World Championship Day 9 - The fight for the quarter-finals

00:37:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Enter the Rocket
Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Michael White and Barry Hawkins have a cosy place in the quarter-finals, but that's not the case for the rest of the players, as four more places need to be filled by the end of Monday evening.

So there's no wonder why the real fighter within each player has tried to prove his immortality today.

Ronnie O'Sullivan (also the defending champion) started a pretty interesting re-match of the last year's final with Ali Carter on Saturday and continued it today, on the same note (more or less).

So if the first session ended with the Rocket in charge of the situation at 5-3, the second one didn't have a very different result, the lads ending 16 frames with the same O'Sullivan in the lead (at 9-7).

Carter managed to put pressure on his opponent
Still, the Captain proved he's strong enough and put pressure on his opponent, especially during frames 10, 13 and 14.

Ronnie used a break of 86 to break the ice and get the second session under way, but Carter restored the two-frames gap after hitting in runs of 43 and 73 and got closer to his opponent, at 6-5, after a brilliant 87.

Just as the lads were ready to have their 15-minute break, Ronnie pulled one of this special century breaks (105), to make the scoreline go 7-5.

Smiling King has a lot of catching up to do
However, Carter didn't give in and re-entered into the arena with only one thought on his mind. To draw level and take the lead. His first wish came true thanks to runs of 63 and 46, but his second one will just have to way a bit more, for O'Sullivan replied with breaks of 73 and 86 to go 9-7 up.

Same result but between different players: Ding Junhui managed to turn tables against Mark King, after the Englishman ended their first session leading 6-2, and put his nose in front at 9-7.

Ding turns tables against the King
Last night King ruled the arena without any doubt, but today the story changed and Ding took revenge right from the very start of the second session, under the form of breaks like 59, 98, 74 and 41 - thus the scoreboard showing a balanced 6-6 scoreline.

But the little Chinese who's been favourite to the title for some years now, didn't stop there. He also took the lead for the first time since the beginning of the match (7-6) and even though King managed to level up by winning the 14th frame, Ding re-took control of the session with an 81 and reassured his position with a great 103 for a 9-7 scoreline.

Ricky Walden ended his first session with Robert Milkins by taking the role of the leader (5-3) and he very much continued to do the same in the second one, that finished on 10-6.

Walden takes a comfortable over-night lead
It was with a set of breaks of 38, 63 and 76 that Walden took off at the start of the second session, his flight ending at 9-3 and leaving the Milkman in a dreadful position.

Still, Milkins carefully avoided for the match to have only two sessions and with a bit of help from  runs of 21 and 77 he won frames 13 and 15, while the 14th was clinched on the black. The scoreline was 9-6.

A bit shaken up, Walden started making mistakes, but he ended the session on a bright note as a top break of 51 offered him a comfortable over-night lead of 10-6.

Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis are also amongst those fighting for a place in the QFs, but it seems like the real fight will be given tomorrow, as the lads are all square at eight apiece after two sessions.

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World Championship Day 8 - Hawk defeats world number one

01:01:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The Hawk makes another victim, this time it's the world nr.1
A hectic week at work stopped me from properly updating the blog, but here I am (at least for the weekend) trying my best to share my thoughts about Day 8 of the brilliant World Championship.

Probably the biggest surprise of the day was the fact the Barry Hawkins defeated world number one Mark Selby by 13-10, although the Jester had a comfortable lead of 9-6 at one point.

Still, one should never underestimate the power of his rival and today it seemed that even though Barry’s experience with a huge event as the World Championship is not as valuable as Selby's, in the end all the hard work and those endless hours of practice paid off.

After two sessions the lads were at 9-7, with the world number one in charge of the match. But this situation wasn't going to last for too long, as Barry stormed in with runs of 30, 20, 24 and another 30 to pull back two consecutive frames.

Mark Selby fails to see his name on the WC trophy, once more
Mark re-took control of the match for a 10-9 lead, but Hawkins was sure to reply in no time with a 64 for a perfect 10-10 tie.

And that was it for the Jester from Leicester, for the Hawk eased his way towards the quarter-finals with breaks of 44, 36 and 44.

Marco Fu and Judd Trump had a very interesting encounter, encounter that ended in favour of the Englishman, who won the match by a 13-7 scoreline.

