2018 World Championship

[Stony152]

seen him play and he has a really nice manner at the table, hope he can do well

Would be first Polish player at the Crucible I think

It would be huge for snooker here in Poland if Stefanów (ste-fah-noov) got to the crucible. The sport has really gained popularity here in the last 10 years because of all of the Eurosport coverage. Not a lot of people play, but cue sports in general are fairly popular. The word bilard is used as a general term the same way pool is used in Canada and the US. Most people play 8 ball, but many watch snooker on TV. Probably similar to Germany in that regard.

Kacper Filipiak won the European under-21 title in 2011 as a 16 year old and O'Sullivan called him a future great player, but so far it really hasn't happened for him. He's still young and has time on his side.

[JimMalone]

I Thought the Jackson Page Yan Bingtao would be closer, nerves maby be getting to Jackson, but 6-3 at the end of the first session is not bad, still time to come back this evening

I think you are overestimating Page a bit. He has talent, but he is just 16 and he has only won one sole match this year on the Main Tour. Against Sean O'Sullivan at the Welsh Open. Now he is playing a guy, who is probably among the Worlds best 20 players. A victory by Page here would be an huge upset.

[Mr Snooker]

I Thought the Jackson Page Yan Bingtao would be closer, nerves maby be getting to Jackson, but 6-3 at the end of the first session is not bad, still time to come back this evening

[DeanH]

Can actually see some spectators
Good to see; I recall WS some years ago saying that "no-one would want to watch Qualifiers"

[JimMalone]

seen him play and he has a really nice manner at the table, hope he can do well

Would be first Polish player at the Crucible I think

I saw him once play Selby in some qualifier this season. Think he has quite a good game.

Yeah, he surely would be.

[DeanH]

Yan, Stevens and Doherty are dominating their matches so far, the others are pretty close.
The most notable intermediate result is Adam Stefanow leading Gary Wilson 5-2.

seen him play and he has a really nice manner at the table, hope he can do well

Would be first Polish player at the Crucible I think

[JimMalone]

Yan, Stevens and Doherty are dominating their matches so far, the others are pretty close.
The most notable intermediate result is Adam Stefanow leading Gary Wilson 5-2.

[armstm]

Will he treat himself to a new wig if he qualifies?

A good start for Jimmy 10-6 win, plenty of work still to do in a tight group with Perry through 10-1, Georgiou through 10-4 & Davis through 10-1

[fkhan]

It’s good that we have mixed competition in singles matches. I did not know this until now.

[DeanH]

Reanne did that Legends tour with ROS, Trump and Jimmy, etc so maybe that has given her some more exposure to top play?

[JimMalone]

I see that a few women are contesting too. I have not seen this in some other recent tournaments. Is this followed only at the worlds?

Neither Evans nor Ng is on the Main Tour, therefore they can't compete at most events. In the Qualifiers for the World Championship there is one place reserved for the Women's World Champion though (Ng) and this year also for the #2 ranked female player (Evans).

[fkhan]

I see that a few women are contesting too. I have not seen this in some other recent tournaments. Is this followed only at the worlds?

[JimMalone]

Cao out already in the first round against Robin Hull. That's quite a surprise for me.

[JimMalone]

Any chance Ng plays considerably worse when playing against men in this kind of tournament and does not produce anything like her best?

Could be. As well as it could be motivating Evans.

I saw a bit of the Doherty - Evans match last year (?). I also got the feeling back then that Doherty was a bit nervous playing her and not at his best, maybe thinking that a loss against a woman could be a little "embarrassing".

[Dave Walton]

9 1/2 hours for 11 frames!

No thanks

In fact I just skipped the first 9h 25m and discover she only won because her opponent mis-cued on the final pink (actually playing the black but it was a free-ball)

Meanwhile, Evans has just stolen frame 16 to go 7-9 against Dale to show again she's the only female who can compete with some of the mid to lower ranked male players. If she played on the main tour she'd easily win her fair share of best of 7s.

All well and good apart from she's not good enough to earn a tour card and that's been repeatedly proven.