Awesome Ding Junhui wins PTC Grand Finals!

Ding came from 3-0 down to defeat Neil Robertson 4-3 in a scintillating final in Galway. It was a superb way to round off St Patrick’s Day in Galway

Robertson was ruthless in opening a 3-0 lead, clinically taking his chances when they came. Ding had done nothing wrong; this was just the highest level of match play from the Aussie. It wasn’t until the 4^th frame that Ding got a chance and what followed was four near perfect frames, with a little luck along the way.

Ding was on a 99% pot success & 100% long pot success midway through the final frame, Robertson’s 95% wasn’t too shabby either but last night it wasn’t enough. Robertson was graceful in defeat, realising he had played well and had just run into an opponent at the top of his game.  

20 frames across five matches were required to win this title, Ding won eight of those frames with centuries, one of which was a 147. This sort of display of scoring and consistency throughout the week won’t have gone unnoticed from his peers. However this event was a sprint, 20 frames won won’t even be enough to get through the first two rounds at the World Championships. So Ding has showed he can do it over the short format, he has still the crack the 17 day marathon that the Crucible is.

This event was well attended but badly organised, six matches a day were too many and some matches didn’t begin till after 11. This wasn’t fair for the player or the fans; hopefully World Snooker will look into this for next year’s event.

Haikou and Good Night

Mark Allen retains Haikou World Open
 
Yesterday Mark Allen became the 13^th different ranking event winner of the season after defeating Matthew Stevens 10-4 in a one sided final.

The Antrim potter was a big favourite after his exemplary display against John Higgins in the semi finals and he started the stronger racing into a 3-0 lead. The remaining 6 frames were shared as Stevens just about kept himself in the match.

Resuming at 6-3 Allen nicked the first frame and dealt a body blow to his opponent and from there won three of the next four to win the title with relative ease. Allen has shown some signs of maturing this week and has been able to raise his game when it matters and conserve energy at other times of the week. These strengths will be invaluable if he wants to win the marathon of the mind that is the World Championships, which begins in Seven weeks.

The tournament as a whole was very entertaining and there were very few shocks, maybe a sign that the players are really upping their game in the lead up to the Crucible. This event needs to look at ticket prices however as all week it appeared empty, even the final had more empty seats than filled.

There was a return to snooker for ITV who covered the event all week very professionally and it was very nice to hear Clive Everton commentating again on a full ranking event. Hopefully the BBC took notice of the Commentator/Colour Commentator roles that were employed by Everton and Foulds and look at their own commentary situation for the future.

The PTC Finals will take place in Galway on the 12^th of March and Beyond the Baize will cover this event in full.