Before coming to the match itself, let us cover briefly what happened yesterday, apart from practice obviously, and a bit of sightseeing.

Ronnie had an interview and some filming with Superstar Online. Thanks to Silvry for pointing the link to the interview to us (the link has changed but finding the new one was pretty obvious).

In this interview Ronnie speaks about his cue – he’s still playing with the old one, whilst john Parris is working on making him a new one he feels comfortable with – as well as snooker in the Olympics, attending the Athletics World Championships in London, Usain Bolt, a possible “Hussle” in China after the World Championship and more.

Here is the transcript of this interview on the Superstar Online site (automatic translation on Chrome)

O’Sullivan: The club auction raise money a question for him to doubt himself

2017-08-17 7: 0: 43        China Billiards Association official website

　　On August 16, 2017, Hengda World Snooker China Championship was officially opened in Guangzhou. According to the schedule, the first day and no task of the “rocket” O’Sullivan in the hotel for adaptive training, then the fire teacher accepted the “Superstar Online” interview. Although the interview time is only a short period of 15 minutes, but the reporter brought the problem to the fire teacher did not expect, and even began to “doubt yourself.”

 

Recently, O’Sullivan has held in Shenzhen, China and Britain Snooker Star Challenge and Guangzhou Hengda Chinese Championship debut, so that Chinese fans once again close to the “rocket” style. But careful fans found that O’Sullivan’s recent weight rose in a straight line, the body has obviously fat. In that the fire teacher is about to accept the “superstar online” interview, fans friends to the message: “Can you ask him, do you feel that the recent fat powerful? Vest is not to change the new friends?

When the reporter brought the problem to O’Sullivan, “rocket” stunned for three seconds, then smiled and said: “I have three vests, respectively, S, M and L number, I now wear the M number.” In the custom when O’Sullivan gave himself to set aside a “development space.”

Because it is just the end of adaptive training, in an interview with O’Sullivan also took his club, the topic also started. “I am going to change the club recently.” For professional players, the club is a big deal. “In fact, now the club has been very good, but with a long time, I think it is not so much better now. Now, the master of the bar to help me make a new club, I think maybe soon after You can change the club. ”

 

As a snooker king star, even O’Sullivan abandoned the club, but also a lot of senior fans coveted, the collection of Jiapin. “I do not have the club will usually be given to friends, or take charity auction, with the money to help others.”

Recently, the international billiards organizations on the billiards into the Olympic issue of the differences, the billiard bid for this cliché, O’Sullivan said: “I think this is not I can adjust or solve the problem, I think now Snow “The sport is very good, and we enjoy the joy it brings to us.”

Just 15 minutes of the interview soon ended, but O’Sullivan for their own body problems are still brooding. “Do you think I’m so fat?” O’Sullivan came to the dressing mirror, “Do you think I am now fat or strong?” (China Billiards Association Xiaofan)

Editor: cbsa

Now, today …

Ronnie beat Sam Baird by 5-2 in the last 64

Here is the report on World Snooker:

Thursday 17 Aug 2017 10:54AM

Ronnie O’Sullivan is safely through to the last 32 of the Evergrande China Championship after a 5-2 defeat of Sam Baird.

The Rocket was competing in his first ranking event match since losing an epic World Championship quarter-final to Ding Junhui in April.

O’Sullivan lost the opening frame but it didn’t take him long to shake off any signs of ring rust, making a sublime break of 124 to level at 1-1. He took to the front in the third frame, before a run of 91 ensured he went into the mid-session interval 3-1 ahead.

When they returned the five-time World Champion made it 4-1, but Baird kept himself alive in the next with a clearance of 42 to take the frame on the black. O’Sullivan got himself over the line with a century run of 100.

O’Sullivan said: “I’m pretty satisfied with that. The fans come to watch and you want to put on a good performance for them, as well as getting the job done as quickly as possible.”

Some more great picture thanks to Tai Chengzhe

It was an entertaining quality match indeed and Ronnie’s attitude was excellent throughout.

Coverage:

2017 China Championship: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Sam Baird (two parts: frames 1&2  – match from frame 3 on)

Ronnie will play David Gilbert next. Not easy!

Here are today’s results:

And a few comments about the matches I had the opportunity to watch, in part or in full

All four held-over last 128 matches were on television. From the top seeds, only Liang Wenbo lost, and Ian Burns totally deserved the win, he played well, Liang didn’t.

John Higgins scored very heavily against a very, very poor Lyu Haotian. John played really well, but it’s fair to say that Lyu didn’t give him any opposition whatsoever. Lyu had chances, and couldn’t take any. He missed everything and usually left openings as well. He scored only 9 points in the whole match. If Lyu was a kid who had never played a top player, I would understand that he could be overwhelmed. But the guy has been a pro for two seasons in the past… I’m a bit puzzled.

