UK Champ 2010 - SF discussion

[Odrl]

Well, I certainly wouldn't write off the likes of Murphy and Williams, at least not until we see them play tomorrow.

But yeah, Higgins looking very solid. Not many misses in the balls, although the relatively generous table did help him a bit there.

He's looked up for it all week, and whoever he plays, it promises to be a great final.

[rivercard]

That's typical Higgins for you, incredibly solid.

[montoya10]

Murphy will stand virtually no chances against Higgins, just because he is exactly the type of player that John loves to beat most.
Only Williams left to deny Higgins' dream comeback..

[zombieman]

This match was about how a snooker player deconstructs another's mind.

[Rivers]

Not too surprisign to see Higgins in the final.

It will be really hard for either Shaun or Mark to stop him.
So far we haven`t seen any impressive stuff from Williams, so we`ll see if he finds some sort of form for tomorrow`s match, it wont be Hendry or Joyce against him...

[ore]

Not too surprisign to see Higgins in the final.

It will be really hard for either Shaun or Mark to stop him.
So far we haven`t seen any impressive stuff from Williams, so we`ll see if he finds some sort of form for tomorrow`s match, it wont be Hendry or Joyce against him...

well Allen did better than I expected from him... in the 1st session.

[montoya10]

So, we come down to the final two matches and here comes the first of those: Mark Williams v Shaun Murphy.

Mark Williams has looked done and gone at times this week. He was completely out of shape against Stephen Hendry, and in his quarter-final match against Mark Joyce, his long game was almost non-existent. He never showed his top class, but still, if someone's able to turn the switch and produce the great snooker when needed, definitely Williams belongs to that league.

Shaun Murphy, on the other hand, has not been bringing his best game to table from what I've seen of him, either. Against Patrick Wallace, he upped his game to throttle away in the second session. Against Ryan Day, he looked to be on his way out, but Day
blew a great chance to ice the game and he took his chance. Then, he played a strong game against Neil Robertson. But perhaps Robertson, peaked too early in the tournament, and starting from his second session with Andrew Higginson, his performance was only standard.

Honestly, neither of these two played fabulous snooker so far, with Williams struggling a lot more with his long game, table speed and break building. But, as we all know, this is the business end of the second biggest tournament of the season, which means, both will be up for the task from the start.

I'm not going to test my prophecy skills and wait until we get a first look at how they cope with the pressure in the first session.

But I'm sure, it's going to be a fierce clash for the final spot

[very.tee]

Don't be a pain, montoya10

You always have to contradict the dream team

I want an Allen Vs Williams final and I'm sure the legendary very.tee would agree with me

And you can't just sit on the fence, you have to pick a side... Grrrr

So...

Come On Mark Allen!!!:snooker:

"Legendary" eh??? Quite right you are Looks like you've been having some fun

And don't worry about montoya, he won't be contradicting the mighty Dream Team today!

Come On Mark J.!!!:snooker:

(It's also a shame Mark Allen lost yesterday... I really wanted him to win It was always going to be a tall order though )

[Skypigeon]

I don't understand you guys..most of you seem to really dislike John and try to discredit his game refering to pure luck..you should be ashamed of yourselves...he's one of the top players in snooker of all times!! Not many can do what he is capable of. You really should respect the man and his fabulous game!

[Odrl]

Yes, I'm looking forward to this one.

I quickly looked through the tournaments of recent years to see if there were any matches I'd forgotten, but I think they only played each other twice in the last few years. This year's Masters is still very fresh in my memory, of course. Williams won that one 6-4, a high quality match, especially the last couple of frames where Murphy was coming back at him. The other match was in the 2nd round of the 2008 Welsh Open, with Murphy winning 5-2. But I think that one is less relevant, as Williams was not playing as consistently well as he is now in that period. So, only one big match between them, but nothing over multiple sessions.

