Ssb - world championship first round draw: Live

[MySockPuppet]

Here is the draw for the first round of the Betfred.com World Championship

John Higgins v Barry Hawkins

Mark King v Steve Davis

Neil Robertson v Fergal O'Brien

Marco Fu v Martin Gould

Ali Carter v Jamie Cope

Joe Perry v Michael Holt

Ding Junhui v Stuart Pettman

Shaun Murphy v Gerard Greene

Stephen Maguire v Stephen Lee

Peter Ebdon v Graeme Dott

Mark Allen v Tom Ford

Ryan Day v Mark Davis

Mark Selby v Ken Doherty

Stephen Hendry v Zhang Anda

Mark Williams v Marcus Campbell

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Liang Wenbo


More...

[jrc750]

I reckon Steve davis may have a chance there !

[goku]

some good matches lined up, ronnie and liang wenbo what a 1st round match, however........................... feel sorry for the punters who will have to sit through the ebdon and dott game, not major crowd pullers!!!!!!!

[JanieWatkins]

some good matches lined up, ronnie and liang wenbo what a 1st round match, however........................... feel sorry for the punters who will have to sit through the ebdon and dott game, not major crowd pullers!!!!!!!

That match up means that one of them definitely can't regain their Top 16 place.
There will not be enough pressure in this match!!

[dantuck_7]

Has that ever happened before? Effectively a play-off for a top-16 place?

[superaussie]

great draw for robbo

[ore]

Interesting remark in 1 of the comments from Dave's blog:

kildare cueman said...
Once again the strange practise of changing the rankings annually throws up a lopsided draw.

O Sullivan v Wenbo, and Cope v Carter is effectively pitching 4 top 16ers against each other.

Ebbo v Dott and Perry v Holt are all now outside the 16.

Why must ws make it so hard for new talent to break through and reward old war horses who hardly win a match all year and, by beating another out of form seed, receive huge points that will probably keep them in the top 16 for another year.

[ore]

great draw for robbo

only up to QF..

[dantuck_7]

Prediction thread for these has been setup here...
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ad.php?t=23463

[superaussie]

only up to QF..

he will beat higgins

[Odrl]

I'm not surprised that Liang and Zhang got O'Sullivan and Hendry. It seems the Chinese players get the high-profile players every time.

As for O'Sullivan getting Liang... For a guy with a 1/16 chance of getting the nastiest draw, he seems to get it every other year.

I would prefer a bit more balance myself. The Hendry/Selby/Williams/O'Sullivan quarter was by far the toughest even before the draw, but now they got two of the four or five best qualifiers as well. It could have been even tougher if Ricky Walden was in Zhang's place. On the other hand, some parts of the draw could have done with a bit more quality. I'd like to have seen a stronger player drawn in the Allen/Day part of the draw, as well as someone challenging near John Higgins.

Still... a couple of great 1st round prospects. The four that stand out for me are:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Liang Wenbo:

Undoubtedly the most exciting prospect of the round, the 2nd seed against the best qualifier, and a repeat of the Shanghai Masters final. I don't think Liang would be O'Sullivan's least favourite opponent. He beat Liang on his way to the title in 2008, and again in the Shanghai Masters final without much trouble. It's an opponent that suits O'Sullivan's game very well, because he leaves a lot of chances by being too attacking. But Liang can also get a bit methodical, taking his time over shots, and cleaning his cue with the towel between shots... If he accompanies that sort of approach with a bit of potting and scoring form, he has every chance to beat O'Sullivan.

Peter Ebdon v. Graeme Dott:

Gets my vote for the second most exciting prospect. It's a repeat of the 2006 final, a match that featured one of my all-time favourite sessions of snooker. I hope they can reproduce a bit of that magic here. It could also be a crucial match for both player's top16 status, depending on how things go in China. There is also a chance this could be a high quality match. We're still waiting for Ebdon to have his one good tournament this season, and we're still waiting for Dott to completely regain the kind of form that won him the World title.

Mark Selby v. Ken Doherty:

Another great prospect. It will be their third meeting this season, so it could be a bit of a grudge match. Selby looks to have an almost impossible draw in this Championship, so I bet he would have loved an easy starter. But this won't be it. Doherty is a great tactician, and pretty much immune to any mind games. It will depend on what Doherty's scoring form is like. If he's on it, he can beat anyone, but if Selby plays the way he did in last year's Championship, he must be favourite.

Ali Carter v. Jamie Cope:

This could be a good one as well... It's a bit hard to take Cope seriously after his pathetic display against O'Sullivan last month, but then I remember his match against Higgins last year. If he's back to that sort of form, he could be a very tough starter for Carter. Cope might have a chance to get into the top16 with a win here, so he'll be as determined as possible. But I still have a feeling Carter will be stronger. He's been constantly improving throughout the season, and played some good snooker in the Welsh Open. The WC seems to be his favourite event, but the 1st round might be where he at his most vulnerable. But he's a more complete player than Cope at this point in time. He can compete with anyone in a scoring exchange, and he's a better tactician than Cope. Looking forward to it...


There's a couple of other matches I'm looking forward to, Hendry-Zhang, Maguire-Lee, King-Davis, Higgins-Hawkins and Robertson-O'Brien, to name a few... But on paper, every seed is favourite in their match this year.

[matoski]

Few crackers there as allways. Magure-Lee, Ebdon-Dott, Carter-Cope and couple of others will be great matches. I can see King, Higgins and Ronnie in the second round allready.

[ore]

he will beat higgins

Nah robbo 'll have too easy R1 & R2, so will be caught out unprepared in QF

Higgins pretty likelly to defend his title, unless Murph eats some magic pukka pies for SF

[MackenzieRules]

SockPuppet

Have you got the draw in the order they came out of the hat please?

[Odrl]

SockPuppet

Have you got the draw in the order they came out of the hat please?

"SockPuppet" is not a real person you know...

Anyway, here is the order in which David Hendon updated it:

Perry - Holt and Allen - Ford (not sure which one was first because I missed the start)
Fu - Gould
Selby - Doherty
Murphy - Greene
Ding - Pettman
Hendry - Zhang
Williams - Campbell
Day - M.Davis
O'Sullivan - Liang
Maguire - Lee
Ebdon - Dott
Carter - Cope
Robertson - O'Brien
King - S.Davis
Higgins - Hawkins

Hopefully someone can confirm this.