The China Open starts on Monday

[SnookerFan]

Come on. Let's get some discussion going. Nobody has posted on this subforum yet.

The draw and format are up here; http://www.worldsnooker.com/staticFi...~179034,00.pdf

Anybody got any matches they are looking forward to? Anybody getting up early doors to watch it on Eurosport?

[wildJONESEYE]

Come on. Let's get some discussion going. Nobody has posted on this subforum yet.

The draw and format are up here; http://www.worldsnooker.com/staticFi...~179034,00.pdf

Anybody got any matches they are looking forward to? Anybody getting up early doors to watch it on Eurosport?

what colour chalk most players will be using?

discuss

[streamer45]

I'm looking forward to the possible 1st round Trump vs Lisowski :P

[SnookerFan]

what colour chalk most players will be using?

discuss

I am guessing it will be fluorescent pink.

[SnookerFan]

I'm looking forward to the possible 1st round Trump vs Lisowski :P

That might be good banter, hadn't it?

I'm hoping Eurosport televise Liang Wenbo vs Lu Ning. I was impressed with Lu at last year's tournament and would like to see more. Also Liang Wenbo hasn't done as much as people were predicting he would a few years back. It's not often you find yourself looking forward to the wildcard matches in China.

Also, isn't there a possibility Jimmy Robertson will play Neil Robertson? I'd like to see a battle of the Robertsons.

[Billy]

Thanks for the heads-up SnookerFan, I knew it was due, I just wasn't sure when. I'll be watching for sure, but not getting up at silly o'clock to do so. With all the highlights and constant coverage, it's not like I'll miss anything anyway

[SnookerFan]

Is it inappropriate to have a beer with the snooker, when the snooker starts at 6:30 am?

[luke-h]

judd tweeted earlier that him and lisowski are being treated like royalty already, the cars they have been given to drive woooow

[wildJONESEYE]

Is it inappropriate to have a beer with the snooker, when the snooker starts at 6:30 am?

not for you just pretend your at a nightclub with our jock mate

[Odrl]

Come on. Let's get some discussion going. Nobody has posted on this subforum yet.

The draw and format are up here; http://www.worldsnooker.com/staticFi...~179034,00.pdf

Anybody got any matches they are looking forward to? Anybody getting up early doors to watch it on Eurosport?

Do you have the week off again? :wink:


Yes, certainly looking forward to it. It's the last "snooker week" before the WC starts. :smile:

It's been a very enjoyable tournament in recent years, often featuring some of the best snooker of the season. This year it also serves as the final battle for ranking places ahead of the WC, and I'm already looking forward to seeing which quarters the various contenders get placed in.

But of course this is a fairly prestigious tournament in its own right. Seven days of snooker, the standard best-of-9 format, and some exciting prospects as early as the wildcard round. :smile:

Let's see what the draw looks like...

Quarter 1:

Peter Ebdon v. Marcus Campbell
Graeme Dott v. Marco Fu
Mark Allen v. A.McGill/H.N.Ehsan
Neil Robertson v. J.Robertson/Wang Y.

Quite a tricky start for the defending champion, as he faces a semi-finalist from the Wuxi Classic at the start of the season in Marcus Campbell. I think Ebdon has a surprisingly poor record against these very experienced old-school players, and he hasn't exactly been at the top of his game since that final in Australia. Still, I expect his form to pick up with the WC approaching, and Ebdon has been the top player in the China Open in recent years, winning two of the last four events. Dott against Fu is surely one of the top two or three prospects in the 1st round, as is usually the case with Fu in tournaments where he is a qualifier. Already a finalist in Germany this year, and he seems to have had more good runs in tournaments than normal this season. Dott has also been playing quite well, particularly in the middle part of the season, but he hasn't really challenged for any titles. I think the 2007 China Open was his best-ever tournament, in terms of how well he played, so it would be nice to see him find some inspiration again. Both of these players have had some memorable wins and losses against Ebdon, so it will be interesting to see how this part of the draw plays out.

The other quarter-finalist here should really be decided between Allen and Robertson. They've certainly had some nice battles in recent times, particularly their three matches at the Masters, with Robertson winning two of those. Robertson is one of the few top players not to have won a major title in China yet, but his days of losing in the 1st or 2nd round seem to be behind him now, with a couple of strong runs this season. I'm sure he is pleased with his recent consistency, but on the other hand, he doesn't currently hold any major titles, which is somewhat unusual for him. He let a couple of finals slip this season, not by cracking under pressure, but he didn't exactly raise his game either, after years of doing exactly that at the most crucial times. Can he build on his World Open semi-final and get the final ranking title ahead of the WC? Mark Allen on the other hand hasn't been all that consistent, going out early quite a few times, but to be fair to him, he's had his share of bad luck with running into in-form players in the early rounds. He then played a brilliant tournament at the World Open, with comfortable wins in every round, and he certainly hit top form at the business end. That's two ranking titles in China now, so I'm sure he will fancy his chances, especially if it's one of those tournaments again where there are lots of distractions from the crowd and the photographers. Looking at the qualifiers and the wildcards here, it's tough to see anyone spoiling the party. I guess McGill could be a danger, having playing alright at the PTC finals. It will also be interesting to see Jimmy Robertson again, a player who has annoyed me in the past with his refusal to play on for snookers. :smile:

