The Welsh Open

[warren132]

as much as i am not a Ronnie fan i was very happy to see him destroy Judd and put Judd back in his place...

[montoya10]

Probably 'Ding'

Lol, that's a good call now

Ronnie is through. That's it, for the naughty snooker in Wales..

[daffie]

Reallly glad to see ROS go through to the semi's. I like his style very much...don't care much for Trump. Curious to see some of the other match that was on this afternoon...

[JohnPizzapan]

It appears the pronosticated win of Judd Trump didn't happen. Glad to see The Rocket showing him how it's done. Really looking forward to the Ronnie's next round and the other matches of course.

[palukaville]

Well thats the monkey off Ronnie's back, hes definitely playing better and his thinking isn't clouded by illness. Brill .

[LittleMissAlexa]

as much as i am not a Ronnie fan i was very happy to see him destroy Judd and put Judd back in his place...

Well Judd doesnt have too far to travel this afternoon i suppose

[Odrl]

Good match, some high-quality breakbuilding. Not surprising to see O'Sullivan playing well in that kind of scenario, as I said earlier, but I did expect Trump to prevail. It will be very interesting to see who goes through tonight. It's either going to be another O'Sullivan-Maguire or O'Sullivan-Selby, and both pairings have been very interesting in recent times. I'm sure O'Sullivan would prefer the former.

[wake_up_bomb]

I agree on that...have always found it very annoying the way he just expects everything to go his way. Point in case...the failed position on the green. Sometimes you'll just have to admit to yourself that you just cannot expect everything to go 100%. Of course you'll be dissapointed...but we all know how important it is with this game to try to get over a "bad" shot asap and think positively ahead to the next shot/frame. It's just the nature of snooker.

The thing is he will get away with it against at least 90% of players because he's such an outstanding potter, but you can't get everything, and if you're playing O' Sullivan or Higgins in particular at their best then I can't see how you can play this way and expect to win. Surely you have to play safe sometimes, especially when if you miss then the likelihood is you're going to leave your opponent a frame winning opportunity.

Having said that, I realise that he'd beaten Ronnie three times in a row, so obviously it works out sometimes!

[lennon11]

Great quality match,glad to see Ronnie win, he plays the more purest style and his break building is just sensational,always seems to be on the desired ball at the right angle.

[montoya10]

Good match, some high-quality breakbuilding. Not surprising to see O'Sullivan playing well in that kind of scenario, as I said earlier, but I did expect Trump to prevail. It will be very interesting to see who goes through tonight. It's either going to be another O'Sullivan-Maguire or O'Sullivan-Selby, and both pairings have been very interesting in recent times. I'm sure O'Sullivan would prefer the former.

Fu, Williams, Trump and now, Maguire or Selby.. A tough path on his way to the final if he makes it.

Murphy and Allen went to a decider now. Tense finish on.

[The Statman]

I think everyone likes to see aggressive players, but for me the way Trump plays is ridiculous. He literally tries to bash every single vaguely pottable ball in at 100 miles an hour. He's damned good at it, that's for sure, but surely he needs to play the odd conservative shot.

Having said all that, it is often not mentioned in commentary that, when Trump is going for one of his wild long pots, he always makes an attempt to get the cue-ball back to baulk and only takes them on when that is a possibility.

Sure, when they miss, he sometimes ends up with a red coming into baulk as well, or an unforeseeable cannon stopping the white from returning, but it is clearly always in his mind to try for a shot to nothing, otherwise he actually does play safe.

I have rarely seen complete recklessness, only usually calculated recklessness!

[montoya10]

Awesome final frame in that one! Allen trying to battle his way back..

[montoya10]

He almost succeeded. Wow. Entertaining snoooker it was.

[Odrl]

Awesome final frame in that one! Allen trying to battle his way back..

Yes, excellent decider. Murphy did so well early on, right from that initial double. If he'd just potted another red, it would have finished 15 minutes ago.

Allen played quite a few handy tactical shot towards the end. Unfortunately he'd left himself too much to do in the end. It's funny, Hendry refused to play on for any snookers against him, even though he would have had half a chance in two of the frames. I just can't understand that sort of unambitious behaviour at times.

Right, time for a short walk now, then back to the snooker in the evening.

[merlin1234]

Having said all that, it is often not mentioned in commentary that, when Trump is going for one of his wild long pots, he always makes an attempt to get the cue-ball back to baulk and only takes them on when that is a possibility.

Sure, when they miss, he sometimes ends up with a red coming into baulk as well, or an unforeseeable cannon stopping the white from returning, but it is clearly always in his mind to try for a shot to nothing, otherwise he actually does play safe.

I have rarely seen complete recklessness, only usually calculated recklessness!

Well yeah, but otoh it doesn't really matter whether you're planning a shot to nothing if you miss the pot by a mile and the balls go everywhere, which is something you see from Trump more often than with other players.

The other issue is whether by generally looking to thump the ball rather than stroking it he greatly increases his chances of a messy results should he miss the pot, though granted we might be talking about situations where hammering a deep screw is the only shot to nothing available.

Perhaps it's purely an aestheic thing, but Trump hits the ball like he got picked on at school by a gang of Arimith TPs and is eternally set on revenge.