International Championship Chengdu China Oct 26 to Nov 2

[robertmac]

This is starting sunday and I am looking forward
to watching some great snooker via World Snooker.
Its the richest Asian tournament.

Matches start at 09:30 / 14:30 and 19:30 Local time.

[jw147]

Anyone know if the hawkins white match is being shown live on eurosport at 1.30am??

Thanks

[robertmac]

World Snooker doesnt show which matches are
TV tables however they will have 2 tables for
each group. Based on who will be playing I
would think Hawkins/White would be a popular
match to show.

I dont use Eurosport so I dont know how they
do their coverage.

[philip in china]

I suppose I ought to see if there are any tickets left

[DandyA]

Anyone know if the hawkins white match is being shown live on eurosport at 1.30am??

Thanks

bet365 have just started showing it ... 1-0 to Hawkins ...

[robertmac]

World Snooker is showing White vs Hawkins and its 1-0
Hawkins. The other match showing has Bingham 1-0
vs Williams.
Video has been not the best but it appears fixed.

[Odrl]

So, another snooker week has started...

This was one of my favourite events in the past two seasons. Matches of medium length, good atmosphere, and some good snooker as well. As usual with these Chinese events, there was a PTC immediately before the tournament, in Haining. Stuart Bingham was the winner, and it was generally dominated by players from the UK, which is a little unusual for Asian PTCs.

It's a little unfortunate that two of the best players in the world are not here this week, Ding Junhui as the defending champion and Mark Selby as the reigning World champion, both losing in the qualifiers back in the UK. Also missing is Ali Carter, who had not recovered by the time the qualifiers were played, but the other top players are all here. A couple of the more notable Chinese players have lost in the qualifiers though, including Liang Wenbo, Tian Pengfei and Cao Yupeng.

There are still a lot of good players here though, so let's take a look at the draw...

Quarter 1:

Wang Zepeng v. Mitchell Mann/Niu Zhuang
Michael White v. Aditya Mehta
Dominic Dale v. Ian Burns
Graeme Dott v. Craig Steadman

Stuart Bingham v. Robbie Williams
Ryan Day v. Mark Joyce
Martin Gould v. Joel Walker
Mark Allen v. Nigel Bond

The first section looks a little weak on paper, mainly because Ding Junhui would have been here as defending champion and 1st seed. Wang Zepeng is in his place, an unknown player to me, who had two centuries in his 6-5 win over Ding in the qualifiers, so it will be interesting to see how he does, if he gets on TV at all. In Haining he lost early, 4-0 to Mark Davis, but obviously that was a pretty tough draw. Michael White will be looking to take advantage of Ding's absence here. He has had a pretty good start to the season, the highlight being a quarter-final appearance in Shanghai, his first "proper" one since the 2013 WC. He had good wins over Robertson and Day, eventually losing 5-4 to Allen. He also played well in the PTC in Bulgaria, held earlier this month, where he lost to Murphy in the semi-finals. His televised matches recently have been a little weird, he seems to start very poorly, missing all kinds of sitters, but then he plays himself into matches and becomes more dangerous. He will be the favourite against Aditya Mehta in the 1st round here, a player who has done nothing since his run to the final of the Indian Open last season, and White will probably be the favourite in his second match as well, whatever happens. Graeme Dott is the highest-ranked player in this little section, and I'm sure he will be disappointed if he doesn't reach at least the last16. He too reached the quarter-finals in Shanghai, beating Murphy on his way. He played in Haining as well, losing to Day in the last16. He hasn't featured all that much towards the end of tournaments in recent seasons, but he did reach the semi-finals here last year, probably his best result since the World final in 2010. Last year he beat White when they played here, but the year before he met Dominic Dale and lost, and we could see a repeat of that match in the 2nd round here. Dale has already got a good scalp this season, when he beat Trump in Shanghai, so he could be dangerous again. I will also mention Craig Steadman, who came over early to play in Haining and reached the last32 there.

The second part of this quarter is a lot stronger, featuring four players who have been in great form this season. Stuart Bingham is the winner of the previous major event, the Shanghai Masters, and the winner of the previous minor event as well, just a couple of days ago. He was pretty impressive in Haining, dropping only one frame from the quarter-finals onwards. His draw wasn't all that easy either, as he had to beat some of the strongest Chinese players on his way, including Ding. It was his fourth Asian PTC title, which makes him by far the best player in the history of these events. As for the major events, he has played well in all three of those as well this season, lost twice in deciding frames and won in Shanghai, so he is clearly one of the men to beat at this point in time. Mark Allen is the other really big name here, also in great form this season. If he meets Bingham in the last16 here, it will be a repeat of the Shanghai final, a match Allen lost convincingly with a poor performance. It's a rivarly Bingham is clearly winning at the moment. But Allen should be pretty confident about his chances here. He has played his best snooker abroad in recent seasons, particularly in China, and he has already featured in two PTC finals this season, winning one of them. Of the players who could prevent this rematch, two stand out. Ryan Day is now probably playing his best snooker since dropping out of the top16, and the QF of this tournament last season is one of his recent highlights. He too played well in Haining, he beat some good players to reach the quarter-finals and made his first 147 break as well. He starts with a match against Mark Joyce here, the player who beat him in Australia this season, so that could be tricky, especially as Joyce himself has a good recent result in China, the quarter-finals of the World Open last season. The other player who stands out here is Martin Gould. He was pretty poor last season, without any major result, but this season he has started very strongly. He reached his first major ranking semi-final in Wuxi, with good wins over Day and Maguire. He also got to the final in Bulgaria, but he didn't play in Haining, so he could struggle with jetlag a bit more than some of his opponents. He too has a tricky opening match, against Joel Walker, a quarter-finalist in the Welsh Open last season. That was an impressive run from Walker, and he played really well against Ding and almost beat him, but Ding produced a pretty flawless comeback on that occasion. Walker has struggled in the qualifiers this season, this being his first appearance at a major venue, so it will be interesting to see how he does. Lots of potentially interesting matches in this section, some pairings with a bit of history, others not so much. Bingham and Day for example have not met in any match of decent length for quite a long time. :wink:

Quarter 2:

Barry Hawkins v. Jimmy White
Mark Williams v. Oliver Brown
Kyren Wilson v. Sam Baird
Mark Davis v. Dechawat Poomjaeng

John Higgins v. Li Hang
Kurt Maflin v. Jamie Jones/Zhao Xintong
Alan McManus v. Anthony McGill
Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Ben Woollaston

Not as many dangerous players in this section, so it will probably be one of the usual suspects who goes through. Barry Hawkins is the favourite on paper, already a ranking semi-finalist this season in Wuxi. I thought he played the best snooker out of anyone that week, but he ran out of steam against Robertson in the semis. He lost in the 1st round of the next two major tournaments, but it was against strong players, Peter Ebdon and Mark Williams. He is scheduled to play Williams again in the 2nd round here, in what could be a pretty good match, but there is no doubt Hawkins is the better player at this point in time. Williams hasn't had a good run in a major tournament for over a year now, and he started this season with a couple of 2nd round exits. Not too bad, but nothing to suggest he could be a title contender here. On the other hand, he has a superb record over Hawkins, although it is mostly short matches. Mark Davis also looks like a good bet here. He has only appeared at one major venue so far this season, in Australia, but it was a successful run to the semi-finals. He usually starts seasons very strongly. In fact, 7 out of 8 runs to major quarter or semi-finals have come in the first half of seasons for him (ignoring that QF he reached back in the 90s). :wink: He also reached the quarter-finals in Bulgaria, so he is playing pretty well at the moment. It's tough to see who else could go through here... Jimmy White is playing alright, runs to the last16 of both PTCs in October, but Hawkins will be a high obstacle here, as he was last year when they met in this tournament. Kyren Wilson had that surprising run to the quarter-finals in Shanghai last season, so he is probably looking forward to returning to China, but that was a year ago, and he hasn't really done anything since. Dechawat Poomjaeng could do something perhaps, but he has played very little so far this season, so it's tough to predict what his form is like. Sam Baird is another longshot, but maybe deserves a mention, as his win over Michael Holt in the qualifiers was among the better ones for the lower-ranked players.

There is only one player ranked higher than Ronnie O'Sullivan in this tournament, and it's a long time since that was last the case. He hasn't played much this season, only one appearance at a major venue, in Shanghai, where he lost to Alan McManus in the 1st round. He didn't play too badly though, it was a pretty good performance from McManus to beat him. They could meet in the 2nd round here, which would be their second match in a short time, after they previously didn't meet each other for 10 years. :wink: O'Sullivan hasn't won a major title in China for five years, but he hasn't really given himself much chance. He played in this event last year, but it was a poor performance and he lost to Liang Wenbo in the 2nd round. This middle part of the season is where he played his best stuff last year, so I expect his form to be pretty good for the UK events again, but is he up for this one? Ben Woollaston already has a win against him, in one of the PTCs last season, and he came to China early to play in Haining, where he reached the last16. Can McManus do it again? Well, he has a bunch of wins over the top players this season, wins over Higgins, Maguire, Perry and obviously O'Sullivan. He reached the last16 of the first two major events, then the quarter-finals in Shanghai, and it always took a top player to knock him out. John Higgins could also cause problems, although I wouldn't put him among the tournament favourites at this point. It's more than two years since his last major title, and more than a year since his last final. He has started poorly this season as well, with three early exits in the major events. The problem is, he is losing the kind of matches he never used to, those close 5-4 matches where he can't quite take control the way he did in the past, and he is getting more and more frustrated. He really should have beaten Day in Shanghai, he led 4-2 and then had chances in the decider, but he just couldn't quite clinch it. Still, Higgins has the class and the experience to come through, and he doesn't have a mental block against O'Sullivan, although O'Sullivan did win their last match comfortably, in the Welsh Open last season. The two Chinese players here are also interesting. Li Hang can look good at times, like in the UK Championship last season, but he is still waiting for his first really good run. Zhao Xintong is the one I am really looking forward to seeing though... The International Championship was his breakthrough tournament last year, when he reached the last16 as a wildcard, and he followed that up with last16 appearances in both Wuxi and Shanghai this season, all still as a wildcard. It was particularly impressive how he beat Fu in Shanghai, coming back in the decider to win by a point on the black with an excellent clearance. He won his first two matches in Haining, then lost to Bingham in the last32. He needs to beat two decent players to even get to Higgins here, but it's not beyond him, and Jamie Jones and Kurt Maflin haven't really done much this season, apart from that whitewash Jones had against Maguire in Australia. :wink:

Quarter 3:

Neil Robertson v. Matthew Selt
Andrew Higginson v. Joe Swail/Yan Bingtao
Chris Melling v. Zhou Yuelong
Ricky Walden v. David Morris

Joe Perry v. Mike Dunn
Peter Ebdon v. Andrew Pagett
Matthew Stevens v. Jamie Burnett
Judd Trump v. Jimmy Robertson

All the big names from the third quarter survived the qualifiers, but only just, as Neil Robertson was a frame away from losing to Alex Borg, and that would have been a minor tragedy for this tournament. :smile: Robertson is one of the best performers in China in recent years, already a winner this season in Wuxi, so it was a little surprising to see him lose in the 1st round in Shanghai. That used to be normal for him, one great tournament followed by one or two bad ones, but recently his bad tournaments have been very few, and I would expect a strong performance from him here. He starts against an opponent who is playing well at the moment, Matthew Selt, who reached the semi-finals in Haining, where he lost to Bingham. The 2nd round could potentially see a repeat of the 2007 Welsh Open final between Robertson and Andrew Higginson, a great match which Robertson won in a deciding frame. He generally has a good record over Higginson, including a recent win in Australia this season. A bigger problem for him could be Ricky Walden, if they both make it to the last16 round. These two have not met a lot, but Walden did beat Robertson on the way to his first ranking title in 2008, in Shanghai. This season Walden has not really done a lot, apart from a quarter-final in Australia, and he lost early in Haining as well, although to be fair, Cao Yupeng was a tough draw. Both of Walden's previous ranking titles came in China, and I think this best-of-11 format suits him. David Morris has also shown in the past that he is capable of a good run by reaching the quarter-finals of the Wuxi Classic last season, but he hasn't really done anything since. That leaves the two young Chinese players... Yan Bingtao won both of his previous wildcard matches this season, beating Yu Delu in Wuxi and Liang Wenbo in Shanghai, so he is clearly a danger for most players, especially as he has the "home advantage" this time. He was another one of Bingham's victims in Haining. :wink: Then there is Zhou Yuelong, appearing here as a Main Tour player, having beaten Liang in the qualifiers for this event. It's interesting, the other two strong prospects of this Chinese generation, Zhao Xintong and Lyu Haotian, have both had 5-1 wins over Chris Melling this season, so Zhou has a chance to complete the hat-trick here. :wink:

Judd Trump has a tough draw to reach the quarter-finals. He won the first staging of the International Championship in 2012, then failed to win a major title for almost two years, but his drought finally ended in Australia this season. He came to Shanghai as the winner of the previous event and lost in the 1st round, as is so often the case, but this format suits him more and he could be one of the favourites this week. His first obstacle will be Jimmy Robertson, who has done nothing in the major events so far this season, but he played well in both recent PTCs, particularly the one in Haining, where he reached the semi-finals. Matthew Stevens has also struggled a little in the big events. He reached the quarter-finals in Australia, where he was seeded straight to the venue, but he lost in the qualifying for Wuxi and Shanghai. Joe Perry could be a good bet as well. He came within a frame of winning his first major ranking title in Wuxi, losing 10-9 to Robertson in the final, and he lost in the 1st round of the following two events, both 5-4. I think the disappointment with losing that final should be well behind him now, and we could see him at the business end of more tournaments. He reached the last16 of both PTCs this month, and he of course reached the semi-finals of this event last year, where he had another close defeat against Fu. Peter Ebdon reached the same stage the year before, but his defeat was not quite as close, 9-1 against Trump. :wink: He seems to like this tournament though, as it was the highlight of his season last year as well, his only quarter-final. Quite a few players from this section have done well in the recent PTCs, but Ebdon is perhaps the best of them, with a semi-final in Bulgaria, beating Perry on his way, and another quarter-final in Haining. I don't expect Mike Dunn or Jamie Burnett to go through here, but I will mention them anyway. Dunn of course reached the semi-finals of the China Open last season, a very surprising run for me at the time, and he seems to be playing alright again, judging by his run to the last16 in Haining. Burnett is a former ranking finalist in China, in Shanghai four years ago, but there is nothing to suggest he could repeat that result any time soon. :wink:

Quarter 4:

Shaun Murphy v. Yu Delu
Robert Milkins v. Barry Pinches
Xiao Guodong v. Eden Sharav
Stephen Maguire v. Noppon Saengkham

Marco Fu v. Liam Highfield
David Gilbert v. Zak Surety
Fergal O'Brien v. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Rod Lawler v. Oliver Lines/Huang Jiahao

Shaun Murphy is a little unpredictable these days. He was pretty inconsistent for most of last season, probably more so than in any other period since 2005, but he did finally manage to win a big title again, his first in more than five years. He had also been one of the few top players not to have won a ranking event in China, probably the best of them in fact, but his World Open win made that right as well. This season he has reached the quarter-finals of the Wuxi Classic, but I'm not sure he will have pleasant memories of that tournament, because he really threw away the match against Robertson. More recently he has managed to win the Bulgarian Open, so his confidence should be pretty high ahead of this middle part of the season. Yu Delu looks like a tricky draw on paper, but he has really been struggling recently, losing in the qualifiers or the wildcard round of all major tournaments so far, and he even lost in the 1st round of Haining to Eden Sharav. He also lost to Murphy when they played in Shanghai last season. Robert Milkins has been a little more successful, with a quarter-final in Australia, but I am sure he is looking for even better. Another danger to Murphy could be Xiao Guodong, a very strong performer last season when he reached the final of the Shanghai Masters. He lost in the qualifiers for that tournament this season, but made up for it by reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open. What impressed me most about his Shanghai run was his determination and fighting spirit, he came from behind on a couple of occasions, and that's a great attribute to have in the slightly longer format here. Stephen Maguire? This doesn't seem to be his favourite tournament, and he doesn't really have any great results in the recent past, but you never know with him. He lost to Xiao in Shanghai last season, lost to Noppon Saengkham in Riga earlier this season, but if he plays well here he could beat both of them comfortably. For all the rivalry between Murphy and Maguire, they have done their best to avoid each other in major tournaments recently. The last time they met was in the 2012 German Masters, a few months before O'Sullivan's fourth World title, and Maguire won that one 6-0. I wouldn't mind if they met in the last16 here. :wink:

