2019 World Snooker Championship

[peterpackage]

sharing the session was as good as winning it for Trump

2 frames away. He would need a Jana Novotna like mental meltdown to lose from here

Great snooker from both players, really high quality stuff, especially compared to most matches this championship

[DeanH]

what great sportsmanship between the two players
what great sport they are giving us

I hope the evening does take more than two frames

[daffie]

Hear Hear! Fantastic stuff.

[snookerball]

Absolute great to see John and Judd willing eachother on in their maximum attempts. Would have been great if one or both of them could have made it but alas it was not to be. Think Hendry's absolutely right that this loss won't hurt John as much as the Williams and Selby ones, but I reckon it will still hurt him. Can't see him retiring after the tournament though.

If as many of us suspect Judd goes on to win 4,5 or 6 titles this could really be looked back on as a changing of the guard moment

[Mark187187]

That John Higgins is out there smiling and enjoying him, and not beating himself up says alot about the standard Judd is producing. Completely unplayable. I don't think I've ever seen a match at the Crucible where a player has produced such a consistently high standard. All that, and he's entertained the crowd so much at the same time. This, for me, goes down as one of the truly great crucible performances. As someone else said, for this match we've seen a new standard for snooker.

[Mark187187]

If as many of us suspect Judd goes on to win 4,5 or 6 titles this could really be looked back on as a changing of the guard moment

You'd be surprised how many people on this forum wrote off Judd's chances of ever winning a title.

[MrRottweiler]

Was hoping for 15-10 as that would have given John a glimmer of hope but now it's just a case of him getting the first few frames to make an evening of it. Would be nice to get to the mid session interval just to see what the BBC has lined up. I don't see Judd getting any winning line nerves so tonight could be over very quickly.

[peterpackage]

that shot by Judd was insane, insane

[peterpackage]

When Ronnie won his first, the floodgates opened and he's won 5

I think 3 is realistic for Judd if he wins this one

[snookerball]

Was hoping for 15-10 as that would have given John a glimmer of hope but now it's just a case of him getting the first few frames to make an evening of it. Would be nice to get to the mid session interval just to see what the BBC has lined up. I don't see Judd getting any winning line nerves so tonight could be over very quickly.

It'll be shot of the championship announcement.

The feature on Terry Griffiths was great. Shame to see him semi-retire from coaching, one of the best coaches about and aided some of the best in the game. So admiral that he looked back on his own early career and what he would have like then decided to try and provide it future generations (mental coaching), he along with several others from his era have undoubtedly had a great impact on the improvement we've seen in the game over the years. It can sometimes be forgotten among the new stars of snooker, but guys like Terry and Ray Reardon are partly responsible.

[Odrl]

Another great session of snooker. Even though it looks like the scoreline won't be particularly close in the end, this will still go down as one of the most memorable World finals ever. They've already broken the record for most centuries in a single match, and there could still be one or two more. :smile:

When Ronnie won his first, the floodgates opened and he's won 5

Well, I wouldn't really describe it in that way, because it actually took O'Sullivan three years to win his second title, then another four years to win his third, and again four years to win the other two. Selby might be the better example, having won all three of his titles in only four years. :smile:

[gavpowell]

There seems to be general agreement between the BBC and Eurosport pundits, including Ron, that Trump is somehow taking the game to a new level. I really don't see that - he's playing out of his skin in this match, but is this really better than O'Sullivan has produced over the years? Is he scoring better than Hendry?
It's also a question of time - plenty of players have looked unstoppable for prolonged spells, but 18 months, 2 years later it's all come to a halt, a la Selby, Williams, O'Sullivan etc.

[snookerball]

When Ronnie won his first, the floodgates opened and he's won 5

I think 3 is realistic for Judd if he wins this one

Didn't particularly happen like that though did it. Took him 3 years to get back and win number two, then another 4 years to win number three and another 4 years to win number four. He then took a season off to focus on winning number 5. So it was hardly the opening of the floodgates that Reardon, Davis and Hendry experienced or even Selby to a lesser extent.

One thing that does amaze me is that Higgins and O'Sullivan have never met in a second World Champs final, I really hope that happens before they both eventually retire (and of course if John could somehow pull a comeback off tonight, it would be a straight shootout for sixth world title which would surely have an unbelievable edge to it). Next year maybe?

[aaryal]

Didn't particularly happen like that though did it. Took him 3 years to get back and win number two, then another 4 years to win number three and another 4 years to win number four. He then took a season off to focus on winning number 5. So it was hardly the opening of the floodgates that Reardon, Davis and Hendry experienced or even Selby to a lesser extent.

One thing that does amaze me is that Higgins and O'Sullivan have never met in a World Champs final, I really hope that happens before they both eventually retire (and of course if John could somehow pull a comeback off tonight, it would be a straight shootout for sixth world title which would surely have an unbelievable edge to it). Next year maybe?

What are you on about? Higgins and Sullivan did meet at a world champs final. Sullivan won ....

[aaryal]

Higgins fans are potentially in for a treat tonight ... One of the greatest comebacks of all time.


....

The optimistic way to look at higgins' situation haha