2018 World Championship

[Mr Snooker]

Another one to Watch out for who could be World Champion is this year is Barry Hawkins, he always does well at the Crucible and as a good draw to. 1st Round Stuart Carrington, in his half of the draw with have Marco Fu, Lyu Haotian, Ding, Xiao Guodong, Anthony McGilll or Ryan Day. I can see Ryan giving Ding a good match if they both come through, because ryan beat Ding from 9-6 down in the last 32 (First round) in 2012 and went on to reach the quarter finals that year, Ryan as also played well last couple of months winning back to back tournaments and also a The Riga Masters A minor ranking event at the beginning of the season, while Barry as lost in two finals this year The Welsh Open to John Higgins and China Open to Mark Selby.

[narl]

Think ronnie could do with a refinish for his cue, grain fillers virtually gone from his chin grinding against it.

[CueAntW147]

He just needs to stop playing the occasional suicidal shot at critical points in a match and he will be triumphant ( i hope )

that's right, he's a really great potter, but he just goes for one to many risky shots and you can't pot them all the time however good you are, can't write Ronnie off just yet though as Maguire has a habit of crumbling.

[jrc750]

it's about time he stepped up on the big stage, i'd be pleased to see him win as i love his style of play ;-)

He just needs to stop playing the occasional suicidal shot at critical points in a match and he will be triumphant ( i hope )

[andy-w]

It really shows that in the first few matches, the experienced players who have got through 3 qualifying rounds and basically finished those matches 2-3 days ago, are catching the seeds stone cold. They’re confident and in form. The seeds haven’t played since China and are getting caught on the hop a wee bit.

[CueAntW147]

Might be Judd's year

it's about time he stepped up on the big stage, i'd be pleased to see him win as i love his style of play ;-)

[jrc750]

Might be Judd's year

[Stony152]

The record for fewest seeds advancing to the second round under this format is 8. It's happened twice. In 1992 and 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_W...r_Championship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_W...r_Championship

In 2012 Mark Selby (2), Shaun Murphy (5), Ding Junhui (7), Graeme Dott (9), Mark Allen (10), Martin Gould (11), Stephen Lee (12), and Stuart Bingham (16) all lost to a qualifier and John Higgins (1) barely survived 10-9. Higgins, Mark Williams (3) and Judd Trump (4) all lost in the second round. So going into the quarter-finals the highest seeds left were Neil Robertson (6) and Stephen Maguire (8)

I think that's the closest we've come to losing the top two seeds in the first round in recent years and it was definitely the year of the upset. Ronnie won as the the 14th sees. It could happen tomorrow and the way things have started, losing at least 8 seeds is definitely possible. If O'Sullivan, Fu, and Carter go on to lose we'll be half way there in the first 5 matches.

[CueAntW147]

If Ronnie goes, with Selby already gone, it opens it right up as others will think they can actually win, Judd, Wilson, Ding, Allen must fancy it now, Perry will be buzzing as well now!

[pottr]

2018 World Championship

Surely you mean Joe Perry deserved to win?

[Dark]

So Selby is gone, O'Sullivan with a hard task ahead of him, Carter unsurprisingly losing to Dott and Wilson crushing Stevens. Certainly not the opening day that was expected but Selby played horribly and deserved to lose.

[narl]

1 thing that does my nut in about commentators and its BOUND to happen at some stage in this, something vaguely funny happens and they act like its "bust out the needle and thread i need to stitch up my sides" time, Taylor usually sounds like he's on the verge of a stroke when something like that happens.

[blahblah01]

He always does at the Crucible

Hmmm an exagerated use of "always"? Lol

I'd agree had raises his game, but has been good tonight. Admittedly Carter missed a few easy ones, but it's the best I've seen Dott play for a fair while...

[Mr Snooker]

Mark Selby's place at the top of the rankings is safe, whatever happens he will still be world N0 1, even if Ronnie comes back to beat Stephen Maguire and goes on to become the World Champion, but it will be close between the two players in the rankings

Mark Selby's Points £1,315,275

Ronnie's points if he becomes world champion £1,303,250

[richiet]

Dott is playing rather well...

He always does at the Crucible