2020 World Championship Thread

[CaledonianCraig]

First topic message reminder :

How about a thread to discuss the 2020 World Snooker Championships at The Crucible.

The delayed tournament starts today with a limited audience allowed in to watch the matches. The draw is as follows:-

Judd Trump (1) v Tom Ford
Yan Bingtao (16) v Elliot Slessor
Stephen Maguire (9) v Martin Gould
Kyren Wilson (8) - BYE
John Higgins (5) v Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert (12) v Kurt Maflin
Jack Lisowski (13) v Anthony McGill
Mark Allen (4) v Jamie Clarke
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Mark Williams (3) v Alan McManus
Stuart Bingham (14) v Ashley Carty
Ding Junhui (11) v Mark King
Ronnie O’Sullivan (6) v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Mark Selby (7) v Jordan Brown
Shaun Murphy (10) v Noppon Saengkham
Barry Hawkins (15) v Alexander Ursenbacher
Neil Robertson (2) v Liang Wenbo

Anthony Hamilton who suffers from asthma and qualified for the tournament has withdrawn due to COVID-19 and the fact there will be fans attending. This means Kyren Wilson gets a bye through to the Second Round.

This year there are five players making their Crucible debuts those being Elliot Slessor (England), Jordan Brown (Northern Ireland), Ashley Carty (England), Alexander Ursenbacher (Switzerland - the first Swiss player to play at the Crucible) and Jamie Clarke (Wales).

[Soul Requiem]

Does Wilson have a mental edge over all his opponents having played one less game? He had a whole week of down time to prepare for his second round match compared to everyone else who had been on and off for a couple of days.

O'Sullivan looking quite ominous here, thought he'd fold at 7-2 down but has played some great stuff since,

[Guest]

Incredible comeback to make that 8-8. Thought he’d fold after the way that first frame was lost.

Eirebilly must be fuming right now.

[CaledonianCraig]

And 8-8 it is. Cracking session in store tonight. Winner plays Mark Selby. On the other table Anthony McGill resumes 10-6 up on Kurt Maflin. The winner there will play Kyren Wilson in the other semi.

[Duty281]

Masterclass from Ronnie this afternoon. Finest snooker I've seen at the Crucible this year and he'll be delighted to be coming back this evening, rather than having to wait a day. If he replicates this standard tonight, I don't think Williams has a chance of recovering.

[CaledonianCraig]

Does Wilson have a mental edge over all his opponents having played one less game? He had a whole week of down time to prepare for his second round match compared to everyone else who had been on and off for a couple of days.

O'Sullivan looking quite ominous here, thought he'd fold at 7-2 down but has played some great stuff since,

No I wouldn't say so. If anything you could say it was a disadvantage. Remember that COVID means a lot of the players have had no snooker for a few weeks coming in (barring the qualifiers) so he's had one less match to shake off rust.

[CaledonianCraig]

Masterclass from Ronnie this afternoon. Finest snooker I've seen at the Crucible this year and he'll be delighted to be coming back this evening, rather than having to wait a day. If he replicates this standard tonight, I don't think Williams has a chance of recovering.

You've missed a heck of a lot of snooker then. Been a couple of matches that have seen four or five centuries in the space of six frames.

[CaledonianCraig]

Mark Williams gets a badly needed frame under his belt and he edges back ahead 9-8.

[CaledonianCraig]

A 50+ break from McGill and he makes it 11-6.

[CaledonianCraig]

A scrappy frame is taken eventually by Ronnie and we are back level at 9-9.

[Duty281]

That 18th frame was a car-crash.

Down to a best of 7 now.

[CaledonianCraig]

Maflin looks set to reduce his arrears to 11-7. And Ronnie wins safety exchange tempting Williams into a tricky pot he missed. Golden chance to go ahead 10-9 for O'Sullivan.

[CaledonianCraig]

A glaring miss in the middle pocket for O'Sullivan. Williams could really do with stealing this.

[CaledonianCraig]

And Williams needs a couple of chances but a steal it is. Williams leads 10-9. Big frame that.

[CaledonianCraig]

Looks all good for Ronnie to level at 10-10 at the mid-session interval. Best of 5 it is.

[Duty281]

Absolutely crucial that O'Sullivan won that. Did so in style. Perfectly poised.

[CaledonianCraig]

McGill goes for a rash four ball plant and loses the frame. Maflin still in this at 11-8.

