International Championship Quals 2018

[JimMalone]

A fine seventh frame between Selby and Robertson and an important win for the Aussie.

[Kargetina]

As soon as Selby plays Robertson, he turns into quite the bottler. In frames he would win against literally anyone else on the tour, he make terrible choices, misses a dozen chances, plays horrific safety shots. That 7th frame snooker he put on Neil should have been the end of frame and match. Instead he played it too safe, decided to skip an easy red, lost the position and then lost the frame. And like the 6:0 UK championship match, as soon he loses a frame he should've won, he turns into Judd Trump and can't recover.

[Kargetina]

I rest my case.

[DeanH]

superb 4 frames by Robbo on the spin to win from 2-4 down

[JimMalone]

Disappointing to see Selby lose to Robertson. But fair play to the Aussie, he played excellent today. As did Selby for most of the first seven frames, but then he simply started missing to many balls.

[Odrl]

Lovely match between Selby and Robertson today, one of the best I've seen in recent times. :smile: Well played to Robertson, to come back from 4-2 down after the way Selby had played was very impressive, particularly that long red that started his break in frame 7, and of course the high scoring that followed in the next couple of frames. Selby has played a lot worse and won matches in the past, but today Robertson was just too good.

So, we have Allen against Stevens tomorrow... I have to go for Allen to win this one. He's won his last couple of matches very comfortably, and he looked to be very composed and concentrated against Carter today. I don't think Stevens is capable of matching Allen's scoring at this point in time, and Allen is also more used to competing at the business end of major events in recent times, this being Stevens' first major SF in more than four years. I don't know... These two-session matches should in theory be easier to predict, but we've seen quite a few surprising stories in recent times, including heavy defeats for Allen when he looked to be in good form. I still think he will prevail tomorrow though, Allen to win 9-5. :smile:

[JimMalone]

I also think that the first semifinal could be pretty one-sided. Can't see Stevens winning this one over Best-of-17 to be honest, but I can imagine he will put on a fight. 9-4 to Allen though.

The other one could be closer - or not. Robertson played the best Snooker I've seen him play in a long, long time against Selby and if he repeats this against Lisowski he will win. I think Lisowski still has his problems, when meeting the best all-around-players over a longer format, because he can't keep his scoring up over the whole time. 9-5 to Robertson.

[Odrl]

Good stuff so far, it has to be said. Stevens has played very well in this session but is still two frames behind, so those early frames when he had chances to lead 4-1 and didn't take them could prove to be decisive in the end. :smile:

[Neil Taperell]

Would love to see Stevens win this match , but a tough ask from 7 - 5 down .

[DeanH]

a very enjoyable session so far.
I don't mind who wins really

[Neil Taperell]

I thought he was going to get that to 7 - 7 all .

[Odrl]

I didn't expect such a good match from these two, but it turned out to be very enjoyable. Well played to Allen, should be a great final, especially if he ends up playing Robertson.

Well played to Stevens as well. I expected him to lose all of his matches from the last16 onward, and I based that mostly on the fact that he only made one break over 50 in his first two matches, but today he played his best stuff on TV in years. :smile:

Hoping for something similar tomorrow. :smile:

[Odrl]

Unsurprisingly, I'm going for Robertson to win tomorrow... He was just so impressive against Selby, coming from behind with some flawless snooker and playing really aggressively, kind of like the way he used to play all the time when he was in his 20s. He has a chance to win his first really big title since the 2015 UK Championship here, so I don't think his level will drop from this point.

I'm not really sure how close Lisowski could push him. His results this season have been really impressive, but I didn't like what I saw from him in the second half of his match against Trump. That plant he went for was absolutely ridiculous, and it was the kind of thing that he looked to have cut from his game this season, but apparently it's still there to some extent. He was also very lucky with a couple of outrageous flukes in the last couple of frames, just when he was starting to wobble a little. He can perhaps match Robertson in scoring and potting accuracy, but I think Robertson is a much better match player, and that's bound to tell over two sessions. Robertson to win 9-5. :smile:

[DeanH]

A cracking first mini-session, both players attacking but with good match-play in mind; Robertson is being precise where Lisowski is slower round the table than he usually is with better affect, playing a bit too heavy often losing the white a bit more than Robbo and needing recovery shots to keep going. Lisowski's safety game has improved but still needs that little extra touch
Good to see a match were both are "up for it"
2-2

[Welshbaizeboy]

Superb break there from Jack to go 5-4 up potted some lovely balls 2 or 3 of the cush the boy has some talent be interesting to see if he can keep it up against Robbo