O'Sullivan V Ding

[upton]

does anyone else think the end of that match was all a bit of a joke? it sort of lost all meaning and order. i cant get my head round it. im glad ronnie won, and i feel terribly sorry for ding, but the funny thing is that i doubt o'sullivan would ever let anyone put their arm around him and try to talk him into continuing the match if he wanted to throw in the towel. bit of a hypocrit really.
anyway, i thought o'sullivan played well, but i think his win there 2 years ago was superior.
xxx

[gav_sw20]

This will have certainly given Ding a wake up call / shock. He is a very talented player and will no doubt become World Champion before the end of the decade. This is prob the best thing to have happened to him to be fair, he will now have to tighten up his game as he's learnt today that it can all be over very quickly...he says watching some tat on BBC2 about Italy

[hegeland]

It was a bit of an anticlimax, yes.

[dannyd0g]

Ding wanted to offer the match a frame early! Ironic that Ronnie took him off and told him just to give it another go after the interval. Alright for Ronnie to walk off during a match but not his opponent!!!!

Yes i thought that too. But i suppose Ronnie is able to get away with things like that easier than others might. Ding is only a Rookie.

Also the BBC were trying to cover up afterwards what ceratinly looked like Ding wanting to concede one frame early. Whose example would he be following there i wonder.

Despite all this, great to see Ronnie produce his form when it matters and win another major at last.

Was amazed to see Ding breakdown and loose it, must have been have been tough for him. Someone else said it makes you appreaciate Hendrys toughness as a young kid, for example playing Alex Higgins with a far more biased crowd than Ding faced tonight.

My word theres a lot to talk about....

[kinsang]

Mentally, Ding completely lost it, no doubt about that. I think the combination of being totally slaughtered and the partisan crowd just got to him at the end. It's a cliche, but I think he will learn from this, and hopefully in the future use a partisan crowd to make him more determined to win. I was surprised to see him virtually give up, but it just shows that he is human, and emphasises the fact that it's not easy playing in a foreign country with little grasp of the language, and at such a young age. He has unquestionable talent, he just needs guidance with things that happen off the table, and probably has little experience of 'western' life.
I have great admiration for players like Wattana, Fu and Robertson etc, who are constantly away from home and show great dedication to the game.
Imagine if tournaments were mainly based in Asia - how well would the British/Irish players cope?

[Riba]

it was great final.. Ronnie was perfect. Great game and great heart. It was so affecting when he started to console Ding...

[dansamsarah]

Whole thing ended on a sour and confused note. Could tell O'Sullivan was embarrassed really.

[c_jaen]

i missed the last 2 frames due to annying house mates..also known as my parents lol

[linghuchong]

I think we all have to come to understand that Ding is simply a 19 year old lad who's living in a foreign country. He has exceptional snooker skills and knows it himself, so when he was doing so bad during the final, I think he felt like he's not meeting the expectations of what everyone, especially China expect of him. Also, because everyone has been calling him a snooker prodigy throughout his life, to witness another snooker player completely dominating him in the game is not something easy for the likes of Ding to accept.
Moreover, the crowd did not help the situation.

Having said that, Ding was definately not in the right. A professional snooker player, no matter under any circumstances should not give up until the very last second. There were obvious signs during the 8-5 match that Ding has completely given up on the game. But the way Ronnie managed the situation showed his experience and maturity over Ding, and in a sense, Ronnie was the only one to understand how Ding feels in that given situation.
I personally think that we should not judge Ding for his actions because no one can understand what pressure he deals with at such a young age and so unexperienced, I just hope that Ding can learn from this experience and not let it happen again.

All credit to Ronnie though, a magnificient performance that was inhuman like, I don't think anyone could have handled Ronnie in that final. Let's just hope that Ronnie can continue to perform this superb form in the future.

[dino]

It is obvious that Ronnie likes Ding and respects him. He didn't give him a hug to force him to continue to play. It was more like 'son, I've been there recently, don't do it, you will regret it as I have'
I actually think Ronnie did a great thing...
as for the game itself, it was great to see Ronnie play so brilliantly, but I also feel that something was...not up to the expectations. The ceremony after in particular. I expected more mention of late Paul Hunter (R.I.P. the guy was an icon) but it all ended a bit too soon..

BTW, I am switching over to Eurosport for the next tournament, I can't stand all those BBC commentators anymore, they are too biased and irritating..anyone else has the same feeling?

[dantuck_7]

Well done Ronnie not only on tonight's display, but the sportsman like way he has handled Ding! If Ding was going to concede at the end of the session (and it seriously looked like he was going to) it was great of Ronnie to put his arm round him and give him the benefit of his experience. look how negatively Ronnie has been talked about since York. If Ding had conceded, then he could have been given the same treatment! I am not a O'Sullivan fan by any means, but i appreciate what he done for the young lad tonight.

I'd agree with what you've said above. I also thought it was good how O'Sullivan kept the cameras back from Ding as the match was ending. I don't think O'Sullivan was embarrassed by how it ended. He was playing to a very high standard and Ding was on the end of it. Ding will do this himself to a load of players and they'll have to cope with it too.

Anyone remember O'Sullivan doing the same thing to Dominic Dale in the NI Trophy (might have been the QFs).

Dan.

[Q-Tip]

Just a few random thoughts...

I was at the arena yesterday and have to say the security wasn't up to much. There were a couple of guys standing in the gangway, blocking the view, and the only official there was watching the game rather than the crowd. The men started giving abuse to fans who asked them to move. Security guards were made aware of the situation but they still didn't monitor the area & the same thing happened again. So I'm not surprised the crowd got a little too out of control tonight (although I know feelings always run high with players like Ronnie). I didn't go to the Conference centre much, but I do remember that there used to be one official per block, watching the spectators like a hawk.

But Ding has had loads of support throughout the week so I'm sure he'll have more to remember than just this one incident, if it was partly the crowd that was upsetting him.

It was touching to see Ronnie comforting Ding & looking genuinely sympathetic. I wonder what he said to him in the dressing room - 'You think you're miserable now, wait til you've been in the game ten years son'

[nickyboje]

Another sad chapter in the ongoing 'Saga' (like that one?) that is the Wembley crowd. How much worse does it have to get before something is done about the antics of the animal like behaviour of the crowd? Why does it seem that we get no other problems like this at other snooker venues apart from Wembley each and every year. Sure support Jimmy and Ronnie but save the yobbish football fan mentality in the stands of Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge where they belong, not in a snooker theatre.

[dansamsarah]

BTW, I am switching over to Eurosport for the next tournament, I can't stand all those BBC commentators anymore, they are too biased and irritating..anyone else has the same feeling?

TBH that's my preference - as much of a fan i am of JP, Davis, Willie etc. Got the balance just right.. and it's free unlike the bbc.

[kinsang]

Whatever Ronnie said, Ding was probably thinking " I appreciate what you're doing, but I haven't a clue what you're saying!!"