China Open 2010 - pre-Tournament Discussions!

[brendan147]

Hello guys,

I know it is still too early for this but let us look at the latest draw for top players. http://www.worldsnooker.com/china_op...aw.htm?tid=152.

Joining Peter Ebdon (the defending champion) in the 1st half of the table are the likes of Ding (home crowd favourite for sure), Robbo, Selby and Maguire. Seems to be a tough route into the semi for Ebdon in his quest to defend the title he won last year, and I'm predicting Ding/Robbo-Maguire encounter in the semi. Definitely based on his consistent perfomance into semi in last 3 events, MAGUIRE is my favourite in this group to have place in the semi.

The 2nd half of the table is very interesting. Ronnie was the first winner in this event back in 1999 and defended it again in 2000. 2 times winner Williams is expected to have a tough battle with John Higgins in the 2nd round. RONNIE is my favourite from this group into the semi and I am expecting Ronnie-Williams/Higgins semi here.

Interesting questions here which we can only tell once the tournament is begin are:-

1) Based in his perfomance in previous few events, can Ebdon defend his title?;

2) As the home crowd favourite, can Ding grab the title again as he did 5 years ago?;

3) If it is Ronnie-Higgins semi happened again, can The Rocket break the curse and win over to The Wizzard of Wishaw?; &

4) Can John Higgins win this event for the first time?

Discussion is open to all. Cheers.

[Mr P]

No offence mate, but you can't really judge the tournament yet. Anything could happen. I hope Selby wins though.

[superaussie]

robbo has a rubbish record in chinese tournaments so im not overly confident of his chances

[Mr P]

Judging a tournament before it's started is like eat a sandwich before you've made it.

[Harv]

Judging a tournament before it's started is like eat a sandwich before you've made it.

But you can, however, talk about the possible ingredients to the aforementioned sandwich.

I really don't see anything wrong with discussing the next upcoming tournament.

[Mr P]

Ok, you got me

[montoya10]

Bad draw there with a possible 2nd round matchup of Williams-Higgins. My prediction: The winner of Williams-Higgins beats Ronnie and reaches the final, where they face Stephen Maguire-Ding Junhui winner and go on to win.

Maguire has been consistently reaching the semi finals without doing much, so I expect him to start playing better, meanwhile, Ding has had a great start to the season and will be looking forward to do well in his country..

I will make a more detailed analysis later on, but let's wait for the end of the qualifiers first

[brendan147]

Judging a tournament before it's started is like eat a sandwich before you've made it.

We are not judging. Just discussing.

[adrift]

1. no . he played better than the rest last year but the rest were mainly crap
2. possibly. he's an enigma
3. yes, the line between them is so thin . Ronnie is the better player when he's in the zone but he isn't there as often as he used to be
4.yes,he can win any snooker tournament

[ore]

1) Based in his perfomance in previous few events, can Ebdon defend his title?;

Performance so far:
Shanghai R1 exit (to Liang)
GP QF to Ding (beating same Liang in R1)
UK R2 to Ronnie
Masters QF to Ronnie
Welsh R1 exit (to Barry Hawkins)

So far not as bad as I thought - bar Welsh result, all other loses seem to be at least against players who were in a good form in those tournaments, and then he got lucky to bump into Ronnie twice. Edit: He had a very unfavorable H2H against Hawkins in the Welsh.

About his chances of title defence, Ebdon is one dungerus man.
With his draw though it looks like it'd be a miracle for him to reach QF... But then, Robbo, Selby and Ding can all crash out to qualifiers, for example And then say for some reason it is Day that he meets in semis; while in other half of the draw all those good seeds (Higgi, MJW, Ronnie, Murph) lose out to King and Fu
No but seriously, I still very much believe Ebdon is a dungerous man not to be underestimated!