I'm not sure there is anything to add to montoya10's thoughts really... I suppose Murphy had a pretty good draw for the first two rounds. He wasn't really tested against Wallace, played another qualifier in Day and almost went out there, but Day bottled it and Murphy didn't. However, his win against Robertson does make me think he could win this title. It was a pretty high scoring game where Murphy was in the lead for most of the match, until Robertson finally failed to match him towards the end. It's tough to win any of these televised ranking events if you're not scoring heavily in most of your chances, but I think Murphy is close to doing that. Also, at this stage of the tournament, when Murphy has a couple of matches behind him, it takes a lot to stop him.

I suppose you could say the same for Williams, but he is far from having played his best snooker to get here. He won against Mark Davis with a very convincing scoreline, but since that match wasn't televised, how well he played will remain a mystery. In the 2nd round, Hendry was a non-opponent, so the fairly close scoreline doesn't exactly speak in Williams' favour there. As for the QF match against Joyce, Williams was always going to have a huge advantage in experience, even if he wasn't the better player as far as form was concerned. But from what I've seen, he upped his game a bit there, so he may be approaching the potting and scoring form needed for him to match Murphy.

There is not much to analyze as far as the "clash of styles" is concerned. I don't think either player has any weaknesses for the other to exploit. Murphy does go for a lot of shots, but he doesn't give unnecessary chances away, and he gets a high percentage anyway. He is pretty immune to grinding, doesn't lose composure towards the end of matches, and doesn't crack under the pressure of scoring exchanges either. I think Williams plays a "riskier" game, but he is smart enough to keep it tight if it's not going for him. When he is playing well, he loves the open scoring game, but I think Murphy is the stronger of the two at the moment. In the couple of great matches where Williams lost to O'Sullivan in recent years, I thought he should have forced a scrappier game the way Selby does, but he kept it open. I wonder if he'll do the same today...

Bring it on.

[montoya10]

Nice post, Odrl

Well said, this is a match I'm really looking forward to. And while whether Williams will try to grind out a victory or make it a heavy-scoring duel is a mystery until the match begins, I have a feeling that, overall, this is going to be a mixture of tactical frames and quick ones.
Especially considering Williams was playing at A+ in that WC game against Ronnie back then. He didn't need to dig deep, but today, he will, probably..

[iksotam]

I don't understand you guys..most of you seem to really dislike John and try to discredit his game refering to pure luck..you should be ashamed of yourselves...he's one of the top players in snooker of all times!! Not many can do what he is capable of. You really should respect the man and his fabulous game!

You couldn't tell them better Skypigeon. Many members here just can't appreciate first class snooker unfortunately.
I'll just remind them what Steve Davies had said about John:
"I love to play against John Higgins because he is one of the few who play the game in a right way"

[cue1]

I don't understand you guys..most of you seem to really dislike John and try to discredit his game refering to pure luck..you should be ashamed of yourselves...he's one of the top players in snooker of all times!! Not many can do what he is capable of. You really should respect the man and his fabulous game!

Having read the whole thread again, there was only ONE member saying that higgins was lucky/fortunate... I don't see anything wrong with that, you always get an extra bit of luck when you're playing well, that's just the way it goes, no?

As for disliking him, well each to their own I suppose! I haven't, however, seen anyone showing disrespect on this thread irrespective of people's mixed feelings about him... He's a great player, yes... Everyone's favourite, no!!!

If people, including myself, wanted to support Mark Allen it doesn't mean disrespecting or discrediting higgins in anyway...

You said it yourself: "Not many can do what he is capable of."

Chill out, Sky & enjoy his run to the final and his potential win :snooker:

You couldn't tell them better Skypigeon. Many members here just can't appreciate first class snooker unfortunately.
I'll just remind them what Steve Davies had said about John:
"I love to play against John Higgins because he is one of the few who play the game in a right way"

Please don't generalize... I'm sure everyone appreciates his game but that doesn't mean everyone has to support him! You (not literally you) may not like Ronnie but you certainly appreciate his game! The same goes for higgins... :snooker:

[highlander69]

Sorry if it's been asked before but what's the music that Mark enters the Arena to?
Would love a Williams/Higgins final!!!

[Hal]

Two fantastic plants by MJW, hopefully he will win