Quarter 2:

Stephen Maguire v. Michael Holt
Ding Junhui v. Barry Hawkins
Stuart Bingham v. Liang W./Lu N.
John Higgins v. Robert Milkins

There always seems to be one quarter that stands out, either with some interesting pairings, or with a high number of potential contenders, and this is definitely it, on both counts. I'm not sure whether to count Maguire as the winner of the previous major event, but in any case, the curse already hit him at the PTC finals with an early exit. He comes to an event with a title to his name for the first time in a couple of years, so I'm sure his confidence will be high. On the other hand, he is now expected to put in a strong performance, so he will be under more pressure than usual. He is a former winner of this event, back in 2008, and of course last year's runner-up as well. It was his second ranking final in a short period last year, can he do it again? It's a tricky draw, Michael Holt had a recent good run in Germany, and it won't get any easier in the 2nd round. Ding against Hawkins is the match of the round for me. Hawkins has already played two great tournaments this season, winning in Australia, then looking very strong before losing in the semi-finals of the German Masters. Unfortunately for him, he is a qualifier in this event, so he has to face one of the favourites in the 1st round. I think Ding is the hardest player to predict here. He just won the PTC finals with probably the highest scoring of anyone this season, improving on his previous good form from the World Open and the Welsh Open. His previous performances in China have not been all that great, but he does have a good record in this particular event, with a couple of finals and semi-finals, and of course the win in 2005, which is still his only major title in China to date. Ding against Maguire in the 2nd round would be a good one, with Maguire having the better record there. Maguire against Hawkins wouldn't be too bad either, a repeat of the 1st round match at the WC two years ago, when Hawkins won 10-9.

I am particularly looking forward to a rare appearance by Liang Wenbo at a Chinese venue. After reaching the final of the Shanghai Masters in 2009, he's mostly gone out in final qualifying rounds, and he is not really seen as one of the top qualifiers at this point. In a way it's unfortunate that he meets one of the two best wildcards, but at least it should make for a great match. Lu Ning already has several wins over professionals to his name, including Shaun Murphy in this event last year, so he is a player I always look forward to seeing. Whoever wins will have a really tough match against Stuart Bingham though. Bingham hasn't shown any signs of slowing down this season, reaching his second ranking final in Wales recently, and further establishing himself among the top 12 or so players in the world at this point in time. He is a top performer in these overseas events, a finalist in Wuxi and the winner of two Chinese PTCs early in the season. Higgins against Milkins is another good one. They played at the World Open last season, where Milkins produced a top performance to knock Higgins out. Higgins had a dreadful middle part of the season, losing early in every event since his win in Shanghai, but he played very well at the World Open, only losing to a great Mark Allen in the semi-finals. He never used to be a Chinese specialist, but it seems to suit him this season, and with his form perhaps coming back at the right time, I think he is the man to beat in this quarter. He whitewashed Bingham in Haikou, and he's also had success against Liang in the past, although his scrappy 10-9 win at last year's WC wasn't exactly one of his best wins.

Quarter 3:

Judd Trump v. J.Lisowski/Zhou Y.
Mark Davis v. D.Poomjaeng/Zhu Y.
Matthew Stevens v. R.McLeod/Hu H.
Shaun Murphy v. Andrew Higginson

Trump against Lisowski would be an interesting one in this quarter, if Lisowski can indeed come through against the decent Zhou Yuelong. Lisowski hasn't exactly had a brilliant season in the major ranking events so far, and he has struggled to climb up the rankings. But he did play well in the PTC series, beating Selby and Trump on several occasions. In fact, he probably has a better chance of beating Trump than other top players, so I'm sure he will be happy with this draw. China has often been the place of breakthroughs for players, and it could be Lisowski's turn this week. Having said that, he hasn't impressed me at all in his previous TV appearances, not showing much fluency in scoring, and certainly not showing good nerve under pressure. He is exactly the kind of player who can get caught out in the wildcard round. Mark Davis is probably the weakest seed at the moment. He had a series of semi-final appearances at the start of the season, but has now lost at the first time of asking in the last three ranking events. His 1st round draw is not too bad, but getting past Trump will be difficult. Trump had a bit of a struggle after his win at the International Championship, but the last two standard events saw him reach a semi-final and a quarter-final, so I expect him to play a good tournament here. Having said that, he did lose to Mark Davis in Australia last season.