It was pretty clear who was the master of the match after the first session ended on a 6-2 scoreline, but as the second one started, things changed a bit.

Trump and Fu
With just a top break of 44 Fu was pulling back a frame and even though Judd managed to re-open the four-frame gap after hitting a perfect 94, the Hong-Kong cueist didn't give in.

A break of 83 was proving he's still fighting, although, just like before Trump was grabbing the next frame.

It was 8-4 when Fu started his three-consecutive march, carefully sustained by breaks of 117, 66 and 70, to go just one point behind Trump.

The second session ended on 9-7 (Trump winning the last frame) and although many of us had hopes for a continuance of Fu's fury in the last session, it just didn't happen.

Trump took control of the table and let his opponent in his chair, runs of 50, 30, 81, 53 and a 31 clearance giving him a well-deserved 13-7 victory and a comfortable place in the QFs.

Trump reaches the QFs
But probably the most expected moment of the day was the re-match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ali Carter.

It's been a year since these two met in the World Championship final and many were the ones who wanted to know if the history will repeat itself, or if Carter will take revenge.

It will take two more sessions to find out the answer, but after the first one the result is clear. The Rocket leads by 5-3.

Breaks of 34, 78 and a 66 were the ice-breaker of the match and gave Ronnie a 3-0 start, while Ali barely pulled back a frame with a top of 53 just as the mid-session interval kicked off.

Rocket flying at 5-2 after a first encounter with the Captain
After the mini-break the Rocket continued his march and with a marvellous 125 he flew at 5-1, leaving Carter's fans in the dark.

But the Captain kept it cool and with breaks of 82 and 61 won the last of the remaining two frames, to trail 5-3.The boys will return this Sunday, from 14:30 for their second session.

The last match of the day featured the names of Mark King and Ding Junhui, the Englishman ending the first session with a remarkable lead of 6-2, thanks to breaks like 59, 60 and 57.


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World Championship Day 3 - Snail cue-action

10:03:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Monday is snails race at the Crucible
The word of the day must definitely be "snail", it just have to be. Either we are talking about Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon who've needed a third session to end their snooker encounter, of about the two Marks (Allen and King) who took their time in finishing what they started at 10am, or even "The Captain" Ali Carter and Ben Woollaston ... everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

Davis records an important victory
On a totally different note though, Mark Davis didn't find any difficulty in beating four-time world champion John Higgins 10-6. And although, taking into account Higgins', poor form, the result is not really a surprise, it's still an upset.

Their first session ended on a pretty clear note about who's the boss (6-3 in favour of Davis) and things went from bad to worse during the last one.

Although the Scotsman managed to hit a great 92 break at the start of the session and give his fans a bit of hope, Davis took the next one after Higgins missed a black at 57 and when the 2011 world champion dared to dream (with a break of 69) for a 7-5 scoreline, Davis fought back with runs of 81 and 47 to move just one step away from the finish-line.

Four-times world champ, J.Higgins out from the 1st round
A perfect 87 clearance was going to smooth Mark's way for the next round, after the match the Englishman admitting that this is the biggest win of his career.

Interestingly enough another partial upset, if I may say so (because the match isn't over yet), featured Stephen Maguire and Thailand's Dechawat Poomjaeng, after their first session the last named one leading the way, 5-3.

Two important runs of 72 and 59 were giving Dechawat a 2-0 lead, while Maguire only managed to reply with a 69 in order to win his first frame of the day.

Thailand's Dechawat on his way to causing an upset
Two more frame were carefully added on the Thai's account for a  4-1 lead, Maguire's contribution barely bringing him the 6th frame, the next one lasting a bit over 50 minutes and having Poomjaeng as the winner.

Just as the first session was coming to an end (just eight frames were played), Stephen pulled back a frame to freeze the scoreboard at 5-3.

Amongst our "snail players" we had Mark Allen and Mark King, two great players, but who felt the need to slow things down a bit.
King rules

Starting their last session with King's slightly 5-4 advantage, to which Allen levelled up after a 42-minute frame, the lads threw themselves in a game of  scrappiness and safety shot battles.

Punishing King for his mistakes, Allen succeeded to take control of the match at 7-5, but just as the interval kicked off the Englishman pulled back a frame with a bit of help from runs of 43 and 40.

