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Ssb - alex higgins trophy underway
After a day of amateur qualifying, the televised phase of the Alex Higgins Trophy - PTC8 - gets underway today.
The first TV match is Mark Williams v James Wattana followed by John Higgins against Ian Burns and Ronnie O'Sullivan v Aditya Mehta.
The TV element makes these PTCs slightly harder to predict than those played behind closed doors, albeit with streaming.
Mark Selby won the first televised PTC earlier this season and Neil Robertson the second.
It is likely another established name will win this one, though who that will be is anyone's guess.
Perhaps it will be O'Sullivan. He has already captured two PTCs this season and, though he described them as 'pointless' on Twitter yesterday, they do of course carry points that will help boost his ranking.
I suspect Alex Higgins would have approved if O'Sullivan won the first title bearing his name. I remember Ronnie winning the Irish Masters in Dublin one year and Alex going out into the arena to congratulate him.
They are cut from the same cloth, snooker wise: entertainers with vivid back stories. Box office, in short.
Good luck to all involved. Killarney is a picturesque setting, although arenas look much the same to TV audiences wherever tournaments are staged.
Here is the Eurosport schedule.
More...
The first TV match is Mark Williams v James Wattana followed by John Higgins against Ian Burns and Ronnie O'Sullivan v Aditya Mehta.
The TV element makes these PTCs slightly harder to predict than those played behind closed doors, albeit with streaming.
Mark Selby won the first televised PTC earlier this season and Neil Robertson the second.
It is likely another established name will win this one, though who that will be is anyone's guess.
Perhaps it will be O'Sullivan. He has already captured two PTCs this season and, though he described them as 'pointless' on Twitter yesterday, they do of course carry points that will help boost his ranking.
I suspect Alex Higgins would have approved if O'Sullivan won the first title bearing his name. I remember Ronnie winning the Irish Masters in Dublin one year and Alex going out into the arena to congratulate him.
They are cut from the same cloth, snooker wise: entertainers with vivid back stories. Box office, in short.
Good luck to all involved. Killarney is a picturesque setting, although arenas look much the same to TV audiences wherever tournaments are staged.
Here is the Eurosport schedule.
More...
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