European Masters 2017

[DeanH]

Eurosport player stream ended in the middle of the Murphys game and now it says 'The program has ended' eventho Bet365 still has a stream? What the hell I'm paying for if I can't even see the **** they're filming.

I had the same, me and my mate where watching - sent a message to ESP to complain. Had to watch it on the LiveScores
Well done Astley

[Neil Taperell]

Ali has a habit of this, hasn't he? Sometimes it seems to me like he thinks the whole world is against him. And lately he didn't have many convincing results.

The Chinese Players did pretty well in those qualifiers. Ten have qualified so far and five still have the chance, though I suggest that at least Niu Zhang and Li Yuan, who face John Higgins and Stephen Maguire respectively, will have a tough way to do so. And this is with their three top players Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo and Hongkong Chinese Marco Fu not even present at this event.

The whole world might be against him .

[wemba]

I'd like to see Ali take a more mature approach to his game.
His huffing and puffing is a weakness; it gives his opponents a boost.

[JimMalone]

Tomorrow starts the first ranking event hold in Belgium since 23 years.

64 players are in the draw, the first four rounds are Best-of-7, Semifinals Best-of-11 and Final Best-of-17.

Ranking Points and Prize Money breakdown:
Winner: 75.000
Finalist: 35.000
Semifinal: 17.500
Quarterfinal: 11.000
Last 16: 6.000
Last 32: 4000
Last 64: 2000

Notable absentees are World Open Champion Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan, Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo (all four skipping again the event) as well as Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire, who all lost in the qualifiers.
So of the Top 10 actually only defending champion Judd Trump, Mark Selby (both still have to play their qualifier), John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen are in Lommel.

Here's the draw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_E...ters_(snooker)

First Quarter:
Trump is the defending champion, but we don't know much about his form. He only played one ranking event so far this season, when he lost in the second round of the China Championship. On paper his first two matches should be makeable, then he could meet Mark King or David Gilbert.
More difficult of course is the other half of this quarter, where to me the match between Vafaei and Mark Allen, recently semifinalist at Yushan, sticks out. It's a potential upset and also Kyren Wilson, finalist of the World Open, isn't far away in the draw. So already in the first quarter it's difficult to pick the semifinalist.

Second Quarter:
Here it's the other way around and the more interesting section is on the top. Neil Robertson, the top seed here, opens against Fang Xiongman, then would meet Dominic Dale or Peter Ebdon. And in the third round Robertson could meet the winner of the most intriguing first-rounder between Mark Williams and Yan Bingtao (the chinese talent also hasn't played many events this season). The winner of Williams and Yan would have to play Ross Muir before, the Scotsman is already in the second round thanks to the withdrawal of Anthony Hamilton.
On the other side Martin Gould and Michael Holt are the most notable players, but I think Cao Yupeng, who proved in good form at the World Open recently, could pose a danger here. The Chinese opens against Noppon Saengkham.

Third Quarter:
Bad Luck for Alexander Ursenbacher, who again has his opening match against John Higgins. The Scotsman would play the winner between Mark Davis and Matthew Selt in the second round, both who don't have exactly good results this season, before he would likely run into Anthony McGill.
This quarter isn't exactly the strongest, you also can see this on the other side, where Ryan Day is the favorite to make it to the quarterfinal. His biggest contenders are probably Zhou Yuelong, who made it to the quarters of the China Championship this season and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, with whom you never know.

Fourth Quarter:
The last part of the draw is a bit more intriguing again. On the bottom you have obviously Mark Selby if he wins his qualifier. The world champion has been a shadow of his former self this season though, losing early in every event. It will be interesting to see if he can make the first steps to a turn-around in Lommel. He would meet Zhao Xintong already in his opener (though for a youngster drawing Selby is always a bit of a misfortune). Selby faces the winner of Preece/Luy Haotian next, before he could meet Joe Perry in the third round.
Stronger maybe is the other half here, cause with local hero Luca Brecel and Stuart Bingham you have two players, who are also challengers for a quarterfinal spot. Bingham deserved this status through the last few years, but his results have been pretty poor this season. He also is searching his form and a possible turn-around and needs a good result here to prevent from dropping out of the Top 10 for the first time in over three years. Bingham opens against Mitchell Mann, then plays the winner of Dott/Rhys Clarke.
Brecel has been the player of the season so far and looks to continue his strong run in his home country as well. If he makes the draw, he would play Thor Chuan Leong first, then meets the winner of Mei Xiwen and Chris Wakelin. So he should be able to come through here.

Predictions for the Quarterfinals:
Trump - K. Wilson
Williams - Cao
McGill - Zhou
Brecel - Perry

Semifinals:
Trump - Willams
McGill - Brecel

Final:
Trump - Brecel

Winner: Trump

[SnookerFan]

Going to order a takeaway for tonight's matches, I reckon. Maybe a cheeky drink.

Apparently this evening's matches are Luca Brecel, followed by Judd Trump.

[JimMalone]

Good to see that there are many spectators already today at the qualifier between Selby and Joyce.

[SnookerFan]

There's always a packed house in Germany. Snooker is getting quite popular on the continent, I think.

Pity that there's so few tournaments there, and so many in China in front of nobody.

[DeanH]

There's always a packed house in Germany. Snooker is getting quite popular on the continent, I think.

Pity that there's so few tournaments there, and so many in China in front of nobody.

Even better in Belgium, they are starved of live snooker there and are lapping it up
For first thing Monday, bodes well. And unlike the Chinese events they don't have the two tier seating (with ticket prices to match) so we can actually see people are there :wink:

[Mr Snooker]

link here https://www.facebook.com/agtvsnooker/ was watching darts at this link over the weekend hopefully show some snooker matches on it as well http://sportstream365.com/other you search the players names on the TV player table and it lists them

http://sportstream365.com/viewer?spo...game=140974437

Jamie Jones V Martin O' Donnell

http://sportstream365.com/viewer?sport=30&game=14

Mark Selby V Mark Joyce

good luck with it. let me know if anyone finds any more free streams please

[JimMalone]

Selby is still playing as bad (for his abilities of course) as the whole season. Don't see him getting on a run here.

[DeanH]

Selby is still playing as bad (for his abilities of course) as the whole season. Don't see him getting on a run here.

seems to have found his stride now, 3-1 up

[JimMalone]

seems to have found his stride now, 3-1 up

3-3 now. The last time Selby lost in the qualifying stage of an event was at the 2014 International Championship.

[richiet]

The winner of Williams and Yan would have to play Ross Muir before, the Scotsman is already in the second round thanks to the withdrawal of Anthony Hamilton.

I notice Anthony has withdrawn from the last few tournaments, anyone know what's up?

[JimMalone]

I notice Anthony has withdrawn from the last few tournaments, anyone know what's up?

Sorry, I don't know.

It was close, but Selby won 4-3. Joyce had a chance in the decider, but missed a makeable red after 30 points. Selby then showed his good nerves again and answered with a 93-clearance.

[richiet]

Although I thought Selby was a bit lucky with a couple of poor positional shots in that last break, he could easily have left himself without a pot had the cue ball rolled another millimetre or two.