China Open

zack01

Ken Doherty was one of eight qualifiers who have been drawn to play a wild card round in the China Open.
Originally due to play Greame Dott he must now beat Chinese player Li Hang to meet Dott.

Its a format that World Snooker have introduced in the overseas ranking events, it basically gives eight local unranked players the opportunity to play at the highest level, i dont see much of a problem here for Ken, but as with the standard and popularity of snooker in China now i'm sure Ken and the other seven qualifiers who have been drawn to play a wild card round will be giving their unknown opponents the upmost respect on the table.

celticfc

Yeah, he should take nout for granted with these guys. He really needs some wins next week just for any chance of keeping his top 32 place.

Enjoy your China trip BTW Zack.

califano

I think its a good incentive to give the up and comer locals a taste of what its like near the top. My only concern would be rest time between this game and the first round proper. I mean if Ken is put through the ringer and comes out a 5-4 winner of the pre-lim he's still taken some jabs in that game so needs proper rest time and with the long travel and the body clock it could mean something in the first round proper.

syngindub

i presume Eurosport are covering this. Zack, make sure to post a few pics up to give us a sense of the atmosphere !!

StephenHendry

hope ken and jimmy do well especially after not qualifying for the worlds

celticfc

syngindub wrote: »

i presume Eurosport are covering this.

They sure are, I must get on to them and get a full list of times and channels and post it here.

zack01

Eurosport start their daily coverage on monday with live snooker at 6.30am and again at 3pm.
Mike Hallett, Joe Johnson and Dave Hendon will provide the commentary from the Eurosport office in London.

zack01

I'm in Heathrow in the company of Jan Verhass and Michaela Tabb and they have just informed me of China's Internet secrecy policy,eg no twitter fo me over there and anything I post eg boards.ie is normally scrutinised very closely, so before I take off may I add that China is a beautiful country with a wonderful government and the best human rights policies!!!

oneillMan999

zack01 wrote: »

I'm in Heathrow in the company of Jan Verhass and Michaela Tabb and they have just informed me of China's Internet secrecy policy,eg no twitter fo me over there and anything I post eg boards.ie is normally scrutinised very closely, so before I take off may I add that China is a beautiful country with a wonderful government and the best human rights policies!!!

HAHAHA, dont worry Zack, a full report when you get back will be ok with us, we dont want you gettin into any trouble with the democracy!

syngindub

zack01 wrote: »

I'm in Heathrow in the company of Jan Verhass and Michaela Tabb and they have just informed me of China's Internet secrecy policy,eg no twitter fo me over there and anything I post eg boards.ie is normally scrutinised very closely, so before I take off may I add that China is a beautiful country with a wonderful government and the best human rights policies!!!

Not forgetting the food !!

zack01

After a non evenful but ten hour flight we hit Bejing, i hav'nt been to China since the China Open in Shanghai in 1999 but already you can notice the changes that habe taken place.
The airport alone would take your breath away, and already the event organisers have set the standard with the welcome at the airport and hotel they have provided, a nice little welcome pack with various goodies were given out to the players and officials that arrived, i even got one!

Over the next few days more players will arrive and we'll get down to the business of snooker.

So i've had a few hours sleep, had my fill off CNN and we're off down to the practice area, it's four in the afternoon here and already getting dark.

Heard some great news when we landed this morning about Matthew Stevens i'll post it in another new thread.

Will be in touch.

zack01

The season seems to be over for Jimmy White as he has had to pull out of the China Open, problems with his visa is cited as the reason behind his withdrawl from the event.
I find it amazing in this day and age that a player can leave his visa until the last minute before he plays in a ranking event, Matthew Stevens only got his visa last Wednesday but then he had a genuine excuse as he was playing in the PTC in Dublin and straight after in tne Championship League in Croydon.

So snooker fans heading to the Doherty v White exhibition in DCU on Monday April 4th can rest assured Jimmy will be there, Ken may struggle to make it if he wins the final in Beijing the previous evening!

Opening ceremony this evening with the action due to start tomorrow.

PS. No sign of Ronnie yet! he is travelling we are told!

zack01

Latest news regarding Jimmy White is that he arrived in China a week ago then left to do promotional work in Thailand only to fly back to China to be refused entry, apparently he only had a one visit visa.

Even with the intervention of World Snooker the Chinese authorities would not budge and White's season is now over.

Glenman

Pity about Jimmy.
Surprised to see Hendry had a 4-0 win over Stevens

zack01

First match of the tournament sees the first upset, an upset really on current form, as Stephen Hendry beats Matthew Stevens 5-0.

zack01

Ronnie has arrived!!!

zack01

In the practice room, Ken doing the line up, World champion Robertson on the other practice table, lots of banter flying about!

zack01

Hav'nt seen Ken play this bad in quite a long time, a huge mountain to climb now.

Glenman

I take it he lost, long way to go to loose in the wild-card round.

zack01

Possibly the worst performance I've seen Ken put in in a long time, he never looked like winning, even when he won the first frame after the interval it didn't really make a difference to his game, his opponent played well and was a worthy winner. Long way to travel to win one frame.

