2016 UK Championship

[stephenm2682]

That miss off Ronnie was even worse then the blue, it was straight ish

[Sasuke92]

Ouch...both missed the blue now.

Pressure is scary out there.

[daffie]

Wonderful 2nd frame. Glad Mark came out on top to level the match.

Played in good spirit as well...

[DeanH]

That red clearly rocked on its position - come on Virgo

[daffie]

I see Front Row Brian has found his way in as well...

Btw...C'mon Mark!

:snooker:

[JimMalone]

Not the kick, i'm talking about the green. One ball away from the final. He would hit that shot 99/100 without the pressure.

But the thing is that at this moment there just was much pressure. And we can't even know how this feels. It's a shot you can make, but it was not an easy one. Fu played brave last night and should probably have won. But the difference at the top is often mentally and there Fu is not on the level of some other players.

As for the final today, it should be a good match. Selby is the slight favorite to me, but as Ronnie he played not consistent the whole week. And it seems like Ronnie is of to a good start. Hope Selby bounces back and wins.

[adebisi10]

Nice opening statement

[Kargetina]

I feel sorry for Slowby, there were more people cheering for Ding than Slowby in the 2016 Worlds Final! Embarassing :biggrin-new:

I can't wait to see Selby looking like a lethargic twat when Ronnie sends his ass back to Leicester

You're living up to the standard of the stereotypical Ronnie fan.

There was biographical film about you lot last year: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2293640/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[daffie]

Well...the Finale I was looking for. Let's hope it will be a cracker!

:snooker:

[Sasuke92]

Thankfully he's mentally strong enough unlike poor Ronnie so he doesn't need gloryhunters cheering him on.

I feel sorry for Slowby, there were more people cheering for Ding than Slowby in the 2016 Worlds Final! Embarassing :biggrin-new:

I can't wait to see Selby looking like a lethargic twat when Ronnie sends his ass back to Leicester

[Odrl]

Really enjoying your previews, Odrl. You were spot on with your last one! Accumulators must be a nice little side-earner for you surely

I don't bet and I think it would be a disaster if I did. A few years ago I tried a little experiment where I gave myself "100 cash" at the start of the season and wrote down some hypothetical bets, just to see if I could make a profit. It turned out I was down to almost 0 cash by the end of the season. :smile: But thanks for the compliment. :smile:


Anyway, like others have said, Mark Selby against Ronnie O'Sullivan is probably the dream final at this point in time. This pairing has replaced O'Sullivan-Higgins as the best rivalry in snooker over the last nine years or so. O'Sullivan is comfortably ahead on the head-to-head, but once you remove all the short-format and the shot-clock stuff, things are very tight between them. They have met in five major finals, Selby winning three of them, including the World final in 2014. And of those five finals, only one was underwhelming, the others were absolute classics. Selby also won a classic World Championship quarter-final against O'Sullivan back in 2010, while O'Sullivan won their two previous UK Championship matches, both over two sessions. Have I missed any other big matches between them? I don't think I have... :smile:

So, who is the favourite today? Well, on one hand we have the World champion and the runaway world number one in Mark Selby, a player who is enjoying a real purple patch in his career and winning a lot more of these big matches than he is losing lately. It's funny, I wanted him out yesterday and against Higgins, because his good run here is really hurting my chances in a fantasy game I'm playing, and the man just refuses to lose when you need him to, even if he is not quite at the top of his game. I thought Murphy would have too much firepower for him yesterday, but Selby was solid as usual, while his opponent suddenly struggled to reproduce his form from the earlier rounds. I don't think anyone would be surprised if something similar happened today. If Selby manages to impose his pace and style of play on the match, like he did on the second day of the 2014 World final, I think O'Sullivan will struggle to match him. Selby plays the game of snooker with more heart than anyone, and his will to win is unrivalled. He also has a safety game that is difficult to match, and he has the belief to compete with O'Sullivan on the big stage, even if O'Sullivan goes a few frames in front.

I think most people would have to agree that Selby is the best player in the world at this point in time, but today he is up against the one player whom the bookies still make favourite against him. Ronnie O'Sullivan has not been as prolific a winner as Selby over the last three years or so, but at his best he plays the kind of snooker that is unlikely to be matched, and he has a habit of raising his game in major finals. You have to work really hard to find any top player in the last 20 years or so who hasn't been thrashed by O'Sullivan in a major final at some point, and despite Selby's relative success in their previous meetings, he too finds himself on that unfortunate list. O'Sullivan's scoring is unrivalled, and the pace in which he does it can be frightening at times, so it takes a lot of mental strength not to crack against him. As I said yesterday, O'Sullivan scored really well in the early rounds this week, but he has gradually found it more difficult with each round, and he can count himself lucky to have survived last night, because Fu had a colour clearance to take him out. We could see the pressure getting to him a little in the second half of the match, as he started to miss all the tricky balls, and I think he will need to cut that out to have a chance against Selby today. He played really well against Selby in their two matches since the World final, so I think he will be up for this one as well.

If you look at their big matches in the past, the pattern seems to be that O'Sullivan starts really strongly and either cracks Selby's resolve, or he fails to do so and Selby inevitably comes back and does his usual "midnight magic". :smile: My gut feeling isn't telling me anything today, so I think we could have one of those 10-9 classics. I certainly hope we do anyway, and just to stick with tradition and try to predict the winner, I will go for Selby to win. :smile:

[Kargetina]

I'm glad Selby has fans cuz he'll need all the energy he can get from the 1% that will be cheering for him :biggrin-new:

Thankfully he's mentally strong enough unlike poor Ronnie so he doesn't need gloryhunters cheering him on.

[Sasuke92]

Nothing would please me more than Selby sending Ronnie's fans into mass hysteria. You can still see the consequences upon their fragile Ronnie-like psyche from the bruising he took in the WSC2014 final. :biggrin-new:

Come on Selby! Send the obnoxious brat packing!

I'm glad Selby has fans cuz he'll need all the energy he can get from the 1% that will be cheering for him :biggrin-new:

[Sasuke92]

The Jester will be winding him up though doing his little tricks......and he's the master of the scrappy frames, but if Ronnie's heads right he should be able to handle this.

Yep, Ronnie just needs to keep with him and play most of the frames in one visit snooker.

To be fair Ronnie played well against Selby in the last 2 matches, I still remember the frame in the Masters when Selby had 70 points and Ronnie came back and cleared so he's just as capable of doing a Selby-esque on Selby

[Kargetina]

Nothing would please me more than Selby sending Ronnie's fans into mass hysteria. You can still see the consequences upon their fragile Ronnie-like psyche from the bruising he took in the WSC2014 final. :biggrin-new:

Come on Selby! Send the obnoxious brat packing!