World Championship 2009 - SF discussion!

[Ekphantos]

This match is one of the all time classics, no matter what the outcome is.

Well, don't think so, first one player misses a lot, then the other... I prefer real battles.

[RGCirencester]

Whats higgins doing now???

[Matt_2745]

Oh dear, a tale of two sitters missed here and John is there. Not the best standard but I enjoyed it all the same.

[RGCirencester]

Do you think Higgins will just shake it off and be happy he won or will it effect his performance in the final?

[rivercard]

If there is one weakness Higgins has is that he can't beat opponents heavily when he really should. To let Allen back from 13-3 to 17-13 is very poor no matter how good Allen played, and I think John is now only second favourite in the final no matter who he will play against.

[Matt_2745]

I think he'll be ok, when you have such a big lead it's easy to take your mind off the situation. Indeed he just said in the studio that during last night's session he was already planning about how he'd watch the Celtic/Aberdeen game this afternoon and lost focus!

Against Murphy/Robertson though he will know what he has to do and I'd expect him to start off focused. Also the way the other match is going, if it is Murphy who comes through then so far he's hardly killed off Robertson as early as he perhaps could and might be feeling the same emotions. Time will tel on that.

[very.tee]

I think Mark Allen did really well to get himself back into the match at 13-3 down, although there were a few balls he should have perhaps potted today (red for 15-13, blue for 16-14) his performances during this tournament have made me really respect and like Mark Allen as a player. So good luck Mark for next year.

And good luck John too, my favourite for the final.

[rivercard]

I think he'll be ok, when you have such a big lead it's easy to take your mind off the situation. Indeed he just said in the studio that during last night's session he was already planning about how he'd watch the Celtic/Aberdeen game this afternoon and lost focus!

Against Murphy/Robertson though he will know what he has to do and I'd expect him to start off focused. Also the way the other match is going, if it is Murphy who comes through then so far he's hardly killed off Robertson as early as he perhaps could and might be feeling the same emotions. Time will tel on that.

The thing is, that if this final session had started from 12-12 John probably still would have won. He did this before against Selby in the final, so he should have learned from that. Murphy let it slip from 14-7 to 14-10, while Higgins' 10 frame advantage has been reduced to 3 frames at one point, so it's not really the same. I think Murphy is a lot more ruthless than John, one can feel that he wants to beat his opponent as heavily as possible. I think it will be a close final regardless, but John's confidence has been damaged in session 3 and 4, and he wasn't really jumping around from joy at the end of the match.

Hopefully Neil can make some sort of a comeback tonight to make it exciting, but Murphy is the clear favourite at the moment.

[Matt_2745]

Oh I'm not saying it's the same yet, but it could turn out that way. We'll just have to see how tonight goes. If Neil can get it to 15-13 at the break then the pressure will be right on Murphy.

[Matt_2745]

Well he's started well, 14-11...

[spike]

Just the start he needed..

[mushka]

14-12! Me likes this. Me likes this bery much.

Edit: Well, not officially, yet. Technicalities.

[Matt_2745]

Worrying times indeed for Mr Murphy.

[rivercard]

It's certainly starting to look interesting now, Neil is grinding it out at the moment with very good safeties.

[matoski]

Yes, after the thrilling afternoon session, this looks like a great evening session in prospect. Go Shaun!!!