As we are now in the two table setup, with the crowd surrounding the players, the feel is completely different and clearly benefitted the top players. Six of the quarter-finalists are top 16 players, and all of them have reached the final of this tournament before, with five of them having won it. it wasn’t plain sailing for all of them though as you can read on Worldsnooker official reports.
Mark Williams has now secured his Masters spot and suffered a rare bout of nerves over it, as he admitted in his post-match with Rob Walker. He also made some interesting comments about the current level on the main tour, in particular amongst the young players. This clearly is a concern when it comes to the future of the game, at least in the UK.
Today, we will have all the quarter-finals played to conclusion and it’s a very important match for Ronnie: indeed he needs to win this one to secure his top 16 spot at the next cut-off, just after this tournament.
Regarding Ronnie, he got the support of Mark Selby over his comments regarding the current structure of the main tour. He too thinks the tour can’t really cater for 128.
As the last 16 round gets underway, we are down to two tables in the York Barbican and here are a few pictures, posted by Worldsnooker on twitter, showing how nice a setup this is.
Ronnie was first in action against Matthew Stevens, and he won by 6-2, but it was a much closer match than the score suggests. Ronnie won a couple of frames he should have lost, with the sort of hard match play he’s capable of but not always willing to play. Frame 3 was probably key to the outcome of the match.
Here is the official report on Worldsnooker (excerpt):
Wednesday 30 Nov 2016 05:26PM
….
O’Sullivan saw off Matthew Stevens and has now lost just three frames in his four matches so far. The Rocket is chasing his sixth UK title and first piece of silverware since the Welsh Open last February, and in current form looks hard to stop.
He opened today with a break of 101, his sixth century of the tournament. Stevens levelled with a run of 74, and had chances in frame three but O’Sullivan took it by clearing from green to black. World number eight O’Sullivan then pulled away to lead 5-1 with top runs of 51 and 54. He had a chance to close out the match in frame seven but missed the final green when leading 42-37, allowing Welshman Stevens to pull one back. But it mattered little as O’Sullivan sealed the result in the next in three scoring visits.
“Matthew made it tough for me today,” said O’Sullivan. “He’s got that pedigree and that presence where at any minute he could click into gear and dominate the table. The match was closer than the scoreline suggested.”
And a few more pictures posted on social media by Worldsnooker and the BBC:
Of course, there was also some more to come after the match, in the BBC studio, as Ronnie gave his views about what he thinks the tour should be in order to attract more high profile sponsor and a better image. It’s been reported in the news by various media and here you can read the account by The National Scotland
Snooker: Top players need more classy events, says Ronnie O’Sullivan
RONNIE O’Sullivan claims the current format of 128-player tournaments is “anarchy” and preventing investment from China.
World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn rebuked the five-time world champion for recent comments in comparing the sport to a car boot sale and also suggesting it had lost respect in the public eye.
On Wednesday, O’Sullivan saw off Matthew Stevens 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Betway UK Championship in York.
Afterwards the 40-year-old used his post-match interview in the BBC Sport studio to offer further insight into ways he felt snooker could move forwards and embrace lucrative overseas sponsorship deals.
“China is where it is at. The money is there, they are ready to pump it in to snooker, they just don’t want 128 players,” O’Sullivan told the BBC.
“It is anarchy when you go over there (to compete in a 128-player tournament), you watch it and it is just too many players, too many people. They want the cream of the cream – and that is the top 32.”
O’Sullivan feels a trimmed-down version of the tour focusing on the elite players is the way forward.
“I always believe in more quality over quantity. That has always been my philosophy in everything I do,” he said.
“I think we have a lot of quantity, but very few quality events, so maybe skim them down a bit and just make them all real proper set-ups.
“That is where I think snooker could be improved, with probably more prestigious events like the Masters, the one they have just had in Guangzhou (China Championship), a little bit like the tennis with the ATP (World Tour Finals), where you just have your top eight. My argument is there should be more for the top players.