But hey there's plenty of snooker left this week and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

Glenman

So Ken's season is at an end. Does he still have a chance to end the season in the top 32.

zack01

Currently is at 28, he should just about hold his top 32 spot but only just.

zack01

What a match on here between Williams and Lee, it's 4-4 heading into a decider, Williams won his four frames with four tons!
Best I've seen Lee hit the ball in a long time, hard to pick a winner here.

zack01

5-4 Lee, what a last frame, what a match, Lee trailed by 59 points in the last frame, five reds left and cleared up to win on the black, what a match!

zack01

Some standard that match was, Williams made four tons and loses 5-4, top snooker journalist Phil Yates has just described it as in his top ten matches of all time!

A great advert for the game

zack01

Well Li Hang has proved his win over Ken Doherty was no fluke as he has just beaten Greame Dott 5-3.

Also with Williams knocked out it now means the number one spot in the world rankings will be decided at Sheffield!

I have a funny feeling that this years World Championships will be one of the best in recent memory.

Glenman

Stephen Lee has been playing very well lately. 10-2 win over Steve Davis in the world championship qualifiers. He should have beaten Murphy in Ireland, loosing from 3-1 ahead in a high standard match and a great win over Williams yesterday

giant_midget

Glenman wrote: »

Stephen Lee has been playing very well lately. 10-2 win over Steve Davis in the world championship qualifiers. He should have beaten Murphy in Ireland, loosing from 3-1 ahead in a high standard match and a great win over Williams yesterday

Yes he is playing great lately. I love the power he can generate with his cue action. I remember Steve Davis saying that his only critical point of Lee was that he leaves it way too late to go into the reds.

I have noticed this on many occasions. He just picks off what ever reds are loose, then waits for a lucky break or an angle on the black or blue..needs to into them earlier and he'll win more frames.

zack01

The high standard set yesterday has continued into todays matches, wins for Judd Trump, Peter Ebdon, Ali Carter and John Higgins see them all progress into the last sixteen.
Nigel Bond had a 138 clearance in his defeat to John Higgins to put him in pole position for the high break prize.

Next matches in a couple of hours, pick of the bunch is O'Sullivan v Day.

zack01

30 mins gone and it's 2-1 O'Sullivan, and after Days opening ton Ronnie has just taken over, a vintage ton by Ronnie.
Can still see this going close, standard keeps getting better.

zack01

Ronnie O'Sullivan today again proved that he's not the force he once was in World Snooker, another first round defeat in a ranking event this time by Ryan Day 5-2.
The highlight for O'Sullivan was a majestic ton in the third frame but it all went downhill after that.

To be fair to him he was all apologies in his after match interview and felt sorry for the chinese fans who came in their droves to support him.

He plans on returning to the UK tomorrow and start to prepare for the World Championships.
He did touch on retirement again and to be fair his standard this season would suggest it, but he's been down before and i would'nt be at all surprised if he went to Sheffield and went all the way in tne tournament, then again a first round defeat to Domonic Dale in Sheffield would'nt surprise too many either.

zack01

More great snooker today, Peter Ebdon beat world champ Neil Robertson 5-1, Judd Trump beat M Davis 5-2, Steve Lee beat Ryan Day 5-2 and Shaun Murphy had to come from 4-1 down to beat wildcard Li Hang 5-4.

Looking forward to Hendry v Ding tonight

Glenman

Murphy and Trump through after the first two quarter finals. Neither would have been the favorite I would imagine. Murphy playing really well at the moment, must put a few quid on him for the World Championship

zack01

Murphy v Trump

Selby v Ding

A fantastic semi final line up, all four playing really good snooker in this tournament, three of them are ranking event winners and Trump is finally realising his huge potential.

Can't pick a winner and those of you who have read any of my previous posts in the snooker forum will be glad to hear that!

oneillMan999

Can you pick the 3 you think are most likely to win Zack....so i can put money on the one you left out ;)_:D

zack01

Trump beats Murphy 6-1 and reaches his first ranking final

Glenman

Very surprised at this scoreline. fair play to Trump

zack01

Selby will play Trump in tomorrow's final after Selby's 6-3 win over Ding Junhui.
Should be a cracking final.

zack01

End of first session and Trump leads Selby 5-3, should be a cracking evening session.

zack01

China Open Champion 2011 is Judd Trump, he beat Mark Selby 10-8 in a super final, he has finally realised his huge potential and will go into his first round match against world champion Neil Roberston in the world championships full of confidence.

It's been a great tournament, some great matches and a worthy winner in the end, roll on Sheffield!

oneillMan999

Great final and great for snooker that Trump won, i think he has attracted a whole new fan base with his attacking style.

Hes like a Hendry, Ronnie and Jimmy White all rolled into one, Hendrys approach, Ronnie around the the black ball and Jimmys flair.

What an opening match of the Worlds were in for!

celticfc

G'wan the judd, delighted for the young man, I hope the mankes it far in the world championship, fair play to him.

_feedback_

Delighted for him too. It's great to watch the next big thing in snooker!

giant_midget

excellent final...Trump played some lovely long screw back shots..really hope he gets a good run under his belt now in the WC.