As we enter the semi finals stage today, we are treated with two unexpected matches, each of them featuring a proven top player and a young Chinese player.
Indeed it’s Judd Trump v Cao Yupeng and Stuart Bingham v Zhou Yuelong.
How did we get there?
Judd beat Mark Allen in the QF, in a high quality match, that saw Mark coming back from 3-0 down to force a decider. Judd looks very determined to defend his title; it would be the first time that he defends successfully and a succesful defence is a rarity anyway.
Cao Yupeng beat Mark Williams by 4-2, and I don’t think that many saw this coming, especially after Mark had sent Neil Robertson home in the previous round. Cao hasn’t done much in recent years and it’s easy to forget that he reached the last 16 at the Crucible in 2012, in his first year as a pro. He’s only 26. It will be interesting to see what happens from here.
Stuart Bingham played very well to beat Mark Selby by 4-2, and that didn’t surprise me. Except for his match against Zhao Xintong, where he made 4 centuries in 4 frames he won, Mark had been on the “escape act” all tournament: he had to come through a decider in every other match in Lommel. Stuart is a much harder opponent than Mark Joyce, Lyu Haotian or Jack Lisowski. He’s a tournament winner and a former World Champion, he wasn’t going to allow another escape.
Finally, Zhou Yuelong inflicted a right spanking to Anthony McGill. He beat him 4-0, in no time, with 138 and 136 to finish. Zhou is only 19 and he’s a product of the efforts China puts into the development of their young snooker talents. There have been 5 players who reach their first SF this season, 4 of them are young Chinese.
Snooker kings including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and defending champion Liang Wenbo have already had their first round matches scheduled for this month’s English Open at the Barnsley Metrodome.
The world ranking event will feature 128 players in the flat draw, and the complete draw and format will not be available until after the seeding cut off falls at the end of this week’s European Masters.
But the following matches have already been scheduled, to give fans the chance to buy tickets to see their heroes:
Monday 16th 10am: Barry Hawkins
Monday 16th 1pm Judd Trump
Followed by Liang Wenbo
Monday 16th 7pm Ronnie O’Sullivan
Not before 8pm Shaun Murphy
Tuesday 17th 10am Marco Fu
Tuesday 17th 1pm Mark Selby
Followed by Ding Junhui
Tuesday 17th 7pm John Higgins
Not before 8pm Neil Robertson
Tickets are on sale now and there’s an amazing Barmy Barnsley offer currently running with all-day tickets available from Monday October 16 to Thursday October 19 for just £5! It’s an incredible chance to see many of your favourite players for the price of a single ticket, especially with action on seven tables in the early stages.
The English Open runs from October 16 to 22 and it’s the first of the season’s Home Nations series.
On the other hand they still haven’t published the draw and format for the Shanghai Masters Qualifiers that run next week! But Ronnie (apparently sat in a train) was again on a roll on twitter and, amongst many other things (nutrition, running, his books, another hustle, tour structure) posted this:
Yeah my agent got me a good deal so Shanghai is on
The European Masters 2017 is underway in Lommel, Belgium, and very unfortunately I learned about it being held in my country well after I had committed to travel to Greece. So I’m missing it.
It’s a nice setup with only 4 tables, which is good. I, personally, don’t like the big arenas with 8 or more tables. They lack atmosphere, in my opinion. Also it makes the tournament easier to follow as it unfolds.
(pictures shared by Olivier Marteel on twitter)
We are already at the last 16 stage and this is the line-up:
The good news for the sponsors is that all three guys in the event poster are still in it! Three top 16 players, out of the 9 involved, lost in the first or second round: John Higgins, Kyren Wilson and Ryan Day. All of them lost to experienced veterans, and except for John, in a deciding frame.
The last 16 line-up above is a strong one, with most players involved being expected at this stage. Half of them are event winners. Ben Woollaston and David Gilbert have been ranking event finalists and are likely to win an event sooner than late. Mark Davis has been 4 times in ranking semi finals and has won the 6-reds World Championship twice, as well as the Championship League Snooker. Zhou Yuelong has proven his value by reaching the top 32 before turning 20 and he’s a product of the very strong young Chinese crop, supported by a strong national body and excellent national structures. That leaves us with four “surprises”: Jack Lisowski, Peter Lines, Cao Yupeng and Billy Joe Castle. Jack has all the talent in the world but seemed to have lost his way, hopefully he’s getting back where he belongs. The same can be said from Cao Yupeng who really impressed when he first came on the tour then somehow faded away. As for Billy, he’s a rookie – albeit well-known on the amateur circuit – and his run here is quite remarkable. Take a bow Billy. Him and Cao play each other today. Peter is the Seniors World Champion. He’s a hard nut to crack and the living proof that Snooker Legend’s promoter, Jason Francis, motto “dare to dream” is in fact reality!