“I am a top player, I am not going to be a top player forever, but I always believed the top players should be rewarded and have more classy events to play in and should be treated differently.
I’m not sure those comments will go down well with “The Boss”, but they certainly attracted a lot of positive feedback on social media!
Ronnie also spoke with Rob Walker after the match:
The match preview on ES and BBC:
MissingClip 2016 UK Champs: preview of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens match (Eurosport)
MissingClip 2016 UK Champs: preview of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens match (BBC)
The match itself:
2016 UK Champs: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens
The after-match analysis by the ES and BBC pundits:
MissingClip 2016 UK Champs: review of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens match (Eurosport)
MissingClip 2016 UK Champs: review of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens match (BBC)
MissingClip 2016 UK Champs: short review of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Matthew Stevens match (Eurosport)
Speaking to Desmond Kane, Ronnie explains why he said what he said, read it here.
I love snooker, but BBC Sports Personality snub shows we must change attitudes to our great sport
Ronnie O’Sullivan tells Desmond Kane why snooker is one of the world’s great sports as he sets the record straight on claims he was trying to criticise the game he loves during the UK Championship in York.
The five-times world champion says he simply cannot understand why snooker has been snubbed by the BBC Sports Personality awards for over a quarter of a century, and ignored by some newspapers in its lack of coverage for such a popular sport.
I was asked why I thought snooker players and myself in particular were never on the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.
My answer to the question was honest and simple: I don’t think snooker is an important enough sport compared to other sports such as tennis, F1, golf, football, cricket, horse racing, boxing and Olympic sports. The list goes on and on.
“If you look at all the nominees over the past 10-15 years, you will see that it is people from the sports listed above that have been shortlisted. Snooker has not featured in the top three since Stephen Hendry was nominated behind Paul Gascoigne in 1990. Which tells its own story. “
‘Prize money adds prestige’
My next point was that I believe if snooker can get to the point where winners collect £1million cheques like they do in golf, tennis and F1, then I believe that would help to change the perception of the sport as the game looks to attract more interest across the globe.
“Bigger prize money would contribute to bringing the sport back to the level of prestige and importance it obviously should enjoy and reached in the 1980s when at the height of Steve Davis’ fame, it was said he spent more time on TV than the PM Maggie Thatcher. “
We had Mark King and Anthony Hamilton telling us how skint they were only four weeks ago. These are two leading players who have been in the top 20 consistently over the past 15-20 years.
I’m not sure this is the perception that any sport wants.
“This was my next point, and I always think it’s important to understand why things are as they are and where you sit within that situation: football rights are worth over £5bn-8bn for three years. Maybe more. BBC pays £6-8 million for the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters for the same period.”
I’m no maths genius, but it’s not hard to work out why snooker is where it is in the pecking order.
‘Traditional media don’t cover the sport properly’
I believe sometimes snooker is fighting for column inches in newspapers which is a problem that has been around for years when it is up against football.
All I was doing was answering a question honestly put to me on why I think snooker is not competing with other sports in the annual Sports Personality of the Year.
“I think the World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn has done a great job so far with snooker. There’s more snooker than ever. More playing opportunities than ever. Full credit to Barry for what he has achieved. “
Happy days for everyone involved in snooker.
‘Snooker was built for TV like tennis’
As far as saying snooker is cheap TV, it is.
“Snooker was a sport made for television back in the 1970s because it is easy and cheap to cover. Otherwise, it would never be on TV. “
Most sport is considered cheap television in comparison to what TV pays for other entertainment when you look at drama and movies.
I stand by what I say as factual.
This is something I’ve learned myself only recently since working on TV projects.
O’Sullivan saw off Matthew Stevens and has now lost just three frames in his four matches so far. The Rocket is chasing his sixth UK title and first piece of silverware since the Welsh Open last February, and in current form looks hard to stop.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 