World Championship 2009 - SF discussion!

[The Boss]

Even an 80% Jan Verhaas is better than the other referees

[spike]

Well done Mark!
Just win the next 2 now.

[The Boss]

Well done Mark!
Just win the next 3 now.

Two frames left in the session

[spike]

Another poor break-off from Mark!

[gettingbetter]

Is there another session tonight? John needs a break with the two deciders he's had to play.

[Mal]

Well, looking like 13-3 now so chances are John will get a full days break tomorrow. Even if it does catch up with him and he has a poor session tonight - i.e. loses 6-2 he'd still be 15-9 up.

I can only assume that Mark wants to have the most spectacular comeback imaginable.

[spike]

Oh well i look forward to the comeback from Mark tonight.

[Mal]

Oh well i look forward to the comeback from Mark tonight.

Yes, it'll be great to watch - he'll only win the session 6-2, not 8-0 as that will still keep it spectacular tomorrow afternoon from 15-9 down just like Doherty in 2003!

[dantuck_7]

These are the stats so far...looks ominous.

[rivercard]

Higgins rarely wins matches by huge margins, so a comeback is not unlikely (Selby did it in the final after 12-4), but at this point Mark will do well to get to 10, maybe 12.

[cueman]

Even an 80% Jan Verhaas is better than the other referees

Yeah, knows what the players want, realises he isn't as important as the players, are you listening Chamberlain? The re-rack this morning was a situation where Chamberlain would not have allowed it, probably would have gone on another 5 minutes only adding to frustrating the players, Verhaas looks over says re-rack, players say yes and we get on with the game.

Verhaas has moved forward in the game, Chamberlain is still stuck in the 80's enforcing rules that need not be taken to the absolute limit.

[spike]

Higgins rarely wins matches by huge margins, so a comeback is not unlikely (Selby did it in the final after 12-4), but at this point Mark will do well to get to 10, maybe 12.

I said it in jest....mark will do well to win 3 frames tonight if Higgins plays to the very high standard he produced this morning.

[Mal]

These are the stats so far...looks ominous.

The three percentage stats for John are very impressive and when you put them all together he'd be winning against anyone. Aside from long potting which has still been good for Mark his others stats are very poor.

Only thing I would say is that Mark had chances in a couple of those frames and all of the first four of the first session he could have won. Even if he had won three of the first four, I think we'd have a completely different match and probably would still be close as Mark would have had more confidence and more clinical when he did have his chances. Mark never recovered.

[João]

1337 balls potted by Higgins.

[Mal]

1337 points actually