2017 Shanghai Masters

[Ramon]

You'd expect Trump to go through Lisowski tomorrow. No idea how Higgins/ROS will go, but I think Trump would rather play ROS in the final for style reasons.

They are all top players .
But i'm gonna put my money on Ronnie .

[Odrl]

Should be a good day of snooker.

Lisowski is the outsider of the four, by far the lowest-ranked player still left in the tournament, and appearing in his first major ranking semi-final. The plus for him is that he is playing Trump, because he has quite a respectable record against him. His 5-3 win over Trump in the 2013 China Open was probably the best he has ever played on TV, and he went on to reach the quarter-finals in that event, which was a first for him at the time. He also beat Trump in the English Open last month, so clearly he has no fear of playing him. On the other hand, Trump hasn't lost a frame in this event yet, and I think it's less likely for him to lose to Lisowski in the semi-finals than it would be in the early stages of an event. The title is within reach for him, so I expect he will be fully motivated and concentrated, and quality should prevail in the end. Trump to win 6-2.

Looking forward to Higgins-O'Sullivan in the afternoon. :smile: This is O'Sullivan's first ranking semi-final in China since he won this event eight years ago, so it was a long time coming. His comments about how China is his favourite place in the world are a little cringeworthy though. :wink: Anyway, he has played pretty well so far this week, though it has to be said that his last three opponents were really out of sorts against him. Higgins played very well in his match against Zhou Yuelong, but unfortunately his matches against Liang and Gould weren't televised. They've both dropped very few frames this week, so this could be a good game between them. Higgins has had the upper hand against O'Sullivan during the time I've been closely following snooker, although O'Sullivan has reversed the trend a little this season with three wins over Higgins in a row. O'Sullivan to win 6-4.

[richiet]

Trump 22 frames on the spin before finally losing one to Lisowski. 2-1

[travisbickle]

Trump 22 frames on the spin before finally losing one to Lisowski. 2-1

Does anyone know if this is a record?

[the lone wolf]

That blue potted by Ronnie was a different grade...

[Ronnie's tip]

If Higgins wins this match, it can be argued that it's two tournaments in a row ROS' final match was turned around based on going into the pack and fouling by potting the wrong color lol. He'll be having nightmares. Still early days though. 3-2, but should be 4-1.

[richiet]

Why do you often see Chinese/Japanese people wear those face masks that surgeons wear? There are a couple in the audience today. Is the air particularly polluted there, or are they more prone to catching illnesses or something? Or just paranoid.

[gavpowell]

Why do you often see Chinese/Japanese people wear those face masks that surgeons wear? There are a couple in the audience today. Is the air particularly polluted there, or are they more prone to catching illnesses or something? Or just paranoid.

The air in China can be notoriously polluted, and also there's a culture of courtesy to others - if you think you might be carrying a cold or some such, you wear a mask to avoid spreading it to others.

[jonny66]

Looks like an O'Sullivan v Trump final then.

[Ronnie's tip]

Should be great. Hope ROS wins, though 5 losses in the last 7 finals doesn't fill me with too much confidence.

Higgins looked well off today.

[Masterdoctorgenius]

Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Ronnie.

10-4 Ronnie tomorrow I feel.

[Billy]

I can't believe these idiots at Eurosport sometimes, yet again they went to commercials on a re-spotted black. It was lucky for them that it only lasted 10 seconds, so they were able to show it in full and pretend like nothing happened. :wink:

You should watch it on Quest. When the next frame is due to start they split the screen if the adverts are still running. Mind you, that probably wouldn't have helped in this case.

[Odrl]

You should watch it on Quest. When the next frame is due to start they split the screen if the adverts are still running. Mind you, that probably wouldn't have helped in this case.

We don't have Quest over here, unfortunately. :smile:

Anyway, I expected a little better from both semi-finals today. Trump was probably my favourite for the title ahead of the semi-finals, but even he didn't produce anything particularly special today. The 5-0 wins he had earlier in the week look impressive on paper, but he actually said that they were mostly down to his opponents giving him easy chances, rather than any great form of his own. As for O'Sullivan, he did what he had to do in his run to the final, but it has to be said that his last four opponents were incredibly out of sorts against him.

It will be interesting to see what the final is like. They've had some really good ones in recent years, full of high breaks and attacking snooker, but I suspect tomorrow will be a scrappier game that will test the patience of both players. O'Sullivan has been surprisingly good in that regard recently, and I think Trump has improved a lot as well. Trump won the last two finals between them, so he has a slight edge here perhaps. He lost the 2012 and 2015 Shanghai Masters finals 10-9, so I am sure he will be especially motivated tomorrow. As will O'Sullivan, who has a chance to win his first ranking title outside of the short format in almost three years.

Just a little bit of trivia for you... If Trump wins 10-0 tomorrow, I think he will have lost the fewest frames of any winner of a major ranking event in history. I think Hendry's six in the 1993 Dubai Classic is the current record, and he had the advantage of only coming in at the last32 stage, so Trump had to play an additional two matches here. O'Sullivan would tie the record if he won 10-0. :smile: I don't think either will come close, to be honest, but I do have the feeling that Trump will win with a few frames to spare in the end. Trump to win 10-7. :smile:

[Ramon]

Those matches between Ronnie O'Sullivan & John Higgins are always special.
Two legends, won a total of 17, Million pounds between them during their career. These are matches worth to take a day off your work, imo.

Interesting final tomorrow. 2 attacking players and hopefully we gonna get sum fireworks on the green baize.

Gonna put my money on Ronnie the magician, again as i did for the previous match.:snooker:

[Odrl]

If someone has too much time on their hands, it would be interesting to know the last time that a best-of-9 event had so many whitewashes at the venue stage. I suspect the number this week is among the all-time high. :smile:

I've had a little look, and the problem is that we've had all kinds of formats down the years, with vastly different numbers of players at the venue stage of events, so it's difficult to compare them. Starting with the 2013/2014 season, the trend has been to take 64 players to the venue, so the average number of whitewashes is understandably higher than it was in previous years.

We've had 23 best-of-9 ranking events in this time, and even if we exclude the wildcard rounds and qualifying matches that were held over, there has been at least one whitewash in every single event. To get a fairer comparison, we should then probably exclude the seven events that were played under the old tiered system, which meant there only 32 players at the venue. The German Masters started with the last32 round on three occasions in this time as well, and of course the Players Championship last season only had 16 players. That leaves 12 events that had 64 players at the venue. Among those, the 2014 World Open had the fewest whitewashes with 4, and the 2017 China Open had the most with 8. Until this week anyway... We've had 15 so far this week, which means the recent record has been well and truly smashed. :smile: