Snooker World Championship 2016

[Yurgon]

Now shame on all of you who forgot to set up a corresponding thread last year. :D

 

Seems like I have to jump in again and promote this wonderful sport. ;)

 

It's day 4 of the 2016 Snooker World Championship and there have already been a few interesting developments so far.

 

• Defending Champion Stuart Bingham is out already, having lost 9v10 against Ali Carter.
  
• John Higgins seems to be in great shape, he beat Ryan Day 10v3 just this afternoon, playing 4 centuries during the match. He'll have to face Ricky Walden next, who won 10v8 against Robbie Williams (not the singer, obviously).
  
• Mark Williams was surprisingly strong against Graeme Dott (10v4).
  
• Sam Baird, in his second Crucible appearance, reached round 2 with a strong 10v7 over Michael White, but will have to face 2014 champion Mark Selby next.
  
• Ronny O'Sullivan won 10v7 against David Gilbert, we'll have to see how he'll do against Barry Hawkins or Zhang Anda in the next round.
  
• After the first session, Neil Robertson is behind Michael Holt 3v6.
  
• The strongest victory in round 1 so far was Marco Fu against Peter Ebdon 10v2. Fu faces Anthony McGill in the next round, who won over 2005 champion Shaun Murphy 10v8.
  

[Aginor]

Yeah, Snooker is cool. I just watched the rest of the Robertson/Holt Match.

 

And poor Peter Ebdon. I like his style of play (which often reminds me of my all-time favourites Steve Davies and Stephen Hendry), but he had a really bad day.

 

I also watched the first session of Zhang vs. Hawkins. Zhang looked quite strong but by the end of the session Hawkins leads 3-6. We'll see how the rest of the match will look like. :)

[Yurgon]

And poor Peter Ebdon. I like his style of play (which often reminds me of my all-time favourites Steve Davies and Stephen Hendry), but he had a really bad day.

 

I missed the match, only saw the results later on. But yeah, I like Peter Ebdon as well, his semi-final against Fu in the 2006 world championship was pretty epic (oh my, was that really 10 years ago already?).

 

On a side note, it's Steve Davis. Steve *Davies* is an author and probably spends more time on this forum than at the Snooker table (although I might be wrong about the latter, don't know that much about him). :D

 

Anyway, back to topic, of the 9 former champions partaking in the tournament, 5 have been kicked out in the first round:

• Stuart Bingham
  
• Graeme Dott
  
• Neil Robertson
  
• Shaun Murphy
  
• Peter Ebdon
  

 

That leaves these former world champions:

 

• John Higgins
  
• Mark Williams
  
• Ronnie O'Sullivan
  
• Mark Selby
  

 

That means that 12 players will definitely reach round two who've never won the world championship (but including runner-ups like Ali Carter, Marco Fu, and maybe more if they win their first round matches tomorrow). Might be a good year to bet on a new champion, if anyone is into betting (I'm not). :)

[Aginor]

Steve Davis. Steve *Davies*

Haha, dammit, I really mixed them up. :D

[Aginor]

Wow, what a match! (Gould vs. Ding)

[Yurgon]

Damn, completely missed it, but 10v8 sounds pretty darn close. So, next round Ding plays either Judd Trump or Liang Wenbo, that sounds like another great match already. ;)

[Aginor]

It was an interesting game, with several high breaks, stolen frames, free balls, cool snookers and every time you thought one of the players had a serious advantage the other one rallied.

 

As for Judd Trump: He is one of the newer guys that I really like.

If Ding plays against him he will have to turn his accuracy up a notch, though. During the match against Gould his accuracy (especially for the long pots, which once were his strength IIRC) wasn't quite sufficient.

[Yurgon]

Wow, Joe Perry vs. Kyran Wilson, what a nail-biter with a 9v10 finish in favor of Wilson.

 

At round 2, it's already best of 25 (first to score 13 frames wins), played over 3 sessions. Gotta love the world championship for the long distance matches. :)

[Yurgon]

Missed all the matches today (Eurosport preferred to show something entirely boring, plus I had to do a little bit of earning money which doesn't go too well when I'm distracted by Snooker anyway ;)). According to the live scores everything's pretty close together in round 2 so far:

 

Ali Carter vs Alan McManus 9v7 after two sessions.

Mark Williams vs Michael Holt 4v4 after one session.

Anthony McGill vs Marco Fu 7v9 after two sessions.

Sam Baird vs Mark Selby 4v4 after one session.

 

McGill and Fu will play the 3rd and final session tonight, first to achieve 13 frames wins. Good position for Fu, but McGill surely isn't beaten yet.

