Next Player To Complete the Triple Crown

[Rane]

The "Triple Crown" thing is a pretty new innovation in snooker. They never referred to winning the 3 as that up until 3 or 4 years ago. In fact, it was always the "Big Four" majors, being those televised by the BBC. Sadly the Grand Prix is no more, although it was replaced by the World Open and moved to the Far East.

Anyway Robertson has made the big four as well.

[Where's Willie?]

Anyway Robertson has made the big four as well.

Indeed. In fact, he won the Grand Prix twice (a tournament that is missing from the CV of Selby, Murphy, Ding, Maguire and Trump) and the World Open once, when it was still a BBC tournament. So he has, in his career, won six BBC 'majors'.
Since the BBC dropped the Grand Prix/World Open in 2011 they have effectively written it out of snooker history by acting like it never existed. This is unfair on all of the players that have won what was, for at least 20 years, a very prestigious tournament and while it was clearly always behind the Worlds, UK and Masters it was without a doubt the 4th major. I remember when Mark Williams was holding all four trophies at once (a phenomenal achievement and something that, I think, had never been done before) and the BBC were constantly talking about a 'grand slam'. They never mentioned this Triple Crown thing until they dropped the Grand Prix.
The list of players who have won this career 'grand slam' is tiny: Steve Davis; Stephen Hendry; John Higgins; Mark Williams; Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson. The fact that Robertson has now added his name to this list makes him one of the all time greats in my opinion.

[Odrl]

I remember when Mark Williams was holding all four trophies at once (a phenomenal achievement and something that, I think, had never been done before)

It had been done before Williams, but it's still a pretty small club...

Hendry holds the record for most "BBC titles" in a row, having won six between the 1989 UK and the 1991 Masters. That means 1990 was the only time when anyone has won all four in the same calendar year.

Hendry is also the only player to win all four in the same season, 1995-1996, plus the previous WC, which makes it five in a row.

The other two players to hold all four titles simultaneously are Steve Davis, from the 1987 UK to the 1988 Grand Prix, and of course Williams, from the 2002 UK to the 2003 Grand Prix. Both of these were over two seasons and two calendar years.


Obviously we won't be seeing records like that again now that the Grand Prix is gone, but even holding the other three at the same time would be a great achievement for any current player, whatever the sequence. :wink:

[Where's Willie?]

Obviously we won't be seeing records like that again now that the Grand Prix is gone, but even holding the other three at the same time would be a great achievement for any current player, whatever the sequence. :wink:

Absolutely. Though perhaps in time the International Championship will come to be regarded as a 4th major along side the other three. I know World Snooker are very keen to promote it as such and in terms of ranking points and prize money it probably already is but I don't get the impression that the players view it as any more prestigious than the China Open, say, or Shanghai Masters. I guess it takes a lot of history for a tournament to be perceived that way, not just ranking points. Makes you wonder why they didn't just move the Grand Prix to China, with the format and prize money of the International Championship, but keeping the name and history of the Grand Prix.
Or did they already do that with the World Open? It's confusing because although the World Open, technically, retains the history of the Grand Prix as previous winners etc, it has a different trophy and, for me, a totally different identity. Plus, the ranking points and prize money are much lower than the International Championship.

[ADR147]

well robertson is the obvious choice because he already has two of them including the hardest to win.

and the winner is................

[Cyril]

Steve Davis also won the other tournament which was always televised by the BBC...

[Odrl]

Absolutely. Though perhaps in time the International Championship will come to be regarded as a 4th major along side the other three. I know World Snooker are very keen to promote it as such and in terms of ranking points and prize money it probably already is but I don't get the impression that the players view it as any more prestigious than the China Open, say, or Shanghai Masters. I guess it takes a lot of history for a tournament to be perceived that way, not just ranking points. Makes you wonder why they didn't just move the Grand Prix to China, with the format and prize money of the International Championship, but keeping the name and history of the Grand Prix.
Or did they already do that with the World Open? It's confusing because although the World Open, technically, retains the history of the Grand Prix as previous winners etc, it has a different trophy and, for me, a totally different identity. Plus, the ranking points and prize money are much lower than the International Championship.

I guess they realized that a tournament is more than just a name, so moving it to another country is essentially like cancelling it and starting a new one, which is what basically happened with the World Open. Some records may regard it as the successor to the Grand Prix, the wikipedia article for example, but the two tournaments don't really have much in common. I don't think World Snooker sees it as one tournament either, because Neil Robertson as the winner of the 2010 World Open wasn't seeded 1st when the tournament with the same name was staged in China the following season.

I suppose it was always the plan to have as big a tournament in China as possible, and one way to do that would be to build up the China Open which was the most established, but it was probably tied up to that unfortunate spot in the calendar. I suspect they intentionally picked a name like the "International Championship", because it doesn't really refer to any place, so it's easy to move around if the original venue doesn't work. But I quite liked the first two editions in Chengdu, with the purple colour scheme and the snooker pandas, decent crowds as well, so I hope they stick with it and let it build up its history and prestige with time. :smile: