Originally Posted by Billy
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What baffles me about this and other Asian tournaments is the lack of crowd. The TV viewing figures are excellent, but the audience figures are poor. I though the future of snooker was supposed to be from this part of the word? -
Not much to say ahead of the final tomorrow...
Walden and Trump have been the two best players this week, no doubt about that. They have hardly any history between them, only one match in a major event, and Trump won it 5-4. They have won seven ranking titles between them, five of them in China, so they couldn't have found a more fitting place for this final. I expect the game to be fast and high-scoring throughout, and ultimately fairly close, although both of them are good front-runners and capable of wining comfortably as well.
I called both semi-finals wrong yesterday, but that won't stop me making a prediction here. Trump to win 10-8. :smile:Leave a comment:
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Walden did well there. Not as easy task with Higgins doing what Higgins does, clawing frames back until you find yourself in a decider with your lead and head shot.Leave a comment:
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Nice break from Walden in the decider, most players would have probably succumbed to the pressure against Higgins in that situation. :smile:
Good stuff from Trump so far as well, although the scoreline could have been a lot different if a couple of shots had worked out better for Maguire. Maguire is not exactly the most positive person, is he? Hard to see him turning it around when he is in such a bad mood already. :smile:Leave a comment:
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It was good match between Ricky Walden and John Higgins, back to back finals for Walden, not too shabby. I have noticed that Higgins was missing lot of "power" shots (at least 4 or 5 in this match). Looking forward to Stephen Maguire Judd Trump affair later today, I will be cheering for Scot.Leave a comment:
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Mark should have had Jud yesterday, but he simply squandered too many good chances.Originally Posted by Odrl View Post
The commentators' praise of the 'crowds' is making me laugh, talking about how respectful they are because there are no mobile phones going off. Do you think the lack of mobile phones going off has anything to do with the lack of people?Leave a comment:
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did i just hear them right on Eurosport saying that all of Ricky Walden's ranking wins have come in China? Strange how some players travel much better than others. This semi is heating up nicely between him and Higgins. Would love to see Ricky make another final.Leave a comment:
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2016 China Open
would love to see higgins take it ....... and roll on the world championshipLeave a comment:
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It should be a good day tomorrow. There are no real underdogs in the semi-finals, which is rare for major tournaments this season.
John Higgins and Ricky Walden have met very few times over the years, a little surprising for two players who have been in the top16 for quite some time now (almost an eternity in Higgins' case). I actually remember their first two meetings. It was in the 2004, when I was just going from a casual viewer to a real snooker fanatic, and Higgins was one of my favourite players to watch. He was actually going through a fairly weak period of his career, I think he had not won a ranking title for something like three years. He was a big favourite against Walden in the 1st round of the Grand Prix, but lost the match despite making a 147, which was also the first 147 I saw "live" as it happened. He then went on to win the last-ever British Open, before losing to Walden again in his opening match at the UK Championship. Walden impressed me at the time, but it took him longer than I expected to rise up the rankings and start winning tournaments. Both players had some good moments today (or should I say yesterday?), and I hope they can give us a good match in the morning. Slight edge to Higgins perhaps.
Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire have a lot more history between them, and it's Maguire who has the better record, although Trump did win their most recent match at the Masters this season. It's usually high quality when they play, so I'm looking forward to it. Trump was impressive in his first two matches this week, but found it much more difficult against a very resilient King today. He has a habit of playing his best snooker in the early rounds these days, so hopefully he still has something left for the weekend. Maguire did what he needed to do to get into the top16, so he can now relax and go for the title. He rejected the suggestion that he had an easy draw this week, which is the correct thing to do I suppose, but it is true that Trump will be the first really strong opponent for him here, so we will see whether he has the form to compete with the very best. Trump should be the favourite on paper, but for some reason I get the feeling Maguire could win this one.
As I said, it should be a good day. :smile:Leave a comment:
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Mention of ding here : http://www.worldsnooker.com/maguire-...rucible-place/Originally Posted by cally View PostLeave a comment:
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I managed to watch all four matches today. Trump-King was my favourite. King did amazingly well to hang in there and almost took it to a decider, and the same with Saengkham against Higgins.
I wonder if today was Trump's "poor" match. It will only get tougher for him over the weekend, with his two bogey players still in the tournament. :smile:Leave a comment:
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Ding hascdropped out of the top 16? Wow.. Wouldn't have thought that a few seasons back, eh!
Expected him to have had a WC under his belt by now ...Leave a comment:
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You're welcome, Cally.
Sad for Ding, as you say, Erwan. One would hope a player of his class will come through without any problems, but then again, him dropping out of the top 16 wasn't something I saw happening either.Leave a comment:
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