 

Update: Fu won 13v8, very solid performance. I think I haven't seen him play that well since 10 years ago, when he reached the semi-final. Next round he'll face either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Barry Hawkins.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Yurgon

[Yurgon]

A couple of surprises today.

 

Alan McManus won over Ali Carter 13v11. Kyren Wilson leads against Mark Allen 11v5, and Ding Junhui has a solid 10v6 lead over Judd Trump - as does John Higgins against Ricky Waldon, but I wouldn't count that as a surprise, Higgins being 4 times world champion already. Barry Hawkins leads 9v7 over Ronnie O'Sullivan.

 

Not quite as surprising are the wins of Mark Selby against Sam Baird and Mark Williams against Michael Holt.

 

Lots of decisions coming up tomorrow - and we've got our monthly local DCS meeting. Should have picked a different date, stupid me. ;)

[Aginor]

Wow, what a brilliant match between Hawkins and O'Sullivan!

Excellent play by both of them. Hawkins first win against Ronnie in 14 years. And he really worked hard for that one.

[Yurgon]

I was back home in time to hear the reporter say "O'Sullivan needs snooker", then saw the score and realized what an awesome match I must have just missed. Lots of congratulations to Barry Hawkins!

 

The quarter finals look pretty awesome. Personally, if I was into betting, I'd bet on Higgins over McManus. The other 3 games, all bets are off IMO.

[Aginor]

Higgins did some really awesome shots during his last match. I watched him pot at least one very hard combination shot and put some nasty snookers on the table.

McManus will have to bring his very best game to beat him. I think Higgins will win.

 

I am also excited for Ding Junhui's next match against Hawkins. During the last match he managed to bring his long potting skills back. That could give him an edge over Mark Williams.

 

Fu was strong lately, but I doubt he is a match for Hawkins if Hawkins plays the way he did against O'Sullivan.

 

As for Selby.... He did not play THAT good in the last match. But I think he will beat Kyren Wilson.

 

My bets:

Alan McManus – John Higgins: 10:13

Ding Junhui – Mark J Williams: 13:11

Marco Fu – Barry Hawkins: 10:13

Kyren Wilson – Mark Selby: 09:13

 

Oh, and if you like statistics: Google:

"CueTracker player1 vs. player2"

(player 1 and player2 being full names of snooker players of course)

You can find head to head statistics there.

[Yurgon]

OMG, Hawkins is getting slaughtered right now. He finally managed to win his first frame for a 1v5 against Fu. It's as if Hawkins forgot how to play over night. Best case scenario from his perspective is to finish the session 3v5 for some damage control, otherwise he'll need a huge comeback tomorrow, seeing as Fu plays really strong today.

 

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui seem to be right on track regarding your predictions, both leading 6v2 after the morning session. Eurosport doesn't show Higgins vs. McManus, but at 1v3 Higgins (just like Hawkins) might still be a little tired from the evening session yesterday. I guess tomorrow I'll have to take the day off and watch how these games all play out. :)

[Lucifah]

I'd love to see Higgins go very far this time. It's been a few years for him since he has won anything major. Or otherwise the Jester Mark Selby. Maybe a final between those two chaps?

[Yurgon]

Wow, Higgins must have had a run, going from 1v3 to 5v3 by the end of the session.

 

Selby is right on track at 10v6 against Wilson.

 

Ding Junhui vs. Mark Williams 13v3 - Ding can take the day off tomorrow, very impressive!

 

And Fu vs. Hawkins 7v1 - if Marco plays that well in the next session, he could also take some time off. However, I wouldn't write Hawkins off just yet.

 

If the finale is Selby vs. Higgins, Selby could take revenge for 2007, where he pretty much lost the game on day 1, but fought an epic battle on day 2. ;)

[Aginor]

Concerning Ding Junhui vs. Mark Williams: While I expected Ding to win it was more one-sided than I thought. Mark Williams had very bad luck though, the tip of his cue stick broke off just prior to the match. For a snooker pro that's a pretty severe thing, most need days to get used to a new one. So that might be one of the reasons for the result.

 

As for Fu vs. Hawkins: Not sure. Hawkins may still come back. But it will be a hard task.

 

Selby beat Wilson 13-8, but Wilson played a very good second session there.

[Yurgon]

Mark Williams had very bad luck though, the tip of his cue stick broke off just prior to the match.

 

Aww man, that's terrible. Almost a miracle he managed to win 3 frames at all.