Over the last couple of days Ronnie has been very active on twitter and has sparked a lot of reactions after he branded 70% of his fellow snooker professionals “numpties”. He suggested that 70% of the tour is made of no-hopers, which I can only understand as “players who will never win anything of worth”. He admitted that he finds it difficult to play them, and play in qualifiers, so much so that he rather avoids qualifiers and stay home unless there is a financial incentive.
I won’t copy/paste the whole stuff, you can read it here . To be fair there are a lot of other things, including very positive ones, that Ronnie tells us in this impromptu self-induced interview. But of course it’s the “numpties” comments that caught attention. And he got some stick for it of course, but also support from some who feel it’s time to drop political correctness, including fellow pro Mark Williams.
Now here are the facts and my take on the “issue”
Let me first state this: branding fellow pros as numpties was both provocative and not very nice. The vast majority of the tour players work hard and try their best.
That said, Ronnie also used the word “no-hopers”, and in a previous interviews, “amateurs”, which is probably closer to what he really means.
Now, frankly, how many of the current pros have a realistic chance to win as much as ONE ranking title in their career? There are currently 32 of them on the tour (source cuetracker) out of 128 – the invitational tour card holders not included, but including guys like Nigel Bond and Anthony Hamilton who are unlikely to win another one (Anthony suffers from recurrent neck injuries).
That’s 75% of the tour who hasn’t won a ranking title. How many of those 75% do you reckon are likely to win one at some point and who? You’d need 7 more to get to 70% of non winners, likely never to win. Me, right now, I can only see a couple of young Chinese (Zhou and Yan), Gilbert, maybe Sam Craigie and Hossein Vafaei … who else?
Even more worrying: if you look at who is challenging for titles, it’s still mainly the class of 92 and guys nearing 35. Last season Selby beat Ronnie for the UK, Higgins for the World, and Ronnie took the Masters, beating Perry, another 40+. This season Robertson beat Ronnie in Hong Kong, Williams won in Thailand, Higgins in India. The only really young player proving himself is Luca Brecel.
So in a way, you could say that Ronnie is right, over 70% of the players have next to no hope to ever achieve much in the game and the ones he faces in qualifiers are nowhere near the standard he used to face for most of his career, when top 16 players were seeded in last 32 in every tournament. Mismatches are not great for anybody: not for the top player who gets no challenge, not for the underdog who gets a bashing, not for the audience who gets no real thrill because there isn’t a real match. Mismatches have also lead to some top pros being demotivated to the point they don’t try as they should or lose focus. Ding’s record in qualifiers was so bad that it became a problem with the Chinese sponsors and led to holding his matches over to the main venue in China.
Another worrying aspect for me is that I don’t see many young ones coming through. Look at last season first time winners: King, Hamilton, Liang Wenbo, and this season, Day. Without condoning what Ronnie said, or at least the way he said it, I believe that Hearn should have the honesty to look at those stats and facts. The flat draw as it is doesn’t really deliver. It has advantages indeed: lower ranked players need to win less matches to reach the television stage, they have the opportunity to play the big boys more often, to get used to the television set-up. But the system is extremely brutal, the rookies meet top 64 players in their first match each and every time, they get beat more often than not and earn very little. Is that really the best way to help them develop? The current state of affairs suggest to me that the answer is no. I’m not sure that someone like Neil Robertson would have made it in the current system, coming raw and penniless from Oz. The tiered system had its drawbacks, but it also allowed for a more progressive development. Why not have a mix of both systems? Would promoters object? I doubt it. Would it protect top players too much? I don’t think so, not if they get no “points” at all if losing their first match. Quite the opposite, it’s a lot of pressure on them then, coming cold against someone who has already secured some points/money with everything to lose.
