2013 World Snooker Championship

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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

(Seeded players are in brackets)

(1) Ronnie O'Sullivan v Marcus Campbell

(16) Ali Carter v Ben Woollaston

(9) Stuart Bingham v Sam Baird

(8) John Higgins v Mark Davis

(5) Shaun Murphy v Martin Gould

(12) Graeme Dott v Peter Ebdon

(13) Matthew Stevens v Marco Fu

(4) Judd Trump v Dominic Dale

(3) Neil Robertson v Robert Milkins

(14) Ricky Walden v Michael Holt

(11) Mark Williams v Michael White

(6) Stephen Maguire v Dechawat Poomjaeng

(7) Mark Allen v Mark King

(10) Ding Junhui v Alan McManus

(15) Barry Hawkins v Jack Lisowski

(2) Mark Selby v Matthew Selt

And Selby of course

Oh dear....

If Selby goes out then I shall start getting nervous.

The warning lights are on. Selby's down 11-10 and playing the worst snooker I've seen from him in a long time.

Disaster averted for Ali. He's 5-3 down but the way he was playing early on and with some of that bad luck he had it could have been 6-2 or worse... Selby's staring at 12-10. This is bad.

Barry's in. Can he hold it together for a "famous victory"?

No.

But Barry's in again. Reds reasonably placed. 16 ahead....

Barring 1 snooker, Hawkins is taking a well deserved victory...

Looks like it is going to be another one-sided final this year with the winner of the Ronnie O'Sullivan - Judd Trump semi-final winning the final at a canter, now that the 3 big guns in the other half of the draw (Selby, Robertson, Maguire) are all out of this year's tournament.

That's a good point, unless Ding makes it to the final, the winner is coming from the top half. (Come on Ricky!!)

Ding now favourite for the tournament imo, which is good since I got him at 11s

That's a great pick if Ding at his best turns up. The draw's fair opened up for him though.

Juddley needs to stop getting flukes

It's taken me over an hour to realise (and laugh at) Ding v King. King's favourite to go to 3-0 and Marco's up against it.

Ah well done Juddley. He wins 13-7 and sets up (hopefully) a wonderful match v the sMurph.

Trump v Murphy pick of the quarters for sure, can't ever remember them playing each other (other than premier league etc.)

Neither can I, at least not on TV. It'll be interesting to see how Murphy plays; either he'll keep it tight or just go all-out attack.

I'd expect Ding to turn around 6-2 against King, but it depends massively on the first two frames tomorrow because if it goes 7-2 or 8-2, that might be too large a deficit. Still, it might be 5-3 by the end of tonight and the "real" Ding might turn up tomorrow.

Jeez, at this rate Ricky Walden will be World Champion!!

The Special Juan wrote:It's taken me over an hour to realise (and laugh at) Ding v King. King's favourite to go to 3-0 and Marco's up against it.

I've always wanted to watch a Fu v King match.

ryan86 wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:It's taken me over an hour to realise (and laugh at) Ding v King. King's favourite to go to 3-0 and Marco's up against it.

I've always wanted to watch a Fu v King match.

Very good.

ryan86 wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:It's taken me over an hour to realise (and laugh at) Ding v King. King's favourite to go to 3-0 and Marco's up against it.

I've always wanted to watch a Fu v King match.

The spoilsports at the BBC would make sure it was King v Fu.

Ding's won all 4 frames and it's now 6-6. Ali's currently in and it's 6-7. If he can get it to 8-8 he has a great chance.

8-7 Ronald. If he manages to get out of this session 4-4 then he'll consider himself fortunate. He has pretty much no long game at the moment though which is worrying for his legions of fans.

Mmmm well played Ronald. 9-7 going into the final session.

I cant stand Ding, cheer up lad! He makes me want to kill myself in sympathy!

How Ronnie tied that last session is beyond me - it wasnt just his long pots that deserted him but his safety game too. And he missed 3/4 straightforward pots.

I'm not sure if someone's going to need to delete this post but I'm becoming more and more worried that the Chinese Mafia have got their claws into Ding.

I'm assuming he still has lots of family back in China which would make him an easy target

He never looks like he really enjoys playing, has endless talent but wins less than he did when he first came on the scene. Just makes me very suspicious. I guess I've got Honest John to blame partly for that.

If Juddly can't win I'd love Ding to if only to allay my suspicions.

I'm slightly disappointed by the scheduling tonight which has meant there are two matches playing their middle sessions at the same time. Would have been more exciting to see one to the finish.

