2017 China Open

[Billy]

The broadcasters of this aren't keen on replays, are they?

[golferson123]

God, Selby in a final. I think i'd rather be forced to watch a 12 hour loop of Japanese Hentai than watch that guy play.

haters love to hate

[PatBlock]

Excellent final, hard luck MJW. Shame we never got to see the awards, can you imagine ANY other sport cutting off like that? Snooker ay, always shooting itself in the foot.

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[JimMalone]

Another great final. One of the best of this season, offering five centuries as well as tactical duels and most important a close and tense match.
I'm a huge Fan of Mark Selby, but wouldn't have minded Mark Williams winning the title today. In the end the worlds best player proved to strong though, once again producing superb snooker under pressure and winning the last three frames to beat Williams 10-8. Selby now has won 8 of his last 9 finals, showing how difficult he is to beat when much is at stake.
It's the Englishmans fourth ranking title of the season, being only one shy of the records set by Stephen Hendry and Ding Junhui. It's noteworthy though that Selby had already 18 tournaments this year of which he entered 14, while Ding had only 11 back in 2013/14 and Hendry even only 8 tournaments in 1990/91.
Overall it's Selbys 11th ranking title, he is now one behind Ding Junhui and Neil Robertson and he also secured that he will be #1 at the end of the season, regardless of the outcome of the World Championship.

Congratulations Mark Selby for another great performance and win!

Sadly it means that Mark Williams didn't get back to the Top 16 to qualify directly for the World Championship and he will have to go through the tough qualifying. His Welsh compatriot Ryan Day is in.

[Odrl]

A very enjoyable final today. The 15th frame was my favourite, Williams was 51 ahead with 51 on after he missed that pink to the middle, and there were reds on cushions and the black tied up, but Selby's tactical nous is superb and he got himself within a pot of winning the frame. :smile: He played some excellent stuff in the following frame as well, recovering position with two long blues and a long green under great pressure. A very deserving winner. He has now won three events with matches of at least medium length this season, and there haven't been that many staged, so he really is the man to beat outside of the short format. :smile:

Williams gave it everything today, but he gave a couple of frames away needlessly and it cost him in the end. He was a little lucky to survive the 15th frame, and also the frame in the first session that was very similar. Maguire, for example, didn't have such luck against Selby, and neither did Wilson in the last frame. But in any case, it still wasn't enough to beat the World champion and world number one. Obviously going to the qualifiers is something Williams could have done without, but this week will have given him some much needed confidence and momentum. I think he will be alright. :smile:

All in all, the China Open was a highly enjoyable tournament, as it is every year. I wish we had a few more like it. :smile: Looking forward to the World Championship now.

[motorhead]

So happy for Selby, great stuff! Enjoyed this final big time!

[JimMalone]

Despite his defeat Mark Williams congratulated fair:

"Well done @markjesterselby last 3 frames is the reason your not only theist player in the world but one of the best players EVER."

That's one reason why I like Williams.

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

The broadcasters of this aren't keen on replays, are they?

The lack of replays drives me nuts. Snooker is moronic at presenting itself.

[golferson123]

The lack of replays drives me nuts. Snooker is moronic at presenting itself.

agree but thats euro sport not snooker

[DeanH]

agree but thats euro sport not snooker

I would say it is the broadcaster, a Chinese TV, not Eurosport; strange though usually the Chinese TV firms love their replays

[crocodile]

As I said earlier, Williams seems to enjoy playing Selby and has a pretty good record against him. I think he will get close tomorrow, but realistically Selby is the stronger player, so I will go for Selby to win 10-8. :smile:

Genius at work .... !!

[PatBlock]

The lack of replays drives me nuts. Snooker is moronic at presenting itself.

And the ones they have shown lately have been very hit and miss, I've even some recently involving no balls whatsoever, just empty green baize.

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[Hal]

What a great final that was. Of course I would have preferred MJW to win, as he is my most favourite player ever, but what a superb opponent he had in Mark Selby. For me, that was one of the best matches whole season. That 70 break Selby made to level the match was incredibly good, so many hard shots he made, excellent. Whole standard of the final was really great. It is sad MJW lost, but I am fairly sure he is going to play in The Crucible once again. When he is in this kind of form, there is no other player I enjoy to watch more. And I dare to say, he can step up even more and make it deep in the World's. Not one of the biggest favourites, but he can reproduce the effort of McManus for sure.
As for Mark Selby, he is by far the best tactician on the circuit, it is scary how far ahead he is in this department even against the other world class players. He was not scoring this heavily last year, so if he keeps this form, it is hard to see anyone else to claim the world crown but him. Other players have played really well too though this year, Trump and Marco Fu spring on my mind, but I can't see them beating Selby playing somewhere as good as this. Looking forward to the World's so much.
I even have Eurosport player access (sadly only Czech version), so will try to catch as many qualifiers matched as I will be able too.