[CaledonianCraig]

A monstrous fluke on a red seems to have helped Ronnie win this frame. Breaks down on 55 but hot favourite.

[CaledonianCraig]

And 11-10 to O'Sullivan it is.

[Duty281]

Neat fluke from O'Sullivan, cancelling out Williams' one in the afternoon.

If Ronnie can make it 12-10, it's very difficult to see the Welsh player rattling off three frames in a row to win.

[CaledonianCraig]

On both tables O'Sullivan and McGill are set to move a frame away from the semis. O'Sullivan on a 50+ break as is McGill.

[Guest]

Incredible stuff from the Rocket. 1 away

[CaledonianCraig]

Century from O'Sullivan leads 12-10. 90+ break from McGill leads 12-8.

[Duty281]

That was dazzling stuff.

[CaledonianCraig]

And that looks like that. O'Sullivan gets lucky and leaves Williams in a spot of trouble which he can't fashion an escape.

[Guest]

Ronnie advances to the SF. Fantastic match

Eirebilly must be sick

[Duty281]

11-4 to the Rocket today against Williams. Great standard of play. With Trump out of the way, this represents a glorious opportunity for O'Sullivan to net his sixth World title.

I think the winner of the semi-final between Ronnie and Selby will go on to win the tournament. Pleased to see Selby advance this far after a couple of barren years, it should be an excellent semi-final.

[JDizzle]

Fancy Selby to do a job on Ronnie. Always seem to have his number in the longer format - just manages to grind him down. Wilson should sweep past McGill fairly comfortably - McGill is yet to make a century break in the tournament!

[Soul Requiem]

I fancy Wilson to win with a session to spare.

[Guest]

Agree on Selby. Tends to just grind Ronnie down, invites the safety game, and takes away Ronnie’s rhythm and patience. I’d imagine he’ll be increasing his time between shots too, just to add to the annoyance.

Can’t look past Wilson for a spot in the final. McGill has not even made a century?.....Jesus.

[Duty281]

In long-form matches (best of 17 frames or greater), the H2H reads 5-4 in favour of Selby...mind you, some of those games go back a fair way. The most recent one was the 2016 UK Championship final which Selby won 10-7; before that it was of course the World final in 2014 which Selby won 18-14.

I think it'll be really tight. Don't feel Selby is at the same level that he was a few years ago, though he certainly has the tactical game to defeat O'Sullivan. I certainly don't think he'll make as many errors as Williams did today.

Agree on the other semi-final. Wilson should win comfortably at a distance. That said, McGill is hitting a knack of winning without being terribly impressive. Graeme Dott did that in 2006 and went all the way.

[88Chris05]

Brilliant match between O'Sullivan and Williams. I think the turning point was the eighteenth frame - Williams really should have gone 10-8, but lost his cueing a little afterwards and O'Sullivan slipped into that extra gear that he'd been missing for most of the match before that point (even when he reeled off those four successive frames in the afternoon, he'd been a long way off his best).

Difficult to call the O'Sullivan-Selby match. Going right back to 2007 / 2008, Selby has always been one of the few guys on tour who doesn't care a jot for O'Sullivan's reputation and has had more big-match success against him than just about anyone else. O'Sullivan has shown a fantastic killer instinct and ability to raise his game in the home stretch against both Ding and Williams, but they were open, free-flowing matches. There'll be a lot more scrappy and drawn-out frames against Selby. I think the key will be whether O'Sullivan can just raise his long game slightly - if he does, I fancy him to be just a little too strong for Selby, who is showing signs of returning to his best, but who I still don't think is quite at his level of a few years back. I'd put it 60:40 in O'Sullivan's favour, but I'd imagine it'll be close and a Selby win would be no shock.

Up until a couple of years back I really didn't see anything special about Kyren Wilson and I wasn't sure what the hype was about. Still wouldn't call myself a particularly big fan, but slowly and surely he's gone about proving himself a much better player than I first gave him credit for, and he's been impressive so far. That said, Trump didn't show up this year (I felt he was going to break the Crucible Curse) and I don't think Wilson has proven himself in the kind of furnace which produces world champions as of yet. I think he'll be comfortably too good for McGill, who has huffed and puffed his way through to the last four thanks in part to a pretty nice draw, but I don't see him beating either O'Sullivan or Selby over four sessions in a final.