Watching Dr Giggles might give me nightmares so I guess it's the Milkman v Herman Munster for me.

I always thought he looked more like Lurch, Hibbz. As for your point about Ding, I think that's rather unlikely. I imagine he's been playing snooker for about 15 years now and has no doubt gotten bored with it but I think he's now on the way back. He won the PTC tour finals (the penultimate ranking event before the WC) and is away to break the record for the most centuries in a season. Plus, he's under a massive amount of pressure to do well in every single tournament it's no wonder he's always not performed at his best. However, when on form, he's probably the best player in the world and hopefully with age comes more consistency. His break-building ability is utterly phenomenal.

Okay, hope you're right TSJ.

I really enjoy watching him and he seems like a very likeable, if understandably shy, chap.

Winning the PTC wouldn't convince me though as I'd imagine as a generally considered lesser tournament it would be the hardest to get a sizeable bet on.

I didn't used to like him because I found him a bit arrogant but he cracks the very rare smile these days and seems much nicer these days now he can speak good English.

Ricky's 10-6 up and looking good for the quarters. Bingham's in a real scrap with Dark Mavis (fantastic nickname) and is not playing well at all.

My final thought of the day: This tournament would be so much better with Mark Allen.

The Special Juan wrote:My final thought of the day: This tournament would be so much better with Mark Allen.

Also it would be a much better tournament had O'Sullivan not played in it as then we would be getting another winner this year other than John Higgins or Ronnie himself who between them have taken part in all the World Finals since 2004 (apart from 3 blips in 2005, 2006 and 2010) and won them all.

I can't see Ronnie winning this tournament without his long game / safety improving massively. And while long potting comes and goes, you can't really get a feel for safety in practice - only in match play. I think that'll be his downfall.

So who do I think is looking good right now? Ricky Walden, that's who.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:I can't see Ronnie winning this tournament without his long game / safety improving massively. And while long potting comes and goes, you can't really get a feel for safety in practice - only in match play. I think that'll be his downfall.

So who do I think is looking good right now? Ricky Walden, that's who.

But even without his long game, Ronnie can still win this year's tournament easily now that the majority of the game's big stars Selby, Robertson, Maguire, Higgins, Allen are all out of the tournament. Ronnie's amazing breakbuilding ability will be enough for him to get past the likes of Judd Trump/Sean Murphy in their semi-final clash, whilst once in the Final itself his 4 Finals playing experience will be enough for him to win it easily against whoever is unlucky enough to waste their energies in battling past his opponents in the other half of the draw.

I have no problem with a recurring winner as I think this is the only tournament that's a proper test these days now that all others have been cheapened by a short format but the lack of 2 of the big 4 in the latter stages doesn't bode well for the tournament as a whole as aside from Juddley v sMurphy, we could be looking at a severe lack of "blockbuster" matches. The quality so far has been pretty low and the centuries are hardly flowing (granted there have been a lot of 70/80s) too but hopefully it's much better next year when the rankings mean diddly squat.

The Special Juan wrote:hopefully it's much better next year when the rankings mean diddly squat.

What's this? What have I missed?

Azzy Mahmood wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:hopefully it's much better next year when the rankings mean diddly squat.

What's this? What have I missed?

All 128 players (or however many it is - might be 96) start at the same stage in each tournament except The Masters and the World Championship. Therefore, the "Top 16" means absolutely nothing except whereabouts you are placed in the draw (1 in the top half, 2 in the bottom half, etc) and if you get to the Masters or not.

Oh yeah. That. Terrible move by Hearn imo, humans learned 10,000 years ago how to separate the wheat from the chaff, yet here we are, putting them back together again.

I want to watch top quality snooker between the world's best, not rounds and rounds of Chinese no-hopers being brushed aside by Peter Ebdon.

The Special Juan wrote:I have no problem with a recurring winner as I think this is the only tournament that's a proper test these days now that all others have been cheapened by a short format but the lack of 2 of the big 4 in the latter stages doesn't bode well for the tournament as a whole as aside from Juddley v sMurphy, we could be looking at a severe lack of "blockbuster" matches. The quality so far has been pretty low and the centuries are hardly flowing (granted there have been a lot of 70/80s) too but hopefully it's much better next year when the rankings mean diddly squat.

