Selby wins Gdynia Open

Mark Selby won the last European Tour event of this season, the 2016 Gdynia Open, by beating Martin Gould 4-1 in order to continue the "tradition" that only former world champions win in Poland, after Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy.

It's been one hell of a few days here in Poland's Gdynia as a lot of the players involved in the tournament had not just to fight for victory, but also for maintaining their place on the Main Tour and avoid “going back” to QSchool.

This wasn't, of course, the case of the current world number one, Mark Selby but that doesn't mean the journey was any easier. He still had to win against Joe Roberts (4-2), John Higgins (4-2),  Luca Brecel (4-3 after being led 3-0), Sam Baird (4-3, from being 3-1 down), Marco Fu (4-1) and Andrew Higginson (4-2).

The final against Martin Gould started with the recent winner of the German Masters in the front row, "The Pinner Potter" taking the opening frame with a top break of 41 to which Selby responded with a 92 to draw level.

A re-racked third frame was seeing the same Selby continuing with a 69 break to put his nose in front, while a scrappy and quite long fourth frame was sending him one away from victory, at 3-1.

"The Jester from Leicester" was sure to wrap things up rather quickly winning the last frame thanks to a 62 clearance in order to get his hands on a pretty nice trophy and a cheque of 25.000 euros.

But what makes this victory even more important is that is Selby's first ranking win this season. Seems hard to believe, but the world number one hasn't won any major tournaments since the 2015 China Open.

That being said, we say our goodbyes to one of the most close-to-my-heart tournaments, for this is the last edition of Gdynia Open and we move forward to Championship League's Group 7 which starts this Monday. Insane, right?

Romania loves snooker

There is really no surprise that Romania is totally and utterly in love with snooker and has such a strong connection with it, despite the fact that it hasn't produced a professional snooker player just yet.

Still, the people's love for the game has been duly noted by the international press when Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stuart Bingham (accompanied by the referee Michaela Tabb) came to Romania last November for some exhibition matches.

The Circus Arena proved to fail the Romanians' will to get and see the masters of the green baize at work, the tickets being sold in just a few minutes.

One table, two players and a lot of emotions invaded the venue. For the majority of the people present there, to see these two great players in action was a dream came true. And above it all, it was LIVE snooker, played there right in front of their eyes.

So when World Snooker announced that the European Championship will take place in Romania this October, everyone was over the moon with joy. Can you really blame us?

So many years of watching EuroSport is of course a plus, but to see snooker played for real? Now that's a different story.

Although initially the location for the European Championship was set for Bucharest (two locations were targeted: Romexpo and the same Circus Arena) World Snooker along with the organizers decided a more fitting venue would be the Polyvalent Hall from Cluj.

But the tournament will take place here, in Romania no matter the location, so save the date: 3-9 October 2016. That's when the first ranking snooker tournament will touch Romanian soil.

Still, October seems so, so far away does it not? And waiting is not fun, especially since you've been waiting for years for such a huge event to happen.

And so, on 2^nd and 3^rd of April Bucharest will witness no less than 4 snooker legends in action. Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Jimmy White and the one and only Ronnie O'Sullivan will pay us a visit for two grandiose exhibition matches. The location is set to be the Circus Arena.

Today was made public the fact that 3 more big names will be coming to the delight of our hearts and souls: Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and Steve Davis will play two exhibition matches on 11^th and 12^th of June at the Sports Hall from Cluj.

The organization team behind these two magical events is McCann/Thiess Events, represented by Mr Adrian Thiess.

So here you go: snooker for everyone! Well, almost everyone. If you live too far away, it's going to be tricky, but it will worth all your time and effort. Honestly! 

The good news is that the snooker virus catches you quick, the bad one is that there's not a known treatment for it. At least, none that I know.

So, yeah #RomaniaLovesSnooker there's no question about it!

O'Sullivan comes back for Welsh Open glory

Ronnie O'Sullivan turned tables against Neil Robertson to win 9-5 and conquer his 4^th Welsh Open title, but at the same time equalize Steve Davis' number of won ranking tournaments (aka. 28).

The Rocket has been flying this week in Cardiff and made the headlines of the newspapers all around the world starting with day one thanks to his determination in refusing to make a maximum break; he practically stated that the prize money (aka. £10,000) is just not tempting enough.

But putting that aside his performance throughout the entire tournament has been brilliant and the level of relaxation with which he played each match made us stay glued to our TV screens.

Making no less than 10 century breaks during the tournament (he actually saved the best for last and scored a perfectly cued 141 to win the final against Robbo), O'Sullivan proves to be what we all know he is: one hell of a player!

Interestingly enough though, the first session of the final cues battle didn't go as planned for Ronnie, his opponent flying at 2-0 up thanks to a top contribution of 78.

O'Sullivan used a 60 break to win his first frame of the match, but the interval was promoting Robertson as being in full control at 3-1 up after Ronnie missed a red to the right middle pocket, this allowing his opponent to score a great 76 break.

When returning in the arena, "The Rocket" fired another 60 break to pull back a frame, but the Australian was in for the kill: runs of 44 and 77 were taking him at 5-2 up!

Luckily Ronnie managed to "return" the favour and answered with a 44 to finish the first session trailing by 5-3.  

