BEIJING BLOG

24 Mar 2008 07:42:00

Latest news and backstage insights from the Honghe Industrial 2008 World Snooker China Open.

Sunday

A superb final in prospect between two outstanding snooket talents who have come to the fore in recent seasons, and both look sure to figure in the top four of the official rankings next term. These two were in the Young Players of Distinction scheme back in 2000/01. They both then took a while to fulfil their potential; Maguire winning his first ranking title in 2004 and Murphy his a year later. But now they both look set to be regular winners on the professional Tour - each is seeking his second title on the circuit this season. 

Jan Verhaas is the man in the middle today. The tall Dutchman will also referee the 888.com World Snooker Championship final on May 4 and 5.

Whatever the result tonight, it looks to be a three-horse race going into the 888.com World Snooker Championship for the official world No 1 ranking, with Murphy in pole position followed by Ronnie O’Sullivan then Maguire. Mark Selby has an outside chance but would probably have to win the tournament and hope those above him went out early. The battle for top 16 spots is equally intense. Mark Allen has done his chances no harm by reaching the quarter-finals here, he’s up to 16th, one place behind Ken Doherty. Just behind him are Matthew Stevens, Mark King and Jamie Cope - all of whom have qualified for the Crucible.

Interesting...Maguire has changed his shirt colour from purple to white for the evening session. If you are wondering why he never wears a bow tie, it’s because he has a medical exemption due to a skin condition.

Play of the Day
Maguire's clearance from last red to blue in the deciding frame was only worth 21 points, but given the circumstances he'll remember it as one of the best breaks of his career. The shot on the yellow, screwing the cue ball into the green to move it away from the blue on the side cushion, was a match-winner.

Quote of the Day
Maguire, asked how he would celebrate victory: "I've got to go to the airport in about seven hours, but hopefully before that someone from World Snooker will buy me a beer."

Saturday

If any evidence was needed that a changing of the guard is taking place in snooker, with the growing infleunce of the ’20-somethings’, here is an interesting statistic: this is the first ranking event since the Irish Masters in March 2005 that all four semi-finalists have been under the age of 30. On that occasion, the last four line-up was Matthew Stevens, Robert Milkins, Mark Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Did anyone work out the last player, other than Shaun Murphy, to reach five consecutive ranking semi-finals? It was Stephen Hendry, from the 1995 World Championship to the 1995 German Open. Between the 2000 Malta Grand Prix and the 2001 Welsh Open, Mark Williams reached eight out of nine semis, but he failed to make the last four of the British Open in the middle of that run.

As reported in today’s Times, Switzerland’s Thomas Fischer suffered the "utterly disastrous" loss of his cue on his way to compete in the European Team Championship in Glasgow.

Good luck tomorrow to world No 24 Michael Holt and snooker journalist Neil Goulding, who aim to cover 13.1 miles in the Wilmslow Half-Marathon in Cheshire to raise money for the Paul Hunter Foundation.

Shaun Murphy’s victory tonight means that he is guaranteed to top the provisional rankings going into the 888.com World Snooker Championship.

Play of the Day
Stephen Maguire’s 147, particularly the thin cut on the final pink when it looked as if he might have squandered his chance.

Quote of the Day
Maguire: "When I potted the pink I was thinking ’great I can go and buy a new car’ as I was perfect on the black. But when I got down I had to step back and go again even though the black was unmissable."

 

Friday
Stephen Maguire looked in ominous form as he quietly and confidently went about his business with a 5-0 whitewash of Nigel Bond. Maguire has had a superb season, reaching the final of the Maplin UK Championship as well as winning the Northern Ireland Trophy. Of the remaining six players, only he and Mark Selby, who faces John Higgins tonight, already have a ranking title under their belts this season.

This year’s Honghe Industrial 2008 World Snooker China Open will have a special new trophy. Made of marble, the Chinese ’Chop’ (signature seal) has the tournament logo on the base and the names of the winners since 2005 engraved on the side. During the presentation ceremony on Sunday night, the winner and runner up will be presented with two Chinese scrolls, to be ’chopped’ by the presentation party.

Here’s a list of winners of all previous ranking tournaments staged in China:
1990 Asian Open: Stephen Hendry
1999 China International: John Higgins
1999 China Open: Ronnie O’Sullivan
2000 China Open: Ronnie O’Sullivan
2002 China Open: Mark Williams
2005 China Open: Ding Junhui
2006 China Open: Mark Williams
Honghe Industrial 2007 World Snooker China Open: Graeme Dott
2007 Roewe Shanghai Masters: Dominic Dale

Shaun Murphy has now reached the semi-finals of five consecutive ranking events. Anyone know who the last player to do that was? If so, send your answer to blog@worldsnooker.com If not, find out here tomorrow!

Play of the Day
Stephen Maguire’s 65 clearance to steal the first frame after Nigel Bond had made a 52. Maguire himself stated afterwards that the break virtually won him the match as Bond took several frames to recover from the mental blow.

Quote of the day
"He’s got that much confidence at the moment that when he goes to the table he doesn’t think he’s going to miss." John Higgins on Mark Selby.

Thursday

Nigel Bond and Barry Pinches, in action today in the second round, are familiar foes, having met earlier this month in the final qualiyfing round of the 888.com World Snooker Championship. Bond won 10-7 on that occasion. Pinches, who sports a green and yellow waistcoat and is certainly snooker’s most famous Norwich City fan, enjoy a fine run of form a few years ago, reaching the quarter-finals of the 2003 UK Championship then giving Stephen Hendry a scare at the Crucible before losing 13-12. He has since slipped down the rankings, but could be on his way back up thanks to a strong end to this season.

In each of the last three tournaments he has contested, Ronnie O’Sullivan has lost in the last few balls of the deciding frame. He missed a vital final blue at 5-5 against Stephen Maguire in the SAGA Insurance Masters, failed on a risky double on the last red against Mark Selby in the Welsh Open final, then missed a wild attempt at the last blue against Marco Fu last night. His defeat means that the race for the official world No 1 spot could be wide open as Sheffield approaches. O’Sullivan’s four closest challengers, Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire, Mark Selby and John Higgins, are all safely in the last 16 in Beijing.

There’s a good crowd in tonight to see home favourite Ding Junhui play Shaun Murphy. As Murphy pointed out yesterday, he has never lost to Ding. They last played in the semi-finals of the Malta Cup, Murphy coming from 3-0 down to win 6-5. Throughout the week, Ding has been a regular on the practice table at the venue, which has a huge window, allowing officials to watch him play. He’s just made a fine break of 72 to stand 2-2 at the interval.

Play of the Day
Shaun Murphy’s excellent 74 clearance in the seventh frame to go 4-3 up, stopping Ding from gaining the momentum in the match.

Quote of the Day
Mark King: "John (Higgins) is a great player, but I’ve been playing snooker for 20 years and I know that you have to play to a certain standard to have a chance. My six-year-old boy could have beaten me today."

Wednesday

Ali Carter, who is training to be a commercial pilot, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night, several days after the other players. "Did you fly here yourself?" asked one of the volunteers. "No, it’s a bit too far," replied Carter. 

Mark Williams is the most successful ever player in tournaments in the Far East, having won five ranking events on the continent. He triumphed at this venue two years ago, beating John Higgins 9-8 in a final which went down to the last few balls. It’s been a lean time for Williams since then as he has slipped so far down the provisional rankings that is place in the official top 32 next season remains in doubt. However, he has shown signs of a return to form recently, particularly in reaching the quarter-finals of the Maplin UK Championship. The Welsh left-hander continues his revival today with back-to-back centuries to put him 3-1 up on Marcus Campbell. Victory would be a major step towards safe-guarding his top 32 place.

Peter Ebdon meets Jamie Cope today in a dress rehearsal of their first round match in next month’s 888.com World Snooker Championship. It’s a tough draw for Ebdon in both events. Cope is one of snooker’s rising stars and reached the final here last year.

Shaun Murphy and Dave Harold have just broken the record for the longest ever televised frame. Murphy leads 4-3 and the eighth frame has been in progress for 82 minutes. There’s a chance that it could be the longest professional frame ever - that record stands at 92 minutes 59 seconds (Cliff Thorburn v Stephen O’Connor, 1994 Welsh Open qualifiers). Update...The frame finishes after 93 minutes and 12 seconds, Murphy winning the frame and match by potting brown, blue and pink. A Chinese journalist sings the chorus of ’Record Breakers’ as Murphy enters the room for his press conference.

Mark Selby’s fans have made him an impressive 60-page book called U R THE ONE, full of pictures of Selby on and off the table, quotes from him, newspaper articles and tributes from supporters. "I knew I had a couple of fans over here but I didn’t realise how many," says Selby. "It’s great to have that support and I hope they will keep following me."

Play of the Day
John Higgins played poorly for most of his match against Joe Swail, but showed his champion qualities with a gritty 61 when it counted - a break which won him the tie 5-4.

Quote of the Day
That came from a journalist during Mark Selby’s press conference: "Mark, yourself and Marco Fu are both quite slow players, so we are worried that we will be here until 2am tomorrow night."

