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good to see williams winning matches, although, i don't think he played fantastic snooker. i always thought he should be on par with the likes of ronnie and higgins. for neil, i think his breakbuilding which has always been his weakness is broke down again... he said at one stage last year that he praticed so hard on breakbuilding and had improved a lot, that helped him in winning the two tournments, where he beat ronnie with series of high breaks on both occations. and i don't think murphy will win this one either, he and neil should really learn from higgins, who knows when to turn down a shot and when to take the risks to win a frame and match. to me, murphy and neil, who both are learning to play a percentage game, turned down too many shots that are well within their potting capabilities to win matches.
everyone thought ding was coming back to form after beating ronnie in the PL, but after this performance, i think it'll still take a while for him to turn around. it's a pity that he fell to a slump so early in his career, this may seriously damage his chances of becoming a great. maguire is coming back in form again i think, he played well towards the latter half of last season, and seems to continue in this tournament. it won't be long before we see him winning a tounament, if not this one.
ronnie's looking great at the moment, his form has always been good in my opinion. he's not winning tournament i thought is because he doesn't have the determination, hence the competitive drive to compete with the form players. but as i recall he didn't play badly last year at all. he lost to neil robertson who was on fire in the grand prix and welsh open, he lost to dott who was the eventual winner in china, he lost to higgins in the WC, and he lost to ding in the final of NI trophy. so it's safe to say if he's not walking out of the tournament or lossing the opening match, which seems unlikely now, he should go on to win this one or lossing to a on-form player, who should be the eventual winner. at the moment, maguire, carter, ebdon and day seem to be those on form players. but the only one who's likely to turn up in ronnie's half is ebdon, and i just don't think ronnie would want to loss to ebdon. so with the necessary determination, ronnie should at least get into the final if not win it. ps, i hope he wins!
11.30
Graeme Dott v Michael Holt
Ali Carter v Fergal O’Brien
Anthony Hamilton v Marcus Campbell
Stephen Hendry v Jamie Cope
Stephen Maguire v Paul Davies
Barry Hawkins v Rory McLeod
Not before 1.30
Ken Doherty v Mark Allen
Mark Williams v Ricky Walden
Ian McCulloch v Michael Judge
John Higgins v Nigel Bond
Ryan Day v Andrew Norman
Mark King v Tian Pengfei
Not before 3.30
Graeme Dott v Fergal O’Brien
Ali Carter v Anthony Hamilton
Michael Holt v Marcus Campbell
Stephen Hendry v Paul Davies
Stephen Maguire v Barry Hawkins
Jamie Cope v Rory McLeod
7 pm
Ken Doherty v Mark Williams
Ian McCulloch v Mark Allen
Ricky Walden v Michael Judge
John Higgins v Ryan Day
Mark King v Nigel Bond
Andrew Norman v Tian Pengfei
@Gensdon: Why the triple posting? Why not write all of it in ONE post?
I think Neil will pick himself up after this, after all it was his first experience of trying to defend a title, as opposed to chasing after one. He is now an established player, and (I hope) this is just a little dip in his form. The format is somewhat comparable to the League, with short matches, and he might've had the stress from the League at the back of his head, after doing not too well (I can be polite!). Murphy - I don't know. He looks like a dangerous man, along with Higgins and Ronnie. Maguire, Hendry and Ebond have also all been playing well, so I have high hopes for some high-quality matches when the round robin format is history. I am also pleased to see that Carter and Day are doing well, but only time will tell if they can actually get somewhere (don't want to use the 'b' word this early in the morning).
I won't be able to watch as much as I'd like today, so I'm hoping the lurkers of TSF will post updates here. At least that way I can catch up in retrospect.
From globalsnookercentre:
"We must apologise to our viewers if you have found the site and pages running slowly. This is due to an issue with our server and we are working to remedy the situation as soon as possible."
It seems to be better at the moment, but I guess not a lot of people are visiting the site right now.
Ein jedes Werkzeug ist ein Tand in eines tumben Toren Hand.
ronnie's looking great at the moment, his form has always been good in my opinion. he's not winning tournament i thought is because he doesn't have the determination, hence the competitive drive to compete with the form players. but as i recall he didn't play badly last year at all. he lost to neil robertson who was on fire in the grand prix and welsh open, he lost to dott who was the eventual winner in china, he lost to higgins in the WC, and he lost to ding in the final of NI trophy. so it's safe to say if he's not walking out of the tournament or lossing the opening match, which seems unlikely now, he should go on to win this one or lossing to a on-form player, who should be the eventual winner. at the moment, maguire, carter, ebdon and day seem to be those on form players. but the only one who's likely to turn up in ronnie's half is ebdon, and i just don't think ronnie would want to loss to ebdon. so with the necessary determination, ronnie should at least get into the final if not win it. ps, i hope he wins!
Gensdon, I can't agree completely with you here ... and I'm a Ronnie fan. Ronnie has been playing brilliantly in patches. Obviously his problem still is to sustain concentration and attention over time (a 2 frame attention span seems to be it ). On the very positive sides he has obviously been working on his tactics and has shown patience and determination. He's in fighting spirit and has been able to overcome his frustrations to continue and win the matches. Ronnie going on when he needs snookers ... that's good news (or bad news maybe if you're the one who must play him ). But Ronnie ... being Ronnie, let's take one match at a time.
Having said that I really wish he wins this one ... he needs a win in a ranker.
Wonder who will get the tv tables ? Dott will throw his toys out the pram again if he doesnt get one.
Heeheehee. He did so even WITH a telly table the last time, so we've been there, seen that.
I'm guessing Hendry v Cope (more at stake there, well for Hendry at least), hoping Maguire v Davies. Hendry needs to seriously work on his frame difference in order to bump Barry Hawkins down to 3rd place, and that seems to be possible against Cope this time around, with his frame score of -6 and no won matches. That does quite puzzle me, I thought the GP format would agree with Cope.
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