However, the story changed completely when the second and last session started, for a totally different O'Sullivan entered the arena.

Taking advantage of Neil's missing a pink at the beginning of frame 10 and then a blue, O'Sullivan used a top break of 57 to start his comeback, to which he carefully added runs of 46 and 32 to draw level at 5-5.

Next in line was a break of 67 that was putting him in the leading position for the first time since the start of the match and from this point on he was practically unstoppable. 

Breaks of 70, 61 and 141 were closing the door for a perfect 9-5 victory, which also means that Ronnie managed to win no less than seven frames on a row!

This victory means that he's equalized John Higgins on his four Welsh Open titles, but also Steve Davis record of winning 28 ranking events. Not too shabby, don't you think?

From Wales' Cardiff we fly straight to Stock, Essex for the Championship League's event, that’s starting tomorrow 22nd of February.

O'Sullivan returns to Romania (and not alone)

The social media practically exploded last night with Ronnie O'Sullivan announcing he will return to Romania this April for some exhibition matches.

The announcement was made during his post-match press conference from the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, where he is taking part at the 2016 Welsh Open tournament; and just beat Joe Perry by 6-3 to set up a magical final against Neil Robertson this Sunday.

His manager and also the man behind "Snooker Legends" tour, Jason Francis posted on Twitter the news: "Ronnie just announced our shows in Romania on 2/3 April and a 6 city tour of China straight after worlds!!!"

Moments after, Ronnie updated his Twitter and FaceBook pages with the following message:

"Thanks to all the great fans who have supported me this week, it's been crazy. Coming back to Romania at start of April with Adrian Theiss and also signed up for a 6 city tour of China straight after the worlds. More details soon."

So, we have the date: 2^nd and 3^rd of April 2016, we have the place - Bucharest, Circus Arena and ... according to some local newspapers, it seems that the Rocket won't be coming alone.

Even Mr Francis felt the need to say more about this glorious event and posted: "More details on the Romania and China trips soon. Working with Adrian Theiss again, these won't be eleven 30 matches but taking some legends."

The Romanian snooker commentator, Mr Marius Ancuta announced last night the names of the legends, so are you ready?

Along Ronnie O'Sullivan we shall be seeing 6-time world champion, Steve Davis, 7-time world champion Stephen Hendry and "People's Champion" Jimmy White. A myriad of snooker stars!

So, we have some real snooker legends coming to Romania which can only be a terrific thing and can only mean that YOU must be there to witness it all!

The exhibition matches are organized by the same man that brought O'Sullivan, Bingham and Tabby back in November in Romania, Mr Adrian Thiess from McCann/Thiess Events.

So if you didn't have the chance to see Ronnie last year, now is the time! The tickets will be made available pretty soon, I presume, as well as the rest of the details.

Needless to say that I shall be covering this event and keep you posted on everything you need to know about it.

Cue the action! #RomaniaLovesSnooker

*Update: due to previous contract duties, Steve Davis won't be able to come to Romania, his place being taken by the 2-time world champion, Mark Williams.

A Robertson v. O'Sullivan Welsh Open final

Seems like such a long, long way since this year's Welsh Open started, but here we are in the latest stages of the tournament with only two big names remaining to fight the final battle: Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Saturday's semi-finals proved to be quite tense and involved, as it happened during the week, lots of big breaks and tremendous shots. Maybe the scorelines don't tell the entire story of how good and tight these matches where.

Neil Robertson met Mark Allen on his way to the final, the Aussie recording a 6-4 victory despite experiencing a tough start.

Breaks of 77 and 55 were awarding Allen the first two frames of the match, but while he was on his way to add one more, the ref in charge Terry Camilleri spotted a foul, this stopping the Northern Irishman contribution to 56.

This also meant a life-line for Robertson who cleared with a 49 to win his first frame of the day and added runs of 54 and 51 to draw level at the interval.

The 2010 world champion continued his "conquista" after the 15-minutes break with marvellous breaks of 75, 82 and 72 to go just one away from victory, at 5-2.

But Allen kept the match alive a few more minutes as he pulled back two consecutive frames with a top break of 124 before Robertson had the chance to wrapped things up and close the match at 6-4.

The second semi-final, ardently awaited as it featured the "man of the tournament" Ronnie O'Sullivan proved to be quite a surprise as "The Rocket's" opponent, Joe Perry pun on a pretty tough fight.

It all started in a pretty unusual way, the opening frame being a genuine scrapper, but in the end it went Ronnie's way, who was therefore breaking the ice.

But when Perry fought back with an outstanding 139 clearance, it was becoming pretty clear this was going to be an interesting match.

Ronnie replayed with a 124 during frame three, but Perry didn't feel intimidated and scored a 92 to make the scoreline go 2-2 at the interval.

When returning into the arena "The Rocket" detached himself with breaks of 101 and 94, but Perry prolonged the suspense with a top of 56 to trail 5-3.

The next frame was all in Ronnie's hands, although in all fairness he did missed a pretty easy black early in the frame, but soon recovered to close with a perfect 78 break for a final scoreline of 6-3.

Tomorrow, the final battle will begin and all the odds say it's going to be a genuine cracker!