Tuesday

Some start from Ken Doherty - the Dubliner wins the first frame of his match against Mike Dunn with a 140, setting an early target for the £2,000 high break prize.

Preparations for the Olympics  in Beijing are almost complete. The venue for this tournament, the Students University Stadium, will be used as a training centre for Tae Kwon Do come August. A spectacular sight will greet athletes arriving in the Chinese capital - the new Terminal Three at Beijing airport. This incredible structure, which opened on February 29, is in itself the biggest airport in the world, without having to add the other two terminals. Designed by Lord Norman Foster (he of the ’gherkin’ building in London), and built to resemble a Chinese dragon,  the construction of Terminal Three required 64 million cubic feet of concrete, 500,000 tons of steel (the Eiffel tower is 7,300) and 1850 miles of cable.

Neil Robertson eventually enjoyed the spectable of the airport after arriving in Beijing a day later than expected. The laid-back Australian has something of a reputation for missing flights, though this time his tardiness was not to blame. "I set off for the airport in plenty of time, but the traffic on the M25 was gridlocked," said Robertson. "My sat-nav told me the journey would take 50 minutes, but it ended up taking four hours. I still got to Heathrow 15 minutes before my flight took off, but obviously I couldn’t get on it, so I had to catch another flight the next day."

For those of you wondering how Matthew Stevens won the first frame against Ryan Day when he seemed to trail by 70 points in the live scoring...it was actually Stevens who made the break of 70. The scoring cursor was on the wrong player at the start of the frame, so it appeared to be Day making the break.

There’s a good crowd in the venue tonight to see home hero Ding Junhui play Joe Perry. Ding seems nervous in the early stages and will be happy to stand at 2-2 at the interval. But cast your mind back three years and you may remember Ding struggling in his last 16 match against Stuart Bingham, winning 5-4 thanks to a fluked brown in the deciding frame. He went on to win the tournament.

It’s time for the handing out of the cakes again in the media centre; this time there’s a large sponge, or a smaller, sweet pastry. World Snooker’s media officials avoid the agony of choice by taking one of each. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it.

Play of the Day
Ryan Day’s superb burst of scoring in the last three frames to beat Matthew Stevens 5-3 from 3-2 down, compiling breaks of 123, 75 and 83.

Quote of the Day
Not so much a quote as an action; Steve Davis caused much amusement in the media centre by running in during Mark King’s press conference and dummying a punch at his conqueror.

Monday

Barry Pinches takes centre stage on table 1 today against Chinese wild card Zhang Anda. Pinches might be happy just to be at the venue. Last night, after the opening ceremony at the Water Cube, he and Ken Doherty both fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel. Their ’friends’ decided to leave them in their seats as the bus drove away. Fortunately, Norwich cueman Pinches and Irishman Doherty woke up around 15 minutes later. "We tried to tell the driver to take us back, but he didn’t understand us," said Pinches. "So we got him to let us off and luckily we got a taxi. I saw the funny side of it, just about."

The promoter has arranged for a highly-regarded photographer to take pictures of all top 16 players at the hotel. This morning it was the turn of Mark Selby, but the Jester found the instructions of the snapper, relayed through an interpreter, confusing and amusing in equal measure. "Look serious" he was told, then afer putting on a frown, he was asked to "smile more." But Selby didn’t know quite how to react when he was told to sit on a chair and "treat it as if it’s your girlfriend."

The massive media interest in snooker in China is reflected by the fact that there are approximately 150 journalists accredited for the tournament.

Last year, five of the eight Chinese wild cards won their opening matches, so it will be interesting to see how many get through to the last 32 this time. Jin Long is the most experienced wild card and is likely to give Dave Harold a tough test tonight. Update...no joy for any of the first four Chinese players today, though A Bulajiang put up an impressive fight against Marcus Campbell before losing 5-4.

After a 5-2 win over Li Hang, Mark Allen sportingly spends some time chatting with his opponent after the match, via an interpreter. Allen praises Li for his skill and potential and give him some tips and encouragement.

As 11pm passes with two matches still in progress, there’s a welcome treat in the media centre when one of the many volunteers circuits the room with a huge box, handing out sponge cakes.

Play of the Day
It was a patchy performance by Marco Fu but he did produce one sensational shot. Towards the end of the eighth frame, on a break of 26, he potted the pink and brought the cue ball around the table off three cushions, finishing with perfect position on the penultimate red. However, he went on to miss the last red, allowing his opponent to get to 4-4.

Quote of the Day
Ricky Walden, asked what advice he could give to budding young Chinese players: "Practise hard. And stay off the drink."