2013 UK Championships Preview

I think this year’s UK Championships might be the most important for a long time. It’s the first time Barry Hearn’s new flat 128 player draw is being played on the BBC, the sport’s most prestigious broadcaster.  It is widely regarded that the World Championships fate in Sheffield goes hand in hand with the BBC’s commitment to continue broadcasting the event.

From the onset I think this tournament looks badly thought out, with the two organisations idea’s of a good event clashing. The event starts today but the main coverage doesn’t being until the traditional Saturday, with the top four seeds opening matches held over for Saturday. The BBC has negotiated that the draw is seeded, so the 1^st seed plays the 128^th and so on – in an effort to protect the bigger names of the sport. So Saturday see’s the four top seeds playing amateurs in what I expect will be extremely one sided matches, not the best of starts.  

In the past the BBC had complained about matches happening away from the TV cameras and the event being harder to follow. This is only going to be magnified as so many matches are crammed into a 13 day period. You could have Shaun Murphy losing to a rank outsider and not have any highlights of the match. 

Last week at the Champion of Champions the top players voiced their opinions that the tour lacks rewarding events for the top players. I personally think with the rolling ranking system its fair that the top 32 all qualify for the UK championship with the remaining 64 playing each other for the remaining 32 places. With the first round taking place at Gloucester, so when we get to the event we only have 32 players. The event can have a more structured feel and supporters can work out when and where their favorite players will be playing – something that is impossible with the current system.  

It’s going to be very interesting to see how it plays out on the BBC, which attracts higher UK viewing figures & more general fans who will be experiencing this new set up for the first time.

I’ve picked out my five favorites for the title.

Ronnie O’Sullivan

Only a week after winning the Champion of Champions the Rocket looks to be playing quite well, his all round game and aura will make him hard to beat. 

Neil Robertson

Is having a very good season, with almost 50 centuries to his name Neil is creating chances and finishing them in one visit almost every time. His safety play is as good as anyone and with the Wuxi title already under his belt it’ll take someone playing very well to defeat the young Aussie.

Mark Selby

It was a very slow start to the campaign for Mark, however in the last few weeks he looks to have stepped it up just at the right time – with the defence of his UK and Masters crowns coming up. Along with John Higgins he is the most capable of defeating an inform O’Sullivan & if he gets to the later stages he will be very hard to defeat.

Mark Allen

He is a bit of a wildcard but if he is on form he will be a formidable opponent as he has shown in two ETPC’s this season in Germany and Antwerp. He should be feeling confident off the back of those triumphs and along with Ding Junhui he has been the form man of the last two months.

Ding Junhui

Everyone knows that he won three ranking events on the spin earlier this season, becoming the first person since Stephen Hendry to achieve this feat. However his faultless technique and added bottle makes him a fearsome opponent. He was only beaten at the last minute by O’Sullivan in the Champion of Champions and was slightly unlucky so his confidence should still be sky high.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is Champion of Champions

After defeating Stuart Bingham 10-8 in last night’s final. 

The inaugural 888.com Champion of Champions ended last night with the current World Champion proving he is still the man to beat in major tournaments. While he or Stuart didn’t play their best in the final it was always a tight match with O’Sullivan having enough to pull away at the end. 

Just before the Masters and the UK Ronnie has reasserted himself as the man to beat, defeated the two players of the season Neil Robertson & Ding Junhui in final frame deciders on route to the final. He might not have been at his fluent best this week but he showed he still has an aura about him and a grit and determination to win. 

Stuart Bingham had a great week, playing some excellent snooker & looked genuinely gutted in his post match interview last night. A little more sharpness when break building under pressure and the result might have been different last night. However it almost feels unfair comparing anyone’s break building with O’Sullivan. 

This event has been a rip-roaring success and I can see it only getting stronger over the next few years. All credit to Matchroom for setting up an excellent event and ITV for their impressive coverage, strengthening from their Haikou World Open coverage.  A few tweaks in production and maybe the scheduling is required. The first match should start an hour earlier so there is more of a break between afternoon and evening sessions. Contradicting that I also felt the first round was slightly too short given the pedigree of match ups. 

However this fits nicely into the calendar at this time and builds up nicely to the UK Championship, which starts on Tuesday.

Champion of Champions Day 3

It was a full house on day three as we were treated to 25 engrossing frames. Spectators and viewers were able to enjoy three high quality deciders at the Ricoh on Thursday.  

Neil Robertson v Martin Gould

Martin Gould raced into a 3-1 lead before missing an easy chance to clinch the match in the fifth frame. Robertson who had been missing a few chances in the opening four frames then showed why he is the World number 1 with three impeccable frames of snooker. Afterwards he cited he was distracted on an easy black by a member of the crowd, helping him focus and play fault free snooker from then on.  For Martin it was a much improved performance but he could do with winning a few matches in the next few events to get his confidence back.

Mark Allen v Ali Carter

Although ending with a slight tinge of controversy as articulately well by David Hendon here, this was an enthralling match. Both players showing a gritty determination to win and it felt like a coin toss. In the end it was a good win for Carter against the inform Mark Allen.

Neil Robertson v Ali Carter

This was the best match of the tournament so far!

Five centuries in 11 frames as momentum swung in both players favour, it looked like Robertson was going to win 6-4 but a determined Carter took his chance when Robertson broke down and forced the third decider of the day. The best all round player in the game at the moment is Neil Robertson for me and he showed his class in conquering a very impressive Ali Carter.

Robertson will play the eventual winner of today’s group on Saturday. Friday’s action features Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mark Davis and Ding Junhui v Barry Hawkins.

Champion of Champions Day 2

Judd Trump v Marco Fu

Judd Trump completed a routine victory over Marco Fu in the afternoon's first match. In a surprisingly underwhelming match Judd completed a 4-1 victory against a under par Marco Fu. Marco who is having the best season of his career was heavily fancied to cause Trump a lot of trouble, however it never materialised as he struggled to settle.

Ricky Walden v Stuart Bingham

Sadly for all of us watching this was another one sided match. Stuart Bingham was clinical in finishing the many chances an out of sorts Ricky Walden presented and won 4-0. 

Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham

 

In the evening session Judd Trump signalled his intent to return to his all out attacking game with some audacious long shots. However unlike in the 2011 World Championships, he was missing. Stuart Bingham completed a 6-2 victory and looks to be cueing nicely; however I would struggle to see how he can beat Selby on Saturday. He is finishing off chances very nicely but he isn’t creating these chances through pressure & I suspect he won’t be given the same “gifts” against Selby.

For Judd, he has unlimited snooker ability and he is improving areas of his game month by month, however I feel the balance of his game isn’t quite right. Similarly to Shaun Murphy he is being held back by how he broke onto the scene with an amazingly attacking style. However if you start to lose a few matches, you doubt yourself and can start to change your natural game. I think it’s all about finding a nice balance between attack and defence & roughly speaking he should be around 65% attack to defence. If he was to ever find the right balance he could potentially dominate.

 

Champion of Champions Day 1

 The latest high profile event on the snooker tour features 14 champions and the two highest ranked players to have not won an event in the last 12 months.

Opening the show was local boy Mark Selby, only 36 hours after his triumph in Antwerp over Ronnie O'Sullivan, against Shaun Murphy. The match was of high quality and Mark Selby completed a comfortable 4-2 victory. Murphy who has been struggling this season looked improved and considerably leaner. However was unable to mount any serious pressure as Selby's rock solid safety game took the control away from Murphy.

The second match of the afternoon was an all Scottish affair as John Higgins took on Stephen Maguire. This was a superb affair played to a very high standard with Higgins fighting to control a very dangerous looking Maguire. Higgins took a 2-1 lead while Maguire still hadn't missed a pot and the standard continued until the 6th frame when a number of uncharacteristic misses crept into both players games. Higgins missed two or three opportunities to win the match 4-2 and eventually it was Maguire who held his nerve to take it to a decider.

In the decider an unlucky flick off the brown left a shot at a long red for Maguire, the Glasgow based potter took full advantage and knocked in a break that was enough to win the match 4-3.

Selby started as a heavy favourite in the evening to beat Stephen Maguire, mainly I felt due to the advantage of playing first. Selby had had four hours in-between matches while Maguire was left with just over an hour. Selby won four frames in a row from 2-3 to record an excellent win. Maguire was heavily frustrated throughout with Selby’s rock tight safety game and methodical play and lashed out on a few shots. Nothing can be taken away from Selby who looked ominously sharp in the balls.

Selby will have three days off now before returning for Saturday's semi finals. Hopefully the crowds will build as the week goes on & add to what already looks like it could be an excellent event. With a bit of luck ITV can turn down the arena mics so it doesn't sound like an air conditioning unit and not put the adverts on during the match like they did in the Higgins Maguire duel. On a more positive note though, it was a pleasure to listen to Clive Everton commentating again on terrestrial TV.