Ding and Mark Selby both won easily without playing well. They didn’t need to and you would expect them to improve in the next round.

None of the wildcards won their match.

Regarding the last 64 round, there were a few big surprises. Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham lost Li Hang and Yan Bingtao respectively. Both matches were close but the top seeds never looked comfortable. Anthony McGill lost also, by 5-2, to Mark Joyce. Joyce is a very dangerous player of course, but the score is rather severe. Also Joe Perry was beaten by 5-1 by Mike Dunn and this was certainly unexpected, certainly with such a damning scoreline.

It is Opening day at the China Championship 2017! It starts in earnest tomorrow, but today the players were made very welcome with a red carpet ceremony and a launch dinner. Here are some images shared on weibo and twitter by Worldsnooker and players:

There were a few interesting posts on weibo today as well: apparently the Shanghai Masters 2017 (or 2018) is well and truly alive, and Barry Hearn confirmed that talks are underway to stage the event later this season. Some posts suggest that it could be run from 13 to 18 November, which would leave the Champion of Champions squeezed between this one and the International Championship making it extremely difficult for the players involved in all three who would have to travel to China, back to UK, back to China and back to UK without any time to recover from jet lag, and very difficult for the Champion of Champions promoters to organise the schedule, which could impact how the tickets sell. Is this really sensible? Given that the Champion of Champions isn’t ranking, it could give this nice tournament a bad blow, with some top players declining the invitation and people waiting to know the line-up and schedule before buying tickets.

The China Championship 2017 is upon us, at Matt Huart has written this excellent preview:

China Championship 2017: Tournament Preview

• 12th August 2017

 

It has been almost seven weeks since the last piece of ranking event silverware was handed over to first-time winner Ryan Day at the Riga Masters, but next Wednesday marks the return of ranking event snooker as the venue stages of the Evergrande China Championship get underway in Guangzhou.

• View the China Championship draw
• View the China Championship playing schedule
• View the latest provisional seedings

Won by John Higgins last November as a 16-player invitational competition, this year the event has become a full 128 player ranking event, with the first qualifying round completed from 3-6 June at Preston’s Guild Hall. While top prize has been reduced from £200,000 to £150,000, the overall prize fund has been increased to £700,000, on a par with the money available at the World Open and International Championship events.

The importance of the event is reflected by a field that even this early in the season in August, sees just three top 32 players (Kyren Wilson, Ricky Walden and Dominic Dale) absent having failed to qualify.

A number of first round matches have been held over to the venue stages, including world champion Mark Selby, defending champion Higgins and Chinese duo Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo, while Andrew Higginson, Daniel Wells and Tian Pengfei face wild cards in their openers. As at the Riga Masters, these wild cards are now included within the main 128 player draw, rather than as part of a separate wild card round as in previous seasons.

Most unusually, the tournament will begin and end not on a Sunday, but mid-week following consultation with the tournament promoter. With the final to be played on Tuesday in Guangzhou, there could potentially be a tight turnaround for players involved in the Paul Hunter Classic, set to get underway that Friday.

Matches will be played over the best of nine frames with intervals up to and including the quarter-finals, subsequently increasing to the best of 11 for the semi-finals and best of 19 for the two-session final. There will be eight tables used for the first two rounds, decreasing to four for the last 16, two for the quarter-finals and one for the semi-finals and final.

Rankings

The tournament will be the first of three tournaments (Paul Hunter Classic and Indian Open), to be completed ahead of the second seedings revision of the 2017/18 campaign, with the completed list to be used to determine seedings for the 2017 International Championship.

The Top Quarter

And so on to the draw, which will be headed by reigning world champion Mark Selby, rather than defending champion John Higgins who finds himself seeded second in the opposite half.

Having missed out on the Riga Masters following a toe injury, the season starts here for the world number one and it will be interesting to see how quickly he is able to get back up to speed against players who have more snooker under their belts so far this term. First up for him will be wild card Luo Honghao, who has past wins to his name against Eden Sharav and Chris Wakelin in Asian Tour events and was most recently seen at the China Open back in March.

Further Asian opposition would await Selby in the next two rounds, with Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham to be followed by either Zhou Yuelong or Chen Zifan in the last 32. In the same section, Martin Gould is seeded to meet Anthony McGill in the last 32 if they can come through their opening round matches. Looking back at their head to head, the pair met four times in 2013 but not come across each other since, McGill having won their only best of nine encounter 5-2 back at that year’s China Open.

The other half of the quarter meanwhile contains no fewer than four former world champions and six ranking event winners, including 2015 World Championship finalists Stuart Bingham and Shaun Murphy. Neither have an easy start to the tournament however, with Bingham set to face 17-year-old prodