China Championship 2019

Joe_ Public

Still in China for the China Championship this week, worth a stately £225,000 to the winner which probably makes it the third biggest pay cheque, after worlds and UK, of the ranking season.

Trump is back at No.1 where his form dictates he should be and is No.2 seed here behind defending champ Mark Selby who showed a glimpse of his old form last week, but is now down to No.6 in the world. Everyone in the field except O'Sullivan so should get some good matches as the field gets whittled down.

Frank O. Pinion

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Still in China for the China Championship this week, worth a stately £225,000 to the winner which probably makes it the third biggest pay cheque, after worlds and UK, of the ranking season.

The qualifying round for the China Championship takes place this week (in Barnsley, England), but the actual tournament doesn't occur until the end of September, 23rd-29th, in China. The top prize is £150,000, which ties it for 5th highest ranking event, with the World Open and Tour Championship. You're thinking of the China Open which is £225,000, but doesn't take place until April each year. That's the second highest ranking event, the UK is £200,000.

Frank O. Pinion

There will be four Chinese wildcards this year, their qualifying matches, along with Mark Selby, Yan Bingtao, Ding Junhui, Ken Doherty, Tom Ford, and Judd Trump, will be held over to be played at the event itself in September.

Jimmy White lost his qualifying match against Hossein Vafaei, 5-4. Which makes 3 straight qualifying match losses for Jimmy, for the first 3 ranking events of the season.

Joe_ Public

Ah yeah. Brain wasnt in the best shape yesterday it has to be said! Anyway....cant delete thread (as much as i'd like to) so guess will just leave it here and come back to it when the tournament proper actually starts!

Frank O. Pinion

The qualifying round has finished, some upsets include, Alexander Ursenbacher 5-4 over Ali Carter (#16) and Jordan Brown 5-4 over Stuart Bingham (#13).

Round of 64 draw:

Mark Selby (defending champion)/Chen Feilong v Lu Ning
Martin Gould v Scott Donaldson
Alexander Ursenbacher v Chris Wakelin
Sam Baird v Yan Bingtao/Mei Xiwen
Martin O'Donnell v Xiao Guodong
Zhao Xintong v Ding Junhui/Brandon Sargeant
Mitchell Mann v Lyu Haotian
Liam Highfield v Barry Hawkins
John Higgins (last year's runner-up) v Andrew Higginson
Li Hang v Sam Craigie
Jordan Brown v Sunny Akani
Graeme Dott v Kurt Maflin
Joe O'Connor v Ryan Day
Yuan Sijun v Shaun Murphy
Ben Woollaston v Matthew Selt
Neil Robertson v Ken Doherty/Chinese Wildcard
Mark Williams v Kishan Hirani
Ricky Walden v Luo Honghao
Luca Brecel v Tian Pengfei
Jak Jones v Mark Joyce
Matthew Stevens v Dominic Dale
Marco Fu v David Gilbert
Noppon Saengkham v Mark King
Anthony Hamilton v Mark Allen
Kyren Wilson v Robbie Williams
Tom Ford/Chinese Wildcard v Hossein Vafaei
Jack Lisowski v Daniel Wells
Anthony McGill v Michael Holt
Joe Perry v Hammad Miah
Harvey Chandler v Stephen Maguire
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Zhou Yuelong
Mike Dunn v Judd Trump/James Wattana

Frank O. Pinion

The four Chinese wildcards have been announced. Li Yingdong v Zhao Jianbo, winner plays Ken Doherty. Wu Yize v Pang Junxu, winner plays Tom Ford.

The event starts next Monday, on Eurosport. LIVE coverage is 2:30am-4:30pm (Irish time).

Frank O. Pinion

SnookerShorts.com wrote:

It's a relatively new tournament with £150,000 going to the winner. Played over the course of a few best-of-9's, a best-of-11 in the semis and a standard best-of-19 in the final; can defending champion Mark Selby retain his China Championship trophy and also win his first ranking title since this event last year?

https://www.snookershorts.com/shorts/history-of-the-china-championship

Frank O. Pinion

SHOCKING NEWS:

WorldSnooker.com wrote:

Ken Doherty has pulled out of next week's China Championship in Guangzhou.

Doherty was due to face the winner of the match between Li Yingdong and Zhao Jianbo on Monday evening. The winner of that match will now receive a bye to the last 64.

http://www.worldsnooker.com/doherty-withdraws-from-china-championship

The wildcard player that gets the bye, will face Neil Robertson in the last 64.

Frank O. Pinion

No major upsets on the opening day. All the favourites won their heldover matches. In the first proper round, Williams, Higgins, and Hawkins in the Top 16 all won their matches. Biggest surprise was Mitchell Mann, #126 in the world, defeating Lyu Haotian, #27.

Matches on the "TV tables" tomorrow:

7:30am
Mark Selby (defending champion) v Lu Ning
Neil Robertson v Zhao Jianbo (amateur)

12:30pm
Judd Trump v Mike Dunn
Ding Junhui v Zhao Xintong

Joe_ Public

Watching Ding v Zhao, you'd think there'd be a crowd and a bit of atmosphere in the arena, but looks fairly sparsely attended from what i can judge. Seems only Ronnie capable of drawing the huge crowds over there. Zhao can pot for fun, but positional sense leaves plenty to be desired at times.

Frank O. Pinion

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Watching Ding v Zhao, you'd think there'd be a crowd and a bit of atmosphere in the arena, but looks fairly sparsely attended from what i can judge.

Number of issues with the Chinese events. Firstly, ticket prices can sometimes be too expensive for the locals. Secondly, for these Chinese ranking events, they choose very big arenas that aren't always in areas of Chinese Snooker hotbeds. So, the combination of high ticket prices + unpopular Snooker locations = low attendance. The non-ranking Shanghai Masters is much better attended because of the venue, and general location itself.

Anyways, Xintong with the massive upset, defeating Ding for the first time. In other matches, Murphy continues in his recent form 5-3 over Yuan Sijun, Selby makes the round of 32 in his title defence effort, and event favourite Judd Trump, whitewashed Mike Dunn, 5-0.

Last 32, top half:

Mark Selby v Martin Gould
Chris Wakelin v Yan Bingtao
Xiao Guodong v Zhao Xintong
Mitchell Mann v Barry Hawkins
John Higgins v Li Hang
Jordan Brown v Kurt Maflin
Ryan Day v Shaun Murphy
Matthew Selt v Neil Robertson

Bottom half:

Mark Williams v Luo Honghao
Luca Brecel v Mark Joyce
Matthew Stevens v David Gilbert
Noppon Saengkham v Mark Allen
Kyren Wilson v Hossein Vafaei
Jack Lisowski v Anthony McGill
Joe Perry v Stephen Maguire
Zhou Yuelong v Judd Trump

Bookies think it'll be some combo of Robertson/Selby/Higgins v Trump/Allen in the final as they're the top five favourites, but there's still a lot of potential for a surprising QFs, SFs, with 12 of the World Top 16 still in the event, along with six very good Chinese players.

Joe_ Public

Ah yeah, i dont know where the hotbeds are, just this tournament is taking place in a city of 15m people so to see banks of empty seats for a match involving two of their top players seems disappointing in the extreme. I hear the ticket price thing trotted out all the time, maybe its an excuse, i dont know. But every round of shanghai all Ronnies matches had big crowds, if not full houses, so seems to me they will splash out for Ronnie, but not for anyone else, including their own home grown players. Whatever that says about chinese snooker.

Frank O. Pinion

Ding to lose Top 16 spot after Zhao loss:

WorldSnooker.com wrote:

Zhao Xintong defeated Ding Junhui for the first time in his career, winning 5-3 to reach the last 32 of the Evergrande China Championship in Guangzhou.

Defeat for Ding sees him drop out of the world's Top 16 for the first time since April 2016. On that occasion he returned to the world's top echelon by going on an epic run to the Crucible final, where he was runner-up to Mark Selby.

Ding is currently in 9th position in the world rankings. However, due to the two-year rolling format, he loses the £150,000 he earned by winning the 2017 World Open, which is the corresponding event on the calendar. That was the last time Ding won a ranking title, when he defeated Kyren Wilson 10-3 in the final.

The main contenders to replace Ding in the world's Top 16 are Yan Bingtao and Joe Perry. Yan is currently in pole position in the latest provisional rankings and looks likely to oust Ding as Chinese number one.

http://www.worldsnooker.com/ding-to-lose-top-16-spot-after-zhao-loss

Frank O. Pinion

Judd Trump looks very impressive with another consecutive whitewash victory, this time the victim was Zhou Yuelong. In three best-of-9s, Trump has only lost one frame. Hard to see any of his potential opponents stopping him before the semis, at least.

Selby continues his title defence into the last 16, Zhao Xintong who knocked Ding out, knocked out another fellow countryman in Xiao Guodong, Murphy continues enjoying his return to form, Luca Brecel who recently dropped out of the Top 16 himself (down to #25!), whitewashed Mark Joyce to play Mark Williams (who had a close call against Luo Honghao) in the next round.

Some big shocks today though, Chris Wakelin beat new Chinese #1, Yan Bingtao, 5-2. Noppon Saengkham beat world #7, Mark Allen, Hossein Vafaei beat world #8, Kyren Wilson, and Anthony McGill beat world #11, Jack Lisowski. However, the biggest surprise result was not down to skill. Neil Robertson was 3-1 down to Matthew Selt when they went to their interval, but Robertson never returned. He conceded the match to Selt, due to "flu-like" symptoms.

Last 16:

Mark Selby v Chris Wakelin
Zhao Xintong v Barry Hawkins
John Higgins v Kurt Maflin
Shaun Murphy v Matthew Selt
Mark Williams v Luca Brecel
David Gilbert v Noppon Saengkham
Hossein Vafaei v Anthony McGill
Joe Perry v Judd Trump

7 of the Top 16 still left, (8 if you include Perry #17, who should make it back in soon). The obvious final is still Trump v Selby/Higgins or even Murphy (again...), but I'd love to see Xintong break through and beat Trump in the final.

Joe_ Public

Good to see a win for Vafaei today. Effectively the first tournament of his season, dont know what goes on in his life with all the walkovers, whether its still visa issues or what, but badly needs a good run here. Perry can be sticky when on his game, might give Trump a game in that one.

Frank O. Pinion

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Good to see a win for Vafaei today. Effectively the first tournament of his season, dont know what goes on in his life with all the walkovers, whether its still visa issues or what

Still visa issues. Poor guy would probably be comfortably in the Top 32 (he's #41), if he could've played in all the ranking events he wanted to.

Joe_ Public

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Still visa issues. Poor guy would probably be comfortably in the Top 32 (he's #41), if he could've played in all the ranking events he wanted to.

Yeah, must still be issues, though i note that he did make it to china for the International Championship last month but still ended up giving a walkover, so i dont know exactly what happened there. Real shame. I believe he'd be very close to top 16 by now if he'd had a clear run, should have been on tour at 16 but had to wait 4 years for the visa issue to get even half sorted. 4 lost years is a lot to a career at that stage. Has the talent, but hard to be a top pro by being based in iran unfortunately. So much against him, have to be very strong mentally to cope with that i think.

Frank O. Pinion

Well, another issue he has is he won't play Israeli-Scottish player, Eden Sharav, because of the Iran/Israel conflicts. He was drawn twice against him last season, and withdrew both times, (European Masters and Scottish Open).

Frank O. Pinion

TV coverage for the morning session ends the earliest it has all week, as Williams beats Brecel 5-1, and Perry hands Trump his first ranking event loss since last April's China Open, 5-2. Bottom half of the draw is wide open now. Out of the remaining players, only John Higgins and Matthew Selt have qualified for the Champion of Champions.

Murphy/Selt and Selby/Wakelin at 12:30pm.

Joe_ Public

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Well, another issue he has is he won't play Israeli-Scottish player, Eden Sharav, because of the Iran/Israel conflicts. He was drawn twice against him last season, and withdrew both times, (European Masters and Scottish Open).

Doesnt have a choice in the matter as it's an iranian state ban, not an individual conscience matter. Anyway, he marches on and gets to play Perry instead of Trump which is a bonus. Trump didnt play badly this morning from what i saw of it, just met a sticky opponent and not much went for him. Cant win em all.

Frank O. Pinion

Higgins was 3-0 up against Kurt Maflin, then lost 5 in a row, to lose the match 5-3. Defending champ Selby, in the QFs too.

Quarter-Finals (last round of best-of-9s):

Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins
Kurt Maflin v Shaun Murphy
Mark Williams v David Gilbert
Hossein Vafaei v Joe Perry

Frank O. Pinion

All eight quarter-finalists have not yet qualified for the Champion of Champions, so the winner of this will get the 14th spot in that event. Jimmy White will have to wait and hope that there's a repeat winner from the English or World Opens.

Frank O. Pinion

The final four are made up of, three former World Champions, and...Iran's #1 player. I'm definitely rooting on Vafaei to cause a major upset this weekend and win the whole thing. It'll be interesting to see if Murphy can make it three major finals in a row, but, he's against The Torturer in the semis. I watched every second of a 45 minute or something frame today between Selby and Hawkins...one for the purists.

Tomorrow's Semi-Finals (best-of-11s):

7:30am
Mark Williams v Hossein Vafaei

12:30pm
Mark Selby v Shaun Murphy

Joe_ Public

Early contender for shot of the season:

https://twitter.com/WorldSnooker/status/1177846601529925632

Williams also produced a special shot with a pack-splitting beauty off the blue a bit later on. Vafaei will feel a bit miffed having come back from 2-5, but can take a lot of heart too, had Williams under a lot of pressure but just couldn't finish the job. Just cant be going in against players like that and fluffing the start, has been the pattern of these big matches for him. Onwards and upwards, though!

Frank O. Pinion

Shaun Murphy finally with a big win, should be a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the season. Even though Williams is generally a laid back guy, coming back from 9-5 down to take it to a decider...and lose, has got to hurt.

Arthur Daley

Murphy's move to settle in Ireland looks like it may be paying off for him. Settled family life important with all this running about they do in the first few months of the season until early November.

Joe_ Public

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Murphy's move to settle in Ireland looks like it may be paying off for him. Settled family life important with all this tracking about they do in the first few months of the season until early November.

Yeah, even last year he did seem happy in himself with the move even though results were awful, but maybe just clicked all of a sudden and he's on a roll. Mentioned earlier about him giving up his role on the WPBSA board which i think was long overdue and thats possibly helped too. Snooker needs good players playing well consistently and putting pressure on the top 2 or 3 so a very welcome development.