Where Ronnie is wrong is that this is no different from what happens in any other sport. What % of pro tennis players do actually win anything significant in their career? Surely not even 25% of them. How many pro football clubs do actually win major cups? Only a few considering how popular football is and how many pro clubs exist around the world. The thing is you can’t build a sport solely around the elite. However, you won’t see Federer, Nadal, Djovovic or Murray asked to play qualifiers on court n° 254 in an obscure club, or Chelsea having to qualify for international major competitions playing FC Zottegem on a communal playground. The structure of the tennis and football tours are , de facto, tiered.
The other day Robertson urged Hearn on twitter to make the tickets for qualifiers free because it felt like playing in a morgue, and Williams insisted that there should be no qualifiers at all. I must say, I agree with them both. And yes, there is more money at the top nowadays, but older players have told me they were having a very decent living as middle ranked players in the 90th early 2000th. No more so.
As often the case with Ronnie’s outbursts, beyond the colourful and sometimes rude wording, there is a real issue here and, actually, Hearn knows it, as his reaction shows.
GETTYRonnie O’Sullivan has come under fire for his commentsAnd World Snooker chairman Hearn suspects the insult will fire up opponents at the Rocket’s increasingly rare tournament appearances.But he admits that five-time world champion O’Sullivan, 41, is unlikely to be disciplined for his latest outburst.
O’Sullivan justified his absence from this week’s European Masters by saying he: “Couldn’t cope with playing a numpty at Barnsley to qualify. See how many numpties you can spot in Belgium.”
Ironically the Rocket has just confirmed he will play in this month’s English Open in Barnsley, where he will face a lower-ranked opponent.
But Hearn said: “It’s disrespectful to fellow professionals and I wouldn’t want to encourage it, but I’m not sure it’s actionable.
“If he doesn’t rate his fellow professionals’ ability then he has to deal with that when he goes out to play them.
“I can ask players to be respectful, but that’s just common sense. And it is part of the bigger conversation about reducing the size of the tour.“Will it motivate these players Ronnie has called numpties even more? They should all want to beat top players anyway.
“But the great news for them is that it doesn’t matter what Ronnie or anyone else thinks, it’s about what they do on the table.
“In football that would be a comment that the manager would put straight on the dressing room wall, and the players would be lightning and thunder coming out on to the pitch.
“Snooker is not quite that type of game, you have to be in control of your emotions a bit more, but it might motivate a few.
“There is though a bigger picture about where is snooker going, and our plans for it. To be fair to Ronnie, it isn’t just him who thinks the tour should be smaller.
GETTYSnooker supremo Barry Hearn“There are a few other big names who think that it should be cut from 128 to 64.“I have always thought that was a backwards step. I don’t think the bottom half are a waste of time, because it’s an avenue to changing your life and living the dream.
“If you are a ‘numpty’, as Ronnie so eloquently puts it, you will get beaten. And after a year or two maybe you’ll look in the mirror and get another job. But you had the chance.
“In Ronnie’s ideal world, and this is a slight exaggeration, a tournament would be him and one other person for all the money.”
Five-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has confirmed his entry to the English Open, which starts in two weeks in Barnsley.
Crowd favourite O’Sullivan will join a stellar field for the world ranking event which runs from October 16 to 22 at the Barnsley Metrodome.
Already confirmed for the first of the season’s Home Nations series are World Champion Mark Selby, John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Neil Robertson, Jimmy White, Liang Wenbo and a host of other top stars among the 128-man field.
The Eurosport-televised event will see players competing for a top prize of £70,000 and the Steve Davis Trophy. And the winner will go into the second Home Nations event of the season with a chance to land a £1 million bonus if he can win further titles in Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff.
With all 128 players in action over the first two days (Monday October 16 and Tuesday October 17) and with seven tables in the arena, it’s a fantastic chance for fans to see many of their heroes in action for the price of a single ticket,
Tickets are still available for the English Open and the current ‘Barmy Barnsley’ special offer has all-day tickets available for just £5 for the first four days (October 16-19) – the best value for money in the world of sport! This offer will finish soon so book now!
The International Championship 2017 qualifiers were played in Preston from September 26 to September 29, 2017 and most of the top players involved did qualify for the main event to be played early november in Daqing, China.
The notable exception is Marco Fu who fell to the young Thai, Akani “Sunny” Songsermsawad, a player with the most unconventional cue action!