2) As the home crowd favourite, can Ding grab the title again as he did 5 years ago?;

Predicting that feels like throwing a dice, he seemed quite in form in Shanghai (stopped by Ronnie in QF?), then got to 2 finals, and then had 2 R1 exits...
(And people say Ronnie inconsistent?)

I have a feeling that this season he needs some time in the match/tournament to get going (eg struggled against a qualifier in the UK R1). So meeting Selby early on in R2 doesn't look favorable to him.
(Which could mean that once he sorts out how to get through the first rounds, he will be a major contender on any tournament!)

And agreed with Mr P to a degree - feels somewhat strange to discuss what's gonna happen in 2 months. Maybe Neil will decide to go back to Australia for good, and Selby gonna become a whale breeder - way easier draw at once for Ebdon.

[brendan147]

Just to inform whoever visiting this thread:-

This is a "pre-tournament" discussion. Some of us (including myself) would love to give an early thought and prediction before the tournament begin. I know it is strange since it is still too early for this, but here is the thing: If you are not yet ready to give any comment for this event, then just leave the thread for a while and come back again later.. It's that simple as I am also doing the same thing right now

Cheers...and see ya' all again. -PEACE-

[Mr P]

I didn't mean to hit a nerve with my post, infact my pist was just a little joke. Anyways, I hope Mark selby does well in this tournament!

[gettingbetter]

I don't think there is anything wrong with this post.

I don't think Ebdon will win this tournament. It has been mentioned on this forum before that he struggles against the new generation while he handles the seasoned pros better. So playing Trump in the first round will be a struggle for him no doubt.

Its too hard to say wether Ding will be able to win. You say he won this tournament 5 years ago, so I assume he won the UK 5 years ago too. Think about it. Either way though, he should be competitive. Selby on his blog said that Ding didn't do well at the Masters cause he spent the Xmas break with his family in China and probably didn't concentrate on his snooker as much.

Questions 3/4 I'll leave unanswered.

[Mal]

I don't think there is anything wrong with this post.

I don't think Ebdon will win this tournament. It has been mentioned on this forum before that he struggles against the new generation while he handles the seasoned pros better. So playing Trump in the first round will be a struggle for him no doubt.


Questions 3/4 I'll leave unanswered.

I'd disagree with that - For example Bond beat him at worlds. He didn't struggle against Trump in UK. He has beat him before - He has also beat Cope and Wenbo, but on the other hand has beat stuffed by Wenbo (but that was a very difficult time for him) The games he has lost this year (aside from once to Wenbo) have been against players who have been around for a while (although Ding is still relatively young, he has been on the tour for 7 years and Ebdon did beat him when Ding was defending UK champion and still very young) I think Ebdon enjoys taking on and beating the new breed - it is a motivation for him, but he is struggling to play his usual 110% throughout matches now, so it will be unlikely that he does well.

I'd like to see the random draw put out Ebdon against Cope/Wenbo/Walden with the winner staying in top 16 and loser not getting in - I think Ebdon would enjoy that sort of match.

As for China Open, I think Drago has a chance of getting through against Perry (who hasn't played well since first tournament) and perhaps even pose some problems against Carter or McLeod. I think McLeod may beat Carter. I fancy Mark Allen to get through against dott, then beat Maguire, and then winner of Hendry, Day, Milkins, Higginson (tough little section) and then hopefully Allen - Selby semi final. Hard so see past Ronnie in his quarter, unless King can upset him as has happened before, but Ronnie vs Williams/Higgins/Murphy/Fu semi. I'll go for Ronnie - Murphy.

[carl1]

I can't wait for the china shame its 7 weeks away, could be a great tournament with the likes of wattana and drago back, i can only pray hendry finds form and win the event but unlikely as for ebdon he is in a similar position to last year and needs a run to keep his top 16 place, i hope he does well, at least he brings something different to the table, i wouldnt like every player to be like ebdon but all the young ones seem to do is go for everything and i think that is why the likes of trump, allen and cope are not coming through faster