World Championship Prediction Contest

[Stony152]

Mark Allen 13-9 Joe Perry
Kyren Wilson 13-8 Jamie Jones
Jack Lisowski 13-11 John Higgins
Judd Trump 13-10 Ricky Walden
Barry Hawkins 13-9 Lyu Haotian
Mark Williams 13-8 Robert Milkins
Ronnie O'Sullivan 13-8 Ali Carter

Anthony McGill 13-11 Ding Junhui

[bagpiper13579]

Round of 16:

Allen vs. Perry; Prediction: Perry; 13-12
I expect this to be fairly close. Perry and Allen are in good form. In their head to head matches, Perry has only a slight advantage. However, Perry kept a notorious comeback artist, Selby, from coming back into their match almost at all. I think he can eek out a similar tactic against Allen.

Wilson vs. Jones; Prediction: Wilson; 13-10
Wilson occasionally goes for shots that he shouldn't, and in that way he is like Shaun Murphy. Wilson is also a slow starter at times, like he was against Stevens. However, he is overall a better and more similar player to Jones, and that should allow him to ground out the match, though it might go close.

Higgins vs. Lisowksi; Prediction: Higgins; 13-10
Lisowksi did well to beat Bingham, but he relied on Bingham being off. John Higgins may not be firing on all cylinders yet, but his experience and class can match anything Lisowski has to offer. Lisowski can make this close, but I don't think he can win this.

Trump vs. Walden; Prediction: Trump; 13-9
Good as Walden was against Brecel, Trump is on a whole other level. His match against Wakelin isn't great, but he is showing enough bottle to probably win. Walden has shown his skill, but he didn't seem to have a difficult time with Brecel. I think Trump's pressure will be too much.

Ding vs. McGill; Prediction: Ding; 13-8
Ding cruised through Xiao, while McGill had to matchplay tooth-and-nail against an on-fire Ryan Day. McGill was lucky to contain Day; Ding is on decent form, and has never lost to McGill. This shouldn't be that close.

Hawkins vs. Lyu; Prediction: Hawkins; 13-12
Lyu had a good record against Fu, and Fu was not ready for Sheffield. Hawkins had to fight against Carrington, but won out in the end. This will be interesting, because it's difficult to tell if Lyu is on great form or not. If he is, this will be close, because Hawkins wasn't so convincing. If it was down to Fu's problems, Hawkins can win this one out.

Williams vs. Milkins; Prediction: Williams; 13-10
I think Williams looks great. I think Milkins looks good. I think Milkins can contain shotmakers fairly well, if he can do what he just did to Neil Robertson. But Williams, even in his off years, was a match for Milkins normally. We also should take into consideration that Robertson, even when he won frames, never did it convincingly. Williams has been convincing, and I think Milkins will be overwhelmed.

Ronnie vs. Carter; Prediction: O'Sullivan; 13-8
I'm not going to write about how an on-form O'Sullivan is not going to lose against Carter, who has only ever beat O'Sullivan once.

[The Boss]

Mark Allen v Kyren Wilson 13-10
Ding Junhui v Barry Hawkins 13-12
John Higgins v Judd Trump 12-13
Mark Williams v Ali Carter 13-12
Robert Milkins v Ali Carter 10-13

:snooker:

[ken147]

Mark Allen v Kyren Wilson 13- 6
Ding Junhui v Barry Hawkins 13- 7
John Higgins v Judd Trump 13 - 6
Mark Williams v Ali Carter 9 - 13
Robert Milkins v Ali Carter 4 - 13

[Mr Snooker]

Head to head meetings in brackets

Mark Allen (5) v Kyren Wilson (6) 13-11
Ding Junhui (7) v Barry Hawkins 10-13
John Higgins (19) v Judd Trump (9) 13-8
Mark Williams (14) v Ali Carter (12) (Plus 1 Draw) 13-10

[Stony152]

Kyren Wilson 13-10 Mark Allen
Ding Junhui 13-11 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 13-12 John Higgins
Ali Carter 13-10 Mark Williams

[Dark]

Kyren Wilson 10-13 Mark Allen
Ding Junhui 13-11 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 8-13 John Higgins
Mark Williams 13-12 Ali Carter

[bagpiper13579]

Kyren Wilson vs. Mark Allen
Prediction: Wilson; 13-11
Kyren Wilson has won against Mark Allen more than Mark Allen has won against him. However, it seems he usually relies on getting a run against Allen before Allen gets a big run against him. This match is gonna rock from side to side a bit. But Kyren Wilson's previous wins against Allen were either done in a short-medium format (and medium format matches seemed a lot closer). The 2016 World Championship is an exception, but Allen was out of the match until Wilson got to 7-0. Not a good example for Wilson. Still, if the Masters is anything to go by, anyone can win this.