Murphy and Stevens find themselves in the same quarter again, quite a common scenario in recent seasons. They played as recently as the World Open, where Stevens prevailed 5-3. He seems to have got over that dreadful defeat to Murphy at the WC in 2007, recording several wins over him since. He also seems to feature in the later rounds more often than usual recently, and I expect him to be fairly strong again. Murphy played quite a strong middle part of the season, but once again failed to win a major title, so his long drought continues. Like Robertson, Murphy also hasn't won a ranking title in China yet. He's had some good runs over the years, but also some underwhelming performances, and I'm not sure he is playing well enough to really challenge for this title. Looking past Murphy and Stevens, Rory McLeod makes a rare venue appearance this season, but surely won't be considered much of a danger. Higginson's appearances are quite frequent, but he almost never finds himself at the business end of tournaments either, so it really should be between the two seeds here.

Quarter 4:

Mark Williams v. M.Joyce/Lu H.
Allister Carter v. J.Cope/Zhao X.
Ricky Walden v. Ken Doherty
Mark Selby v. Mark King

The bottom quarter is quite interesting as well, with four seeds who are all fairly recent winners of Chinese events. Mark Williams is surely one of the most disappointing players of the season so far, not even getting to play other top players these days, as he seems to go out in the 1st or 2nd round of most events. It has to be said that Williams has certainly enjoyed his share of favourable draws this season, and completely failed to take advantage. His luck ran out at the World Open, where he faced Fu in the 1st round, but it's not too bad here. I'm not sure it will make any difference though, as Williams either seems to be completely out of sorts, or he shows some form and fails to hold it for more than a frame or two. We've seen quite a bit of Joyce on TV this season, so he could possibly take advantage, but he has a tricky opponent in the wildcard round. Lu Haotian has routinely beat the Main Tour qualifiers on his previous wildcard appearances, but then understandably came up short when facing top players like Selby, Robertson or Allen. If he plays his usual stuff here, he could be a danger. Having said that, the favourite to reach the QF here surely must be Carter. He has been somewhat quiet since winning in Germany. He lost before the TV stages of the Welsh Open, withdrew from the World Open because of his health problems, but then played alright at the PTC finals. Carter against Williams has not been a particularly common pairing in recent seasons, so it would be interesting to see. But first, two more players of interest. Jamie Cope hasn't really threatened to go far in any event recently, but surely he can still reach the kind of form that has made him a danger in the past. But I'm not sure he will particularly enjoy this quarter, thinking back to the thrashing he got from Carter at the WC in 2010, or from Williams in 2011. What about Zhao Xintong? The guy beat Doherty and only just lost to Stevens at the International Championship, and recently beat Higginson 5-1 at the World Open, so he certainly deserves a mention.

The final part of the draw should see some good matches as well, not least Selby against King. They have developed a bit of a rivalry over the years, with King's couple of surprising wins over Selby. Once again, Selby can't really escape the role of the favourite, and he has dealt with it quite well this season. Having said that, he hasn't really played well recently, not featuring at the business end of the German Masters, the Welsh Open or the PTC finals. This would be a good time for his form to pick up again. I think his biggest obstacle here could be Ricky Walden, now a double winner of ranking events in China and certainly a player who usually saves his best snooker for the Far East. Doherty is not to be ruled out either, having reached a rare quarter-final at the Welsh Open recently, so he still has the ability to go through a couple of rounds, although I would expect him to struggle against an in-form Walden, and certainly Selby.

Possible QF lineup:

Peter Ebdon v. Mark Allen
Stephen Maguire v. John Higgins
Judd Trump v. Shaun Murphy
Allister Carter v. Mark Selby


Should be a great week. I will definitely be getting up in the morning to watch it. :wink:

[philip in china]

I suppose I ought to watch it! I have the advantage of being on the correct time zone of course.

[SnookerFan]

not for you just pretend your at a nightclub with our jock mate

In that case, I'd really need a drink.

[SnookerFan]

I suppose I ought to watch it! I have the advantage of being on the correct time zone of course.

Out of interest, what's the television coverage like?

[philip in china]

I don't watch much snooker. I prefer to play. In fact I don't have a TV- I dislike TV. Having said that sometimes I see coverage in a bar sometimes.

The camera techniques are not as good as you get with coverage by, for example, the BBC. Fortunately I am not treated to an English language commentary which is a plus!

[DeanH]

Philip, what are the Chinese commentators like? Any Favourites or those to avoid?