Unless someone like Ding Junhui reaches the World final coming through from the other half of the draw, I really can't see the World final itself this year being anything other than a one-sided contest with the winner of the O'Sullivan V Trump or Murphy Semi-Final easily winning the Final by a very large margin of 18 frames to 3 or 5. Anyway if Trump manages to get past Murphy, the scene is set for the biggest blockbusting/showpiece semi-final match in the Crucible's history since that famous 1982 semi-final clash between Alex Higgins and Jimmy White.

That's Sir Peter Ebdon

gboycottnut wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I have no problem with a recurring winner as I think this is the only tournament that's a proper test these days now that all others have been cheapened by a short format but the lack of 2 of the big 4 in the latter stages doesn't bode well for the tournament as a whole as aside from Juddley v sMurphy, we could be looking at a severe lack of "blockbuster" matches. The quality so far has been pretty low and the centuries are hardly flowing (granted there have been a lot of 70/80s) too but hopefully it's much better next year when the rankings mean diddly squat.

Unless someone like Ding Junhui reaches the World final coming through from the other half of the draw, I really can't see the World final itself this year being anything other than a one-sided contest with the winner of the O'Sullivan V Trump or Murphy Semi-Final easily winning the Final by a very large margin of 18 frames to 3 or 5. Anyway if Trump manages to get past Murphy, the scene is set for the biggest blockbusting/showpiece semi-final match in the Crucible's history since that famous 1982 semi-final clash between Alex Higgins and Jimmy White.

There's too many "ifs" and "buts" to predict anything yet, all we can really say is that Trump v Murphy will be a good match. Any potential O'Sullivan v Trump match could potentially be one of the greatest matches ever, but I don't think Trump's at the level yet to really trouble Ronald if the latter plays 85% or above. Ding on the other hand could but as I keep mentioning too much, there are still questions over his temperament. Anyway, too many "ifs" and "buts". The tournament's not even halfway through yet in terms of frames (once you win the quarters, you've played 36 frames and need to win 35 more to win the title).

The quarter-final lineup isn't as surprising as some are making out - Murphy and Trump are a given, Bingham I would have expected to progress given Higgins is out of form, and Ding shouldn't surprise anyone. As good as Selby has been this season, Hawkins is really a top 10 player based on recent performances and his victory isn't that big an upset. Michael White reaching the quarters isn't that big of a surprise considering MJW has terrible form. The only real big shock for me is that Robertson is out.


Having said that, the bottom half was loaded with all the in-form players (Selby, Robertson, Ding, Allen, Maguire), and only Ding is still in.

I didn't expect Higgins to get through to the quarters considering he has the Shanghai Masters curse but I did expect Selby and Robertson to be there. Maguire's too hit-and-miss so I never count on him to be anywhere except the first round. Murphy and JT were pretty much nailed on to be in the quarters too, but Allen going out early irritated me because I wanted to see him play Ding.

Just what the Milkman needed, a nice quick frame to close to 10-7. I don't want to say Ricky's a bottler but....

Another quick frame, it's 10-8. The Milkman's sort of the opposite of Ebdon but both are destructive when they're on a roll.

lol at the commentators acting like playing the double as a shot to nothing isn't standard to take on ("it's only a shot ronnie would play cos he's a genius etc.etc.)

Carter will probably once again act like he's the unluckiest player in the world :P

The Special Juan wrote:I didn't expect Higgins to get through to the quarters considering he has the Shanghai Masters curse but I did expect Selby and Robertson to be there. Maguire's too hit-and-miss so I never count on him to be anywhere except the first round. Murphy and JT were pretty much nailed on to be in the quarters too, but Allen going out early irritated me because I wanted to see him play Ding.

I was going to bet against Higgins since his odds were ridiculous but then if he'd won I'd have annoyed in multiple ways :P

Dennis loves Ronnie.

Attaboy Ricky, 11-8 now.

WT and Virgo are also terrible in that regard. We need more commentary from people like Neal Foulds who actually watch most of the events and talk up all the players.

I never used to like Fouldsy but he and Clive won me over at the World Open, as did ITV4's coverage. It was basic but the commentators knew what they were talking about and there was none of this "Sky" style stuff with stupid camera shots and unlimited hype. I wonder who'll be in the box in 10 years time. Hendry and Ken will be there hopefully, plus Steve and John. I think the sMurph will definitely be a TV personality, hopefully with Robertson and MJW (I'd love it if MJW was in the commentary box with Hendry).

And Dominic Dale.

11-9 Ricky. The first frame after the MSI is massive.