2018 Players Championship

[fkhan]

Nice victory for Mark. Also, the highest break of the tournament so far, 141.

[fkhan]

I think Ronnie vs Judd could turn out to be a cracker of a match. The two have played 21 matches so far and its almost the same number of victories for both with Ronnie being slightly ahead at 11-10.

[RaveDave]

I think Ronnie vs Judd could turn out to be a cracker of a match. The two have played 21 matches so far and its almost the same number of victories for both with Ronnie being slightly ahead at 11-10.

Fake Londoner Judd is winning this match trust me.

[Csmith]

I'm not sure you could really say Bingham came "out of nowhere". He was the 10th seed and the reigning Shanghai Masters champion when he won the Worlds, so he would have been among the outside favourites at least. :smile:

Lol fair enough I will upgrade him to "came out of the blue". I still never would have guessed he'd win, but I was really rooting for him once he made the semis. That was a pretty memorable event.

[JimMalone]

This may sound a bit daft, but | don't think Ronnie is in particularly blistering form atm, he gave Ding loads of chances last night, more than plenty for Ding to compete and win. He's had a great season, that's true, but there has been an awful lot of capitulation from his opponents and I think in the longer format of the worlds he'll come undone. That is of course, if he meets an opponent capable of holding onto their bowels.

-

Maybe O'Sullivan isn't in fantastic form, but in contrast to the other "great players" Selby, Higgins, Robertson and Ding (I'll take those five, cause I think when they are playing their best, they have the best all-around game) he is in very good shape. Higgins won the Welsh Open recently, but his whole season has been an up and down.

[JimMalone]

The only time I'm confident of O'Sullivan winning the worlds is when he reaches the final - until then it's a lottery.

If he meets Selby or Higgins in good form I wouldn't be to confident though. ;-)

[JimMalone]

It seems to me WC wont be the most interesting this year.Only Ronnie, Higgins and Williams are holding themselves together..If Selby doesnt repair his form there wont be any real contender for WC who is younger player...

Yeah, I'd hope as well that Selby and Ding and hopefully even more would hit their peak of the season at Sheffield. Right now my anticipation of the World Championship has sunk a bit.

[JimMalone]

I'm not sure you could really say Bingham came "out of nowhere". He was the 10th seed and the reigning Shanghai Masters champion when he won the Worlds, so he would have been among the outside favourites at least. :smile:

I agree he didn't came out of nowhere, but he wasn't among the favorites and it was a small surprise, cause in the years before (since Dott in 2006) the title always went to one of the big contenders. And in 2015 you would have rather thought about Selby, Robertson, O'Sullivan, Trump first and also Hawkins or despite his shallow season Ding would have less of a surprise than Bingham, who was as you said an outside bet. At least that is how I see and remember it.

[Odrl]

Looking back to this thread, I have to concede that Bingham's win was more of a surprise than I remember. I had him in the third group of favourites, and he didn't get a single mention from anyone else. :smile:

Anyway, looking forward to tonight's match. Trump played excellent stuff against Maguire, then just blew Robertson away, so it's a similar situation to when they met in the Shanghai Masters final. On that occasion Trump failed to reproduce his form from earlier in the week, I suspect largely due to the fact he was playing O'Sullivan, so it will be interesting to see how it goes this time. :smile: The afternoon match could be good as well.

[The Boss]

I've enjoyed Joe Perry's commentary this week. The BBC should hire Perry and Darren Morgan for the World Championship

[JimMalone]

Anyway, looking forward to tonight's match. Trump played excellent stuff against Maguire, then just blew Robertson away, so it's a similar situation to when they met in the Shanghai Masters final. On that occasion Trump failed to reproduce his form from earlier in the week, I suspect largely due to the fact he was playing O'Sullivan, so it will be interesting to see how it goes this time. :smile: The afternoon match could be good as well.

It would be nice to see McGill having a strong result once again and beat Murphy today.

[fkhan]

Fake Londoner Judd is winning this match trust me.

May the best man win. My vote is for Ronnie.

[jimev]

Really enjoyed last nights match. Williams really is a pleasure to watch in this form and was good to see Day make a fight back even if he didnt quite have enough. I make Williams third favourite for the worlds now. He's playing so well that I'd be pretty surprised if anybody other than O'Sullivan or Selby beat him over 2 sessions

[JimMalone]

Day's defeat (really intriguing last frame by the way) means he probably has to go through the qualifiers at the Crucible. Right now he is in 16th place, but can't make anymore points as he isn't qualified for the China Open. So Mark Allen only needs to win his opener there against Noppon Saengkham to overtake Day.

[Shockerz]

McGill and Murphy, what a tough game...no one giving an inch!