China Open 2010 - pre-Tournament Discussions!

[missneworleans]

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

Well but you might from what will be sandwich made dont you? and you ate those kind of sandwiches millions time before

[rich45]

Does anybody know where I can get tickets for the semis and final? An english website?

I'm working in South Korea and would love a trip over to Beijing to watch this...

Thanks!

[Mr P]

Well but you might from what will be sandwich made dont you? and you ate those kind of sandwiches millions time before

I know your from Ukraine, but could you try and put that in the best English you can?

[brendan147]

Does anybody know where I can get tickets for the semis and final? An english website?

I'm working in South Korea and would love a trip over to Beijing to watch this...

Thanks!

Wish I can help you more but one of the alternative is by going to the www.worldsnooker.com so that you can e-mail and ask them regarding this matter.

Cheers.

[ore]

I know your from Ukraine, but could you try and put that in the best English you can?

c'mon it's just "verb part" missing, pretty much a quick typo mistake, leaving the meaning clear enough anyway

Well but you might be interested in from what will be sandwich made dont you? and you ate those kind of sandwiches millions time before

[suemichelle]

Does anyone know what kind of times the matches will be played at (UK time)
I have that week off work so should be able to catch a lot of it if i arrange appointments and things around it!

[rich45]

Any more updates on tickets for this?

I've been in contact with the ticket provider who said tickets for sporting events usually only go on sale at the last minute in China. My problem is I need to book flights from Seoul, but I don't feel comfortable doing that until I have secured my final tickets.

Does anybody know the size of the venue? How fast are the tickets likely to sell out? Does anybody from China actually post on these boards?

Thanks again,

Rich :snooker:

[brendan147]

Alright...

Anymore discussion before this event begin? Spice it up guys...

[ore]

Seems like a high-time to revive this thread. Brendan, I hope you don't mind

So does anyone agree that Ebdon is a one dungerous man?

And anyone knows head-to-head between Maguire and Barry Hawkins?
In the Welsh Ebdon-Hawkins h2h was a very good indication of what can happen.

[montoya10]

Seems like a high-time to revive this thread. Brendan, I hope you don't mind

So does anyone agree that Ebdon is a one dungerous man?

And anyone knows head-to-head between Maguire and Barry Hawkins?
In the Welsh Ebdon-Hawkins h2h was a very good indication of what can happen.

I don't know the head-to-head between Maguire and the Hawk, but I totally agree that Peter Ebdon is a man-to-watch

[spike]

I hope for Ebdon's sake he doesn't peak too soon, & then for his form to desert him come the WC..

[noel]

And anyone knows head-to-head between Maguire and Barry Hawkins?

5 H2H Maguire 3 Hawkins 2*



=o)

Noel




* Thanks Phil the Power

[Odrl]

Seems like a high-time to revive this thread.

My thoughts exactly.

I'll try to answer the original questions...

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

The thing about Peter Ebdon is that you can't really assess his chances by his performance in the previous events. He finds himself in a similar position as last year, in danger of dropping out of the top16, and without many good runs in tournaments throughout the season. He usually plays one good tournament per season. His best so far this season has been the Grand Prix, where it took a very good Ding Junhui to knock him out in the QF. I think Ebdon's big tournament might be the World Championship this time. He came out of nowhere to win the China Open last season, but he peaked too early and couldn't reproduce that kind of performance in the WC. I think he'll time it better this time, but with only a couple of weeks to go, he should be somewhere near his best anyway. His draw is a bit nasty though, but I'll leave that for later.

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

The answer to this one has to be yes, he can. He finally got over his problems this season, and his early season performance up to the new year was brilliant. If he won the UK Championship, he can win this one as well. He didn't play too well in China in the last couple of years, but his performance in the Shanghai Masters was quite good, it took a pretty good Ronnie O'Sullivan to knock him out. He played very poorly after the new year, but the last event was two months ago, so everyone has a new "hand". If he can deal with the pressure, he should be one of the immediate favourites for the title.