There always seems to be one section that looks pretty weak, and this is the one here. Of course this is the section Selby would have been in, so it makes sense that the draw has opened up somewhat. But Marco Fu is still here, and until he goes out he is a big favourite to reach the quarter-finals. He was consistently strong last season, so it was interesting to see how he would start this one. He played alright in Wuxi, reached the quarter-finals, then decided not to defend his Australian Open title, and he went out in the 1st round in Shanghai. I mentioned Zhao's great clearance against him in that match, but it's also worth saying that Fu missed an absolute sitter when he only needed one more ball. He can struggle against the lower-ranked players sometimes, so this is exactly the kind of draw he doesn't like. Still, he seems to enjoy this format. He played well in both previous editions of this tournament, particularly last year when he reached the final. And that final was one of the two best matches of the whole season for me, along with the Robertson-Selby semi-final in the WC. There is no Day or Gould in this section, no really dangerous outsiders, but there are still a couple of players who shouldn't be underestimated. Rod Lawler for a start, a semi-finalist in the German Masters last season. Fergal O'Brien could also take advantage of this draw. His quarter-final appearance in Shanghai was his first in seven years, so he must be feeling pretty good at the moment. David Gilbert is a dangerous player on his day as well, but unfortunately he hasn't done anything this season yet. A good outside bet could be Oliver Lines, the player who knocked out Selby in the qualifiers. One could assume that was just a bad day for Selby, but Lines went on to reach the final in Haining, so that result clearly wasn't a coincidence. I don't think Zak Surety will go through, but I will mention him anyway, because this is his debut at a major venue, and he must have played reasonably well to knock out Mark King in the qualifiers.

Possible quarter-final lineup:

Graeme Dott v. Stuart Bingham
Barry Hawkins v. Ronnie O'Sullivan
Neil Robertson v. Judd Trump
Shaun Murphy v. Marco Fu


So there we are, well into the first matches now, so that's what you call leaving it late. :smile: Should be a good week of snooker.

[Erwan_BZH]

anyone would have a link for a stream by any chance ?

[Mr Snooker]

anyone would have a link for a stream by any chance ?

Live Link here http://www.crichd.in/live/euro-sport...-streaming.php

[Masterdoctorgenius]

even as a ronnie fan i must say ben choked it

[streamer45]

what a break by Ronnie, outstanding!

[Masterdoctorgenius]

should have produced such mental strength against selby at the finals

[robertmac]

Certainly a few surprises. Higgins, Dott, McManus and
Dale knocked out and O'Sullivan started slowly and
could have lost.
More to come.
Thanks again Odrl for your great analysis.

[Odrl]

My pleasure. :smile:

Yeah, a pretty weird opening day. Higgins was all over the place in his match, and even when it looked like he could put something together things went against him. O'Sullivan could have lost as well, after that very slow start, but Woollaston's level dropped after the interval and he let O'Sullivan back into the match. The frame that went to a re-spotted black was probably the key one, he had that easy pink into the middle that would have left O'Sullivan needing snookers, but he missed it and left the possible clearance. That was 3-3 instead of 4-2. :wink:

It's alright that O'Sullivan survived though, because I bought him for my fantasy team ahead of this tournament. :biggrin: Fu was my first choice, but he was just a little too expensive, so I had to settle for O'Sullivan. It would have been a tragedy had he gone out in the 1st round. :smile:

It's also nice to see Zhao Xintong going through again. He was 3-1 down when I went to bed yesterday, went 4-1 down, but came back to win in the decider. Not the first time he has done something like that. It's certainly a possibility that he could reach the last16 now, needs to beat Kurt Maflin and Li Hang, to possibly meet O'Sullivan. :smile:


Should be another interesting day tomorrow. :smile:

[robertmac]

Yes missing the easy pink was a huge mistake.
Nice to see Lines and M White advance.
I am looking forward to Maguire and Murphy play
their matches as well as Robertson and Trump
play as well.