After the mini-break the lads went hand-in-hand for eight apiece, moment when everything changed and King took control of the match with a top break of 81 for a 9-8 lead, followed by a definitive frame that concluded his 10-8 victory.

With a first session ended on a 6-2 scoreline, Dotty and Ebdon re-started their cue-crossing at full speed. Neaaah, I'm just joking. Of course it took them so much time that the organisers decided to add one extra session just for the sake of it (or was it because another match has to start? hm ... I can't really decide).

Anyway, jokes aside the lads surely took their time in deciding who wins what, even though Ebbo used the first four frames to draw level at 6-6 (top breaks of 36, 39, 36 and 29 were used in the process).

Dotty prevails a real test of endurance
Dott managed to win the 13th frame on the black and the next one by collecting 50 points off the table, so after two sessions the scoreline became 8-6.

Late in the night the players started their third session, which proved to be deadly for Ebdon, as Dott used just a top break of 100 for a 10-6 final result and a place in the second round.

Ali Carter and Ben Woollaston were also amongst those playing at the Crucible on Monday, after one session The Captain leading Ben 5-4. The match will resume today from 7pm (UK time).

Note: most of the mean things I've said in this piece are due to a crappy day at work :-P

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World Championship Day 2 - First-time win for Walden and White

23:44:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments


Walden breaks the curse
It seems that congratulations are in order for both Ricky Walden and Michael White, the lads managing to record their first Crucible win.

Walden scored a great victory of 10-1 in front of Michael Holt, while Crucible-debutant Michael White crushed fellow-country Mark Williams 10-6 in order to grab a place amongst the Last 16.

Although it wasn't too much of a shock to see Walden win over Holt, especially since he ended the first session on an 8-1 scoreline, it was interesting to see how the player that won the Wuxi Classic last year kept it cool and didn't let his guard down, even if it was pretty clear he'll win the match.

Holt got hammered
So with breaks of 61, 22 and 23, added to the ones he previously hit on Saturday (76, 55, 140, 78, 50 and 34), Ricky Walden has broken the curse and got a well deserved place in the next round.

Michael White was on fire! Many would tend to think that the emotions of a Crucible premiere will made the youngster miss his chance to win, but nothing could be far from the truth.

Over-the-moon Michael White
From the very first start (aka. Yesterday) the 21-year-old lad from Neath got on a 2-0 lead over the more experienced Mark Williams and although "The Welsh Potting Machine” drew level, it was crystal clear who, of the two players, was the best.

With a first session ended at 5-4 in favour of White (advantage sustained by breaks of 87, 53, 57 and 45), Williams knew he needed to seriously disturb some balls at returning for the last session.

Williams goes home
So he did, with a marvellous break of 90, break that made us remember why is his nickname "The Welsh Potting Machine". Sadly though, that was about everything that he could do, for White stormed in and with runs of 35, 65 and 72 got at 8-4 up.

Williams barely managed to pull back a frame and prologue the suspense, to which Michael responded with breaks of 90 and 96 for a clear 10-6 victory.

The Hawk lands on victory
Barry "The Hawk" Hawkins is also amongst those with a cosy and secured place in the next round, the 2021 Australian Goldfields Open champion beating Crucible debutant Jack Lisowski by 10-3.

Things were pretty clear from the first session, when although Jack had great contributions under the form of breaks like 82 and 100, Barry proved to be the better player and ended their first snooker encounter at 6-3.

Jack Lisowski is not a very happy bunny
During the last session, "The Hawk" launched his deadly attack from the very beginning, breaks of 68 and 26 bringing him closer to the finish-line, while runs of 40 and 20 put an end to Jack's misery at 10-3.



Last on the list, but surely not the least important one is Shaun Murphy, who got a pretty comfortable win of 10-5 over Martin Gould.

Their first encounter ended on a pretty balanced 5-4 scoreline (in favour of the Magician), but the second (and also the last one) was going to sadly put an end to Martin's dream of reaching the Last 16.

The Smurf  "magics'" his way into the Last 16
The 10th frame was a real test of endurance, for it lasted for almost an hour, Murphy managing to grab it, as well as the following one (which paradoxally enough lastest only 11 minutes), with a break fo 95 for a 7-4 lead.

A 78 was clearing Shaun's way towards victory, but Gould pulled one back just as the interval was kicking off and the scoreline became 8-5.

However, it didn't make much difference as at returning into the arena Murphy hit in runs of 106 and 95 to close the deal at 10-5.

Two more matches had their first session today, on the red corner Graeme Dott imposing a 6-2 lead over a pretty shaky Peter Ebdon, while on the blue corner Mark Davis got the best of a very vulnerable John Higgins, with a 6-3 scoreline.


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World Championship Day 1 - Rocket Ronnie lands on victory

00:57:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

O'Sullivan returns to snooker
The first day at the Crucible and the reigning champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan has managed to perform "like he's never been on a break" (this expression was used on many occasions by both Dennis Taylor and John Virgo). But putting that aside, no-one can say that the Rocket hasn't flown in Sheffield today.

The scoreline of 10-4 stands as a confirmation of the fact that the Englishman still loves this crazy game of snooker. However, it's also fair to state that his opponent, the Scottish Campbell hasn't managed to put enough pressure on him. 

Everything started with a great break of 82 points, to which Campbell responded with a 40 to draw level at one apiece. But that was about it, for the Rocket cruised almost undisturbed at 5-1, with runs of 56, 64, 25 and 85.

Marcus Campbell
Marcus had a huge chance to make a difference during frame four, when he hit a considerable break of 55, but unfortunately wasn't able to capitalize, as well as in the very following frame (that lasted for about 40 minutes) and where due to a miss green, O'Sullivan was able to clinch it on the black.

Still, the Scottish player managed to pull back a frame with breaks of 54 and 41, although the first session ended on 7-2 thanks to a 58 from O'Sullivan.

The evening came very quickly and so the match resumed with the Englishman needing just three more frames to get a place in the Last 16.

Reigning champ in action
However, Campbell (although fully aware that a comeback in these conditions, would be quite impossible) wasn't going to let him win so easily so after the Rocket grabbed two more frames with a great 102 break and a terrific 90, the Scotsman used a scrappy 12th frame to trail 9-3 and a break of 53 to go at 9-4 as the interval kicked off.

15 minutes later O'Sullivan entered into the arena with a single thought on his mind: to finish this off as soon as possible. And he did, with just a break of 40 points for a 10-4 victory and a secured place in the 2nd round.

But even though the attraction of the day was the "return of the prodigal son", we still had quite a feast of snooker at the other tables.

Holt is smiling, but today wasn't a good day for him
For example, Ricky Walden and Michael Holt. What a match! Walden is well known for not winning at the Crucible, but this time I think he stands a chance, for the first session against Holty ended on his favour at 8-1.

With runs of 76, 55, 140 and 78 Ricky secured himself an easy starter for tomorrow's match when Holt will have to try his best to catch up with him.

Shaun Murphy got together with Martin Gould in a snooker encounter that ended on a 5-4 partial result. 

Things started intense from the very first frame, when Gouldie hit a 72 to break the ice and won the next frame too, Murphy "magically" drawing level as soon as possible and hitting an 112 to take the lead at 3-2.
A sort-of-rusty Welsh Potting Machine

And on a note of  "one takes the lead, the other one draws level" the lads ended up on 5-4, in favour of Murphy.

At the near table Crucible debutant Jack Lisowski was meeting Barry Hawkins in a match where experience said it all, the Hawk getting on a 6-3 partial result, even though Jack has important contributions of 82 and 100.

The last match of the day featured a rusty Mark Williams and an eager-to-win Michael White, match that saw its first session end on a 5-4 result.

White got on a terrific start, breaks of 87 and 53 putting him 2-0 up, before Williams could hit a 56 in order to win his first frame of the day.

Crucible debutant M.White puts quite a pressure on MJW
The interval found the same White in charge of the situation, at 3-1 after a 67 break, only after a 15-minute break and a 4-1 scoreline, the "Welsh Potting Machine" starting to seriously disturb some balls.

Runs of 34, 71 and 54 seemed to be enough for Mark to regain his confidence back, although his game was scrappy, slow and kind of rusty from time to time.

White closed with breaks of 45 and 38 for a 5-4 lead, lead that will give him a good start for when this match re-starts, tomorrow after-noon.


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