World Snooker Championship 2022

First topic message reminder :

Starts on Saturday, with Mark Selby defending his title.

Bookmakers favourite for this year is 2010 champion Neil Robertson and with good reason - he's won four events this season, more than anyone else, including the Masters and the recent Tour Championship, in which he completed a thrilling comeback to beat Higgins in the final. But Robertson has struggled at the Crucible since winning the event in 2010, only making one semi-final since then.

Defending champion Selby, Trump and O'Sullivan are also well in the running, but have had fairly quiet years by their illustrious standards, winning three events between them, with Selby failing to make the final of any tournament since his victory at the Crucible in 2021.

Higgins has been in solid form this year and he will be backing himself to do well. While he's only won one event this year, he has finished runner-up in five other events and has, rather astonishingly, lost three of those in final-frame deciders. However it could be a year for the first Chinese winner of the event, and Zhao Xintong (recent winner of the UK Championship) is the leading name for that country this year, with Yan Bingtao and the ever-popular Ding Junhui (who squeezed through in the qualifiers) also present.

The Draw:

Soul Requiem wrote:

Duty281 wrote:O'Sullivan's level is better than it was two decades ago. He hits 50+ and century breaks with greater frequency, his mental game is tougher, and his safety/tactical play is much improved.

Fair to say he hasn't dominated like Davis or Hendry did, but O'Sullivan's managed to stay at the top of the game for the best part of thirty years, something which the other two couldn't manage. Hendry dropped off very quickly once the competition started catching up to him.

So does Mark Williams and he's not the player he was twenty years ago, scoring big is easier now because the overall tactical game has dropped off a cliff. Mark Selby is as good as anyone there's ever been tactically but Higgins for instance isn't the tactical master he once was but still regularly makes the single table format. O'Sullivan has been near the top of the game for the best part of thirty years, not at THE top like Davis and Hendry were for a whole decade, that is an important distinction to make.

O'Sullivan is like I said the best player i've seen pick up a cue but he's still third in the greatness stakes for me.

Triple Crown

O'Sullivan- 21 (1993-2022)
Hendry- 18 (1989-1999)
Davis- 15 (1980-1997*)

*1997 Masters win was 8 years after his 14th

Good post. They were all greats in their own different ways. Davis and Hendry had complete domination for the best part of a decade with Davis dominating the 80s and Hendry dominating the 90s. Ronnie's longevity and consistency usurps even Mark Williams and John Higgins which is some going. Congratulations to Ronnie. I think in recent years he has been far better balanced mentally with the promises of quitting the sport diminishing greatly and seems to spend more time talking about his next few years in the sport. How many world titles can he win? Tough to say but he cannot be written off adding to the seven he has.

Duty281 wrote:World Seniors on for the next few days, although some of those 'seniors' are actually younger than three of the semi-finalists in the main event.

It's an odd tournament because of the longevity of some players on the main tour. So making up the numbers are some real journeymen, some I'd never even heard of. There's also curiosities like Mark Williams being the 2015 champion but won the actual World Title after that and of course nearly made the final this year.

Something tells me that without Jimmy White this tournament wouldn't exist

VTR wrote:

Duty281 wrote:World Seniors on for the next few days, although some of those 'seniors' are actually younger than three of the semi-finalists in the main event.

It's an odd tournament because of the longevity of some players on the main tour. So making up the numbers are some real journeymen, some I'd never even heard of. There's also curiosities like Mark Williams being the 2015 champion but won the actual World Title after that and of course nearly made the final this year.

Something tells me that without Jimmy White this tournament wouldn't exist

Yeah, Mark Williams winning it in 2015 for the easiest payday of his life caused them to change the eligibility rules, meaning a player has to be ranked 65 and below as well as being the required age. Which is good news for Michael Holt, this year's tournament favourite, who is ranked 65.