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

That's a big if... Although looking at the draw, O'Sullivan has just about the easiest possible route to the SF, so I expect him to be there. On the other hand, Higgins has a very tricky draw. He has been reaching semi-finals with great consistency, even when the draw is against him, but this is an unpredictable event. I think there's a good chance Higgins goes out before the SF, but if he doesn't, he must be favourite at that point, whoever he plays. O'Sullivan did manage to beat him in Shanghai, so it's not that big of a "curse". We'll just have to wait and see how well they play during the week, but if they do meet, you'd have to favour Higgins.

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

Well, I suppose you could say that he has already won it. The event he won in 1999 is the predecessor of the current China Open, and he did manage to appear in two finals recently as well. So I think he can win it, of course he can, he's arguably the best player in the world. But my suspicion is that the he won't. He is the winner of the previous event, and back-to-back titles aren't all that common these days, even though the last one was two months ago. And the other thing... this isn't the title everybody is after. It's an awkward time slot. Nobody wants to peak too early before the WC, but there is still a lot of ranking points and prestige in play here. Higgins timed it perfectly last year, and if anyone can afford a little calculation, it's him.


I'd also like to take a closer look at the draw and some of the encounters we're possibly in for:

Quarter 1:

Peter Ebdon v. Judd Trump
Neil Robertson v. Mike Dunn
Ding Junhui v. Gerard Greene
Mark Selby v. Rod Lawler/Supoj Saenla

A very interesting quarter, mostly because of the four seeded players - three of this season's tournament winners and the defending champion. There are interviews with both Ebdon and Robertson where they talk about wanting to play well in this event. Ebdon is under a bit of pressure with his top16 place under threat, and he could have got an easier opponent in the 1st round. Trump could be very dangerous here. He failed to qualify for the WC, so this is basically the end of the season for him. I bet he'll be determined to end the season on a high note. On the other hand, Neil Robertson is in a great position in the rankings, and he has the luxury of being able to concentrate on becoming the World Champion this year. He doesn't really have much to lose, which could make him even more dangerous, but his record in China isn't that great. It's very difficult to commit here, but I'll go for Ebdon.

Anything other than a 2nd round match between Selby and Ding would be a big surprise. They played at the Masters, at Selby's favourite venue, where Ding was out of sorts. The home advantage is with Ding this time, but it's hard to predict who is stronger at this point. Selby could do with some ranking points, but I think he'll be stronger at the WC, while I think Ding will play a good tournament here. But it's still a close call, as it's only the 2nd round, and neither player will be fully at ease with the atmosphere and conditions by that point.

Quarter 2:

Ryan Day v. Robert Milkins/Lu Chenwei
Stephen Hendry v. Andrew Higginson/Li Yan
Mark Allen v. Graeme Dott
Stephen Maguire v. Barry Hawkins

This is perhaps a slightly weaker quarter, but interesting nonetheless. Day and Hendry are the seeded players, but they could both be in trouble in their 1st round matches. Robert Milkins is a dangerous player, which he already showed at the Grand Prix this season. He didn't qualify for the WC, but he could still push for a top32 place with a run here. Ryan Day may not be the toughest possible 1st round opponent, but he does have a pretty good record in the overseas events, so I expect him to prevail. Hendry could be vulnerable in the 1st round as well. Higginson is a tricky opponent as it is, and he also needs some ranking points to finish in the top32. But if Hendry does get through, he could get his revenge on Day in a similar way to his re-match with Walden last year. And he usually plays very well against Milkins as well.

Allen against Dott is one of the most promising 1st round ties. It was at last year's event where Dott played some of his best snooker for a long time. This is also an event he won in 2007, which was probably the last time we saw him at his best. He has a great record in overseas events, and I have a strong suspicion he'll be up for this one. But Mark Allen is a very tough opponent. He has become a pretty good big occasion player, not letting his game drop at important stages, which is a problem with a lot of other players. This match could go either way and I'm looking forward to it. Stephen Maguire is also here, as the highest ranked player. The draw opened up for him in a number of tournaments this season, and he got some good results without playing too well. It doesn't look like the best draw for him here, so he'll need to play well. But he did play some very good stuff against Williams in the Welsh Open, so he may be getting back to his best at just the right time, he just needs to play like that consistently. Maguire was the winner of this event in 2008, but Barry Hawkins probably has some good memories as well. He came very close to reaching the final in 2007, in a very interesting semi-final against Jamie Cope. Maguire against Hawkins is another one I'm looking forward to.