Four of the top 16 players have their first match held over to the venue: Mark Selby, the World Champion, John Higgins, the n°2 seed (?), Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo, China n° 1 and 2. More Chinese players have their matches held over as well; indeed the trio involved in the Asian Indoor Games (a competition played in Turkmenistan till September 27, 2017), Zhou Yuelong, Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong were spared the qualifiers in Preston. However Hossein Vafaei and Soheil Vahedi, the two Iranian players involved in the same competition were required to rush to the UK to play their last 128 match… Probably another great example of the fair playing field.
Ronnie was amongst the last batch of players to qualify yesterday evening in Preston. He certainly didn’t snail trough it as he needed just over an hour to beat Gerald Greene by 6-0:
Here is the last frame of the match:
MissingClip (the full match)
Ronnie next opponent, in the last 64 is likely to be the very dangerous Yan Bingtao. Next up could be Rick Walden or Peter Ebdon in the last 32, possibly Barry Hawkins in the last 16 and John Higgins in the QF… easy!
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is today pleased to announce two new partnerships which will see support offered to current main tour snooker players who are struggling with mental health issues.
A signatory to the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation, launched by The Sport and Recreation Alliance, alongside the Professional Players Federation and Mind in 2015, the WPBSA has identified a need to provide a confidential and professional clinical service to its Members.
An agreement to provide this support has now been made with Talking Solutions Ltd, an organisation with over 30 years’ experience supporting individuals through a wide range of mental health issues, from anxiety and depression through to psychosis.
Under the new agreement, main tour players now have access to the support that they need in the following ways:
A dedicated number and email for players to contact directly without needing to contact the WPBSA should they feel they need to.
Initial assessment within 72 hours to determine whether further support is needed.
The cost of up to six sessions with Talking Solutions to be covered by the WPBSA for each Member.
Alongside this initiative, the WPBSA has also partnered with the SOS Silence of Suicide group, who provide a bespoke informal service that offers people opportunities to discuss the troubles in an open forum that will support them in speaking more freely to assist with avoiding the long-term potential threat of suicide.
Through its work the WPBSA will promote SOS Silence of Suicide to raise awareness of the potential for suicide and the need for people to talk. SOS Silence of Suicide will also offer two open sessions for players at a major event, providing the option to come and speak freely about issues and experiences they feel they wish to share in relation to mental health issues or problems that long-term could bring about suicidal thoughts.
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “The WPBSA is committed to supporting its members. With the World Snooker Tour growing in popularity and with an increasing number of successful events being added to the tour year on year there will be unseen pressures on players. It is important for WPBSA to be able to provide support mechanisms to assist any tour player that feels they need it. No one should suffer in silence.”
Both new agreements underline the WPBSA’s commitment to tackling mental health issues in snooker and the work that has taken place in particular since 2015. Earlier this year, recent Paul Hunter Classic semi-finalist Mitchell Mann spoke out in support of our ‘Your Cue to Talk’ campaign and represented the WPBSA at the second anniversary celebrations of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation in London.
Visit our Player Support section to learn more about the new initiatives and the support available to current main tour players from the WPBSA.
About Talking Solutions
Talking Solutions has a proven track record, built up over 30 years, in assisting people to overcome the mental health difficulties they are experiencing.
The main form of therapy offered by Talking Solutions is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a structured talking therapy that enables individuals to understand and overcome their problems. CBT is regularly used throughout the United Kingdom, and is the main form of psychotherapy advocated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), for a wide range of mental health problems.
SOS Silence of Suicide was established by Michael Mansfield QC and his partner Yvette Greenway, following the suicide in May 2015 of Michael’s daughter Anna and five months earlier of a lifelong friend of Yvette’s. SOS Silence of Suicide is a unique service with one simple aim: to encourage open, honest discourse by all those affected by suicide, from a safe platform provided by SOS where stigma, shame and silence do not exist.
Yvette Greenway from SOS Silence of Suicide said: “We are delighted to be working alongside the WPBSA as part of their continued and expanding mental wellbeing support system for snooker players. We have many shared concerns, values and aims and by working together for the benefit of others, we hope to reduce and eventually eradicate the shame, silence, stigma and isolation that suicide, alongside other mental health issues, provokes.”
Certainly an excellent initiative, and needed too. But it won’t solve the problem if some thought isn’t given to the structure of the calendar, and, maybe even to the ranking system in order to avoid unecessary additional pressure. The sport is demanding enough mentally as it is.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 