournament, and they just happen to be his three favourite opponents. :smile: Brecel is a pleasant surprise as well, I think he had only won one match in China in his entire career prior to this week. We haven't seen him play, so I am not sure whether he has the form to match a fairly solid O'Sullivan. Looking through the breaks made, his performances don't really stand out in any way, and his scoring seems to be a little weaker than O'Sullivan's. If you take class and experience into account as well, O'Sullivan should take it. 5-3.
A very interesting match in the bottom quarter as well. We have Williams who has progressed through the draw with ease, but we haven't actually seen him play, and we have Li Hang who has played on a TV table a couple of times, but he's had to work very hard to get through, with three 5-4 victories. I'm sure he couldn't care less though, it's the first major quarter-final of his career, and we saw how much it meant to him when he beat Stevens. He made some really nice breaks in the match, but he also broke down a few too many times for my liking, and I'm afraid Williams might punish his mistakes just like Murphy is likely to do against Zhou. Williams to win 5-3.
Definitely getting up in the morning for this. :smile:Comment
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Nothing particularly exciting this morning. The Murphy-Zhou match was quite interesting early on, with the first three frames all decided on the colours. Zhou had a chance for 3-0, threw it away, then hardly potted a ball in the remainder of the match. It was nice to see him in the quarter-finals, but lots of work is needed for him to make the next step. He certainly needs to learn how to deal with setbacks most of all, because the snooker he played after the interval was atrocious. He is still only 19 though, so lots of time to mature as a player. :smile:Comment
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Murphy going nicely , O'Sullivan not really into 2nd gear from what i've seen so far .
If they both get to the Final , will Murphy crumble .
Hopefully the Stato's on here can advise , but i don't think Murphy has a good record against O'Sullivan .Still trying to pot as many balls as i can !
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