Quarter 3:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Mark Davis/Tian Pengfei
Mark King v. James Wattana/Au Chi Wai
Joe Perry v. Tony Drago/Shi Shuamgyang
Allister Carter v. Rory McLeod/Liu Chuang

This might be the weakest quarter as far as the seeded players are concerned, other than O'Sullivan of course, but it does have some very interesting qualifiers and wildcards. Tian Pengfei is a player that impressed me last year, beating David Gray and Marco Fu, before losing to John Higgins in a very interesting match. I always thought he should have got the wildcard for the Main Tour this season. I'm looking forward to the possibility of him playing Ronnie O'Sullivan, although Mark Davis is quite a high obstacle. Still, I'd kind of make Tian favourite against Davis, especially after the way he played in the Shanghai Masters. Mark King is traditionally a tricky opponent for O'Sullivan, and James Wattana whitewashed him in this event a couple of years ago. That may well be the last time O'Sullivan was ever whitewashed, but it has to be said that he has played much better in China in recent times. I expect O'Sullivan to come through, but it's not a certainty.

I'm also interested to see how the other two pairs work out. Tony Drago might have chance against an out-of-sorts Perry. But Perry has to regain some sort of form sooner or later. He has been known to play a strong World Championship, so I expect him to be back for that one, if not here. The other one is quite intriguing as well. First we have the most interesting of all the wildcard matches, with the very solid Rory McLeod against Liu Chuang. Liu has fallen off the radar a bit after that appearance at the WC, but he was very young at that time, and it will be interesting to see what kind of a player he is now. But in any case, the winner of that one will be the underdog against Carter.

Quarter 4:

Shaun Murphy v. Nigel Bond
Marco Fu v. Bjorn Haneveer/Yu Delu
Mark Williams v. Jamie Cope
John Higgins v. Fergal O'Brien

And finally, another very strong quarter, similar to the first one. One player I'm always looking forward to seeing again is Yu Delu. He always plays well in these events, and it's a shame he hasn't been awarded the wildcard for the Main Tour yet, especially as there were four on offer for this season. I suspect he'll get through his wildcard match again, and possibly trouble Fu as well. Fu has been absolutely awful this season, but he may be in better shape now, judging by his performance in the Championship League. Although he played well in that event just before the Welsh Open too. He could still hang on to his top16 place with good performances in the last two events, but he has another problem here, and that's Shaun Murphy. Murphy seems to like playing Fu, and he'll have a huge psychological edge after that thrashing in last year's WC. I make Murphy a pretty strong favourite to come through here.

And finally, the Higgins part of the draw... I have predicted Higgins being in trouble for a number of events in a row now, but it's only happened at the Masters. He will have it tough here though. Fergal O'Brien is a bit unpredictable, and chances are that he won't be a match for Higgins, but Williams and Cope could be very dangerous. Williams hasn't really played a bad tournament at all this year, his very worst has only been mediocre. Cope could test him in the 1st round. He has some good results in China, he even played Williams and lost, despite making a maximum in that match. As for Williams and Higgins, they played each other in Shanghai... Higgins won that one comfortably, but Williams was playing with an injury, and is much more dangerous now. I can see anyone of these three coming through here, but I suppose I'll go for Williams.

Possible QF line-up:

Peter Ebdon v. Ding Junhui
Stephen Hendry v. Stephen Maguire
Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Allister Carter
Shaun Murphy v. Mark Williams


In any case, this is one of my favourite events of the season, and I'm looking forward to it. I love early morning snooker.

And the other thing that makes it special is the wildcard round. I'm hoping to see as many matches as I can.

[Mr P]

Top post, Odrl!

I'm gonna be around to discuss this tournament on here, have been away during the massive break.