Judd Trump vs. John Higgins
Prediction: Judd Trump; 13-11
A matchup that, by history alone, should go to John Higgins. A matchup that, on current World Championship form, should probably go to John Higgins. John Higgins hasn't been behind his opponents at all during the World Championship; in fact, he's never been without the lead. Trump, on the other hand, needed to pull comebacks against both of his opponents in order to win his matches. He might have more centuries, but his opponents have also scored more points per frame. At the same time, I have a suspicion that this might be a strategy of his; I think Trump hopes to make Higgins really battle for his frames until he loses stamina. If that's the case, then this match has a whole other dimension we will have to wait to see.

Ding Junhui vs. Barry Hawkins
Prediction: Ding; 13-10
Barry Hawkins has a good record against Ding Junhui, but he really hasn't been that convincing in Sheffield His first round against Carrington displayed some good snooker, but also showed just as much "meh" snooker. His match against Lyu shouldn't have gone as close as it did after the start he had. Ding, on the other hand, has dominated his matches, and arguably against much stiffer competition. Does this mean Hawkins has no chance? Not at all. But if Hawkins falls behind Ding, it will be difficult for him to get back into the match.

Mark Williams vs. Ali Carter
Prediction: Mark Williams; 13-10
Difficult to call. Mark Williams is in good form, but Ali Carter just beat last year's bogeyman, Dott, and his career's bogeyman in Ronnie. And while we might look to recent results and see that Mark Williams hasn't beat Carter since 2016, they also haven't played a longer-format match since 2008. However, we should take the following into account: 1) Ali Carter beat both Dott and Ronnie by alternatively out-scoring and outscrapping his opponents, but Carter was neither a better scrapper than Dott nor was he a better scorer than Ronnie. 2) Carter actually had a lower avg. points per frame than Ronnie, despite the flattering scoreline. 3) Mark Williams faced lesser opposition, but he has shown good consistency, and is unlikely to be outscored in the same way as Dott. 4) Mark Williams also has a better mentality to deal with scrappy frames, and excellent single-shot judgment. I don't think Carter can out-scrap him by much.

[Rane]

Kyren Wilson 9-13 Mark Allen
Ding Junhui 13-10 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 11-13 John Higgins
Mark Williams 11-13 Ali Carter

I find the results very hard to call and I wouldn´t be surprised at all if my predicted losers all ended up in the semifinals.

[Odrl]

Kyren Wilson 13-12 Mark Allen
Ding Junhui 13-10 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 9-13 John Higgins
Mark Williams 13-9 Ali Carter

[JimMalone]

Mark Allen - Kyren Wilson 13-12
John Higgins - Judd Trump 13-11
Ding Junhui - Barry Hawkins 13-10
Mark Williams - Ali Carter 13-9

[tony9ball68]

Mark Allen 10-13 Kyren Wilson
John Higgins 13-9 Judd Trump
Ding Junhui 13-7 Barry Hawkins
Mark Williams 13-11 Ali Carter

[Stony152]

Kyren Wilson 17-13 John Higgins
Mark Williams 17-14 Barry Hawkins

[bagpiper13579]

...Man, that was fun.

Anyway:

John Higgins vs. Kyren Wilson
Nothing is going to be easy to call from now on. Higgins has a good record against Wilson, whom he beat in last year's quarter-final handily. However, Wilson has really come into his own; he kept a fiery Mark Allen very quiet. To do that against a player of Allen's quality itself is an achievement. Higgins, on the other hand, will likely be a bit tired after that battle with Trump. What further complicates this match is that, apart from last year's quarter-final, these two have not played a long-format match against each other. Wilson also has the better results in matches this Championship, with Higgins having only one blowout against Lisowski. Wilson has also kept his opponents scoring fewer points per frame than Higgins has for his opponents.
This will be a long and tight match, I think. I think it'll be a far more interesting match than the Hawkins-Williams match in terms of play. Overall, I think Wilson's form is better than Higgins, and if Higgins is starting to lose stamina, Wilson has this. If not, then it's still one tough-minded, can stage a comeback, excellent potter, good tactician in good form against John Higgins.

Prediction: Wilson; 17-14

Mark Williams vs. Barry Hawkins
I wasn't able to catch much of the match, but looking at comments on here and and at the stats, Ding was terrible. Really really terrible by his standards. What this means for Hawkins is unclear; 2 centuries and 9 breaks of 60+ looks good, but he actually had, in his blowout, a lower avg. points per frame than both Williams and Wilson. Which is to say, doesn't look convincing still. Whether he can find form in this semi-final, I am unsure. But I am sure that Williams is very difficult to contain at the moment; he beat Carter by outscoring him and being un-containable. That match was a more back-and-forth, rather un-scrappy affair. That doesn't look good for Hawkins, who hasn't seemed able to really contain his opponents so well.
If it gets down to pure scoring, then Hawkins needs to find form, and quickly. If it gets down to tactics, I think Mark Williams has a slight but not damning edge. However, these long matches are almost always a mixture of the two. In that case, Mark Williams' scoring will likely be able to keep Hawkins quiet for the moment.
Prediction: Mark Williams; 17-12

[Porter]

John Higgins vs. Kyren Wilson. I'm going for Wilson winning 17-15

Mark Williams vs. Barry Hawkins. This match I'm going with Williams winning 17-13