My personal preference for who I'd like to win: 1) O'Sullivan 2) Wilson (just) 3) Selby 4) McGill

[eirebilly]

Ronnie advances to the SF. Fantastic match

Eirebilly must be sick

I do not like the way Ronnie acts but admire his snooker greatly, is that a crime?

Why you feel the need to constantly mention me in your posts is incredibly childish and a little bit creepy if I may be honest.

[eirebilly]

Fancy Selby to do a job on Ronnie. Always seem to have his number in the longer format - just manages to grind him down. Wilson should sweep past McGill fairly comfortably - McGill is yet to make a century break in the tournament!

I don't think that Selby will do a job on Ronnie myself. I think that Ronnie is just that class above and he really hasn't hit top form yet. Ronnie has become a much better 'match player' than what he was previously. 5-10 years ago, i would have favored a match player over Ronnie but now i think Ronnie has the temperament to not allow Selby to phase him.

[CaledonianCraig]

Williams was just not scoring heavily enough when presented with his chances. He'd either miss or run out of position and have to play safe compiling breaks of around 20 or 30 invariably. That won't get the job done against anybody and so it proved against O'Sullivan.

As for the semis well Selby V O'Sullivan could go either way. If Selby brings his match play game to the table for me he wins. He plays an ultra-tight game so chances for O'Sullivan could be very limited. If the frames open up then O'Sullivan will be in his element and I'd fear for Selby. I will say Selby 16-14 O'Sullivan

The other semi looks a little more clear cut to me. Wilson has a very strong all-round game and a very good mental toughness and think he'll have too many weapons for McGill. McGill, when he burst on the scene a few years ago, and reached the QF's here looked a better player than he does now where he has been far more sporadic. If he can refind some of that better, more consistent form he may be in with a shout. Going on what I have seen so far I see a comfortable win for Kyren Wilson. Wilson 16 McGill 8

[Duty281]

Three factors to suggest McGill/Wilson will be closer than some think:

1) McGill has the superior H2H record.
2) McGill is winning without playing well, and has the potential to step it up in the semi-final.
3) Wilson has lost three quarter-finals and one semi-final at the Crucible in the last four years. Something always stops him reaching the final.

[CaledonianCraig]

Three factors to suggest McGill/Wilson will be closer than some think:

1) McGill has the superior H2H record.
2) McGill is winning without playing well, and has the potential to step it up in the semi-final.
3) Wilson has lost three quarter-finals and one semi-final at the Crucible in the last four years. Something always stops him reaching the final.

I'd like to think McGill will up his game back to standards of a few years ago but I have my doubts. In with a good chance in this first frame. One thing he must get into the habit of doing is finish off frames in one visit.

[CaledonianCraig]

And that is what he must carry on doing. McGill, with a break of 83, seals the first frame in the semi to lead 1-0.

[CaledonianCraig]

McGill looking nice and composed early doors. A break of 78 and it is 2-0 to McGill.

[CaledonianCraig]

McGill in with another 50+ break and still building. Looks like 3-0 coming up.

[CaledonianCraig]

But misses a makeable red. Now can Kyren Wilson turn this frame around?

[CaledonianCraig]

And Wilson runs out of position on the green with a two point lead in the frame. This could go either way. Both had great chances to win it.

[CaledonianCraig]

And it is McGill who takes it to lead 3-0.

[CaledonianCraig]

And Wilson finally gets his first frame on the board. A scrappier frame which both players had chances in but Wilson eventually takes it. McGill goes into the mid-session interval leading 3-1.

[CaledonianCraig]

And McGill with breaks of 34 and 46 makes it 4-1.

[Duty281]

Great start from McGill. Solid break-building, decent safety play. Wilson just not allowed to get going so far.

Definitely game on.

[CaledonianCraig]

Wilson just can't get going. What he needs most is an easy start and uncomplicated break. McGill in again after things run awkward for Wilson.

[CaledonianCraig]

A break of 69 from McGill and he is favourite to take a 5-1 lead.

[CaledonianCraig]

And 5-1 it is. McGill really stepping up to the plate here. He seems to have shaken off the inhibitions he had in earlier matches. It appears Wilson's game matches up well for McGill.

[CaledonianCraig]

A rare chance for Wilson.

[CaledonianCraig]

Wilson runs out of position and has to settle for a break of 45. Pushes the boat out but leaves nothing easy.

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