World Championship Prediction Contest

[dheepanshusukhija]

Both look really strong, hoping for a cracking final!

[attilahun]

Higgins 18 - Williams 14

[alabadi]

I think Higgins will be too strong 18-13

[Dark]

Higgins 18 - Williams 17

[Mr Snooker]

Final Prediction (Head to head Meetings in brackets)

1 Mark Williams MBE (20) 18 John Higgins MBE (31) 15

plus 4 Draws

[Mr Snooker]

It would be nice if someone can find a link to a fantasy snooker prediction league free to enter, I am a member of a couple of darts forums, one of my other favourite sports that do a prediction contest and fully enjoy getting involved and doing predictions for each round. please share the link if you come across one

[kligu]

Kyren Wilson 17-15 John Higgins
Barry Hawkins 17-13 Mark Williams

[JimMalone]

Damn, forget this yesterday.

Williams - Hawkins 17-13

Just for fun: The other one I would have projected as Higgins - Wilson 17-14.

[attilahun]

John Higgins 17-14 Kyren Wilson
Mark Williams 17-15 Barry Hawkins

[Odrl]

Kyren Wilson 17-13 John Higgins
Mark Williams 14-17 Barry Hawkins

[Steve748]

I think Kyren will win because he is the only name left that does not end with an 's'

My prediction..

[Mr Snooker]

Semi Final Predictions (Head to head Meetings in brackets)

1 John Higgins MBE 17 (2) 17 Kyren Wilson (1) 12

2 Mark Williams MBE (14) 17 Barry Hawkins (3) 15

[Dark]

Wilson - Higgins 17 - 13
Williams - Hawkins 17 - 5

[Porter]

John Higgins vs. Kyren Wilson. I'm going for Wilson winning 17-15

Mark Williams vs. Barry Hawkins. This match I'm going with Williams winning 17-13

[bagpiper13579]

...Man, that was fun.

Anyway:

John Higgins vs. Kyren Wilson
Nothing is going to be easy to call from now on. Higgins has a good record against Wilson, whom he beat in last year's quarter-final handily. However, Wilson has really come into his own; he kept a fiery Mark Allen very quiet. To do that against a player of Allen's quality itself is an achievement. Higgins, on the other hand, will likely be a bit tired after that battle with Trump. What further complicates this match is that, apart from last year's quarter-final, these two have not played a long-format match against each other. Wilson also has the better results in matches this Championship, with Higgins having only one blowout against Lisowski. Wilson has also kept his opponents scoring fewer points per frame than Higgins has for his opponents.
This will be a long and tight match, I think. I think it'll be a far more interesting match than the Hawkins-Williams match in terms of play. Overall, I think Wilson's form is better than Higgins, and if Higgins is starting to lose stamina, Wilson has this. If not, then it's still one tough-minded, can stage a comeback, excellent potter, good tactician in good form against John Higgins.

Prediction: Wilson; 17-14

Mark Williams vs. Barry Hawkins
I wasn't able to catch much of the match, but looking at comments on here and and at the stats, Ding was terrible. Really really terrible by his standards. What this means for Hawkins is unclear; 2 centuries and 9 breaks of 60+ looks good, but he actually had, in his blowout, a lower avg. points per frame than both Williams and Wilson. Which is to say, doesn't look convincing still. Whether he can find form in this semi-final, I am unsure. But I am sure that Williams is very difficult to contain at the moment; he beat Carter by outscoring him and being un-containable. That match was a more back-and-forth, rather un-scrappy affair. That doesn't look good for Hawkins, who hasn't seemed able to really contain his opponents so well.
If it gets down to pure scoring, then Hawkins needs to find form, and quickly. If it gets down to tactics, I think Mark Williams has a slight but not damning edge. However, these long matches are almost always a mixture of the two. In that case, Mark Williams' scoring will likely be able to keep Hawkins quiet for the moment.
Prediction: Mark Williams; 17-12