 

Dunno what happened to Higgins today, bit he got beaten by Alan McManus 11v13.

 

Hawkins' comeback was almost epic, but Marco Fu's match winning break for 11v13 was, once again, very solid and well played. In matches like these I always hope for both players to win, but in the end Fu's victory was well deserved, because in session 1 it was not just that Hawkins played terribly, but Fu was also showing excellent snooker when he ran away to 7v1, which in a way secured his victory today.

 

So, semi-finals.

 

Alan MacManus vs Ding Junhui

Marco Fu vs. Mark Selby

 

China and Hong Kong stand a pretty good chance to finally bring the title to Asia, and by the two players who'd been handled as the potential first Asian Snooker World Champions for many years now.

 

Selby could secure his second title, and McManus could try to bring the title back to Scotland instead of John Higgins.

 

In any case, I'm sure there are three great matches ahead of us. :thumbup:

[Lucifah]

Good summary and conclusion, Yurgon! :thumbup:

[Aginor]

Alan McManus, one of the oldest players in the tournament (an the oldest one to reach the last 32 round IIRC), enters the semifinals! Great performance! After 23 years he is in a semifinals again.

 

I think he beat Higgins because Higgins for some reason missed a lot of "easy" pots though.

But my guess is that Ding will beat him. With his long pot success of below 50% during his last matches McManus has to play very clever to win against Ding. A position considered "safe" in a game against Higgins is not safe at all when playing against Ding. McManus can still win using his vast tactical experience, but my money is still on Ding.

 

Fu vs. Selby:

That one is tough. On a good day Fu is really strong, but he isn't the most mentally strong player out there. When he is behind OR leading more than a few frames he tends to make more mistakes.

Selby was called "torturer" once (by Ronnie O'Sullivan) because when not able to pot he tends to play a tactical game that sometimes reminds of Judd Trump's "naughty snooker", very frustrating for his opponent.

He can win against Fu by frustrating him, and refraining from playing too aggressive himself.

Fu can win by staying calm and bringing his best snooker.

I think Selby will win this one.

 

So here are my bets for the semifinals:

Mark Selby vs. Marco Fu: 17:14

Ding Junhui vs. Alan McManus: 17:12

 

 

Oh, and by the way: Impressive play by Barry Hawkins (even though he lost). What a fighter!

Edited April 28, 2016 by Aginor

[Aginor]

At the moment it looks like Ding is an even harder opponent for McManus than I thought. At this rate it will be more like 17:8 in the end.

[Lucifah]

At the moment it looks like Ding is an even harder opponent for McManus than I thought. At this rate it will be more like 17:8 in the end.

 

Don't write McManus off just yet... 9:7 after this session. I've only watched with half an eye while working, but it was outstanding.

Huge breaks on both sides in this session... 4 centuries in 8 frames... 138 for Ding in first frame; 136, 125 and 107 for McManus.

 

My guess is that he might take the lead tonight.

[Aginor]

I am not sure if he can keep his potting rate up.

But he is a very experienced player with a lot of tactical skill. If he can use that, he will have an advantage, although Ding is the more precise player.

 

The direct comparison (Ding won 3 out of 4 matches):

http://cuetracker.net/Head-to-Head/Ding-Junhui/Alan-McManus

But that doesn't have to mean much, since McManus seems to get better and better last year and this year.

[Lucifah]

The direct comparison (Ding won 3 out of 4 matches)

 

That doesn't mean much. :) Hawkins hasn't won against O'Sullivan in what... 14 years (or in all 11 tournament matches they've played during that time)? Yet Ronnie lost this time (more than just the game).

 

This tournament is full of surprises already... Bingham, Robertson, Murphy out in first round; Trump and O'Sullivan in second.

 

My money for the trophy is on Selby. But McManus deserves it too -- he's the oldest guy but has never won it, or even reached the final. Ding and Fu have plenty of time left in their careers to win the trophy (and probably will eventually); McManus probably not.

[Aginor]

That's right!

Alan McManus was a name I knew when I started watching snooker in the 90s, and he was always "near the top but not quite there". Seeing him now, beating his friend John Higgins (who has aged considerably, he actually looks older than McManus now although he isn't) was a bit surreal.

 

Talking about old: Marco Fu isn't exactly young either, he's just two years younger than Higgins. :D

Strange to see him in the semifinals. I know he is a top 16 player, but somehow his name doesn't say "finalist" to me. Don't know.

 

The Crucible Theater has its own rules though. Shaun Murphy wasn't even in the top16 when he won his first championship. :)

Edited April 29, 2016 by Aginor