China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money

[JimMalone]

Bad result for Mags. Will have to qualify for Crucible.

Yes, the Top 16 look pretty set right now, except for the order. But Liang and King would need to make the final already to push off Mark Allen of #16 and this also requires that Allen loses in his next round. And anybody else would need to win the China Open.

[Bigmeek]

Bad result for Mags. Will have to qualify for Crucible.

[crocodile]

Probably needs more "school fee" money since he was made skint a few years ago.

Must be quite an expensive school then, when you consider how much he's raked in so far this season - unless of course he really is still skint!

[crocodile]

Judd Trump is out of the tournament, as he lost 5-6 to Jak Jones. Didn't expect this.

Oh, great!
The wannabee world champion can't even qualify for the China Open. What a berk.

[vilkrang]

Caught the end of the Selby match. Decent break to win it but other than that he looked very ordinary.

[motorhead]

Stevens with his 1000 chances missed I'd imagine following the livescore.....

[motorhead]

Higginson turned it around, was 0-4 and 2-5.

[JimMalone]

I also think some of the fear factor is now gone with Selby. His opponents know that it won't really be one-visit snooker, so they don't bring a defeatist attitude to the match when they face him. Donaldson, for example, had no problem knocking him out of the UK Championship when he got the chances, and I was sure a lesser-known player such as Wang Yuchen would maybe twitch once or twice today, but he played much better than I expected.

We saw something similar with Ronnie O'Sullivan a year or two back, when players with a poor record against him suddenly started knocking him out of major tournaments, but he's managed to get it back in a major way this season. And the only way to get it back really is with strong performances and results, which Selby just isn't producing at the moment.

Anyway, good win from Ding on the other table. There was a bit of annoyance when things went against him once or twice, but overall he was solid enough and I would expect him to have a good tournament here. :smile:

Yeah, you're definitely right about this. This is one thing I noted as well. During the last two years players would have more pressure when playing against Selby, cause they knew nearly every mistake would be punished and with his run of success it felt like fighting a giant there. And of course with his brilliant safety game many opponents were under pressure from the start also not only in their minds, but also on the table.


I haven't seen anything of Ding's match, but this is good news.

[Odrl]

I also think some of the fear factor is now gone with Selby. His opponents know that it won't really be one-visit snooker, so they don't bring a defeatist attitude to the match when they face him. Donaldson, for example, had no problem knocking him out of the UK Championship when he got the chances, and I was sure a lesser-known player such as Wang Yuchen would maybe twitch once or twice today, but he played much better than I expected.

We saw something similar with Ronnie O'Sullivan a year or two back, when players with a poor record against him suddenly started knocking him out of major tournaments, but he's managed to get it back in a major way this season. And the only way to get it back really is with strong performances and results, which Selby just isn't producing at the moment.

Anyway, good win from Ding on the other table. There was a bit of annoyance when things went against him once or twice, but overall he was solid enough and I would expect him to have a good tournament here. :smile:

[JimMalone]

Selby survives with 6-4, but it was a tough fight. At his best he really looks like the complete player (along with John Higgins), but he is really far away from peak form right now. His long potting isn't there, his safeties are not as exact as they used to be, he runs out of position quite often, needed always more than one attempt to secure a frame while giving many chances away.

Sam Craigie stages an upset beating Martin Gould 6-4 and opening that already weak section even more. The other side of the third quarter could be weakened as well as Matthew Stevens leads Stuart Bingham 5-4.

[JimMalone]

Selby now leads 4-3, but still not playing well for his standards.

Ding almost through, being 5-2 ahead against Georgiou.

[JimMalone]

I must confess Zhou's name surprised me when I glanced at JimMalone's QF predictions yesterday

Knowing that there are almost always some surprises in the tournaments I tend to look where I can reasonably put one into my predictions. The part of the draw with Neil Robertson as the seed sprang to my eyes. Gould would be the more logical choice based on the last weeks of course, but at one point good players have to start to gain good results again so you can't always go with the ones that showed good form recently. Especially in snooker form often changes so fast. I like Zhou as a player and could imagine that he finds a bit more focus now again at the season's high points and with the passing of his father a few months away.

[Odrl]

He got 4 snookers he needed, then went in-off .... sorry for spoilers, I am just not happy now.

Interesting, Cao had just potted match ball when I was on my way out. It looks like I missed the most entertaining part of the match. :smile:

[sharkster63]

Eurosport and quest

Thanks Johny, going to see if i can hook on to a stream. Ding is playing, gould as well but he is never televised. Cheers

[JimMalone]

Selby already 0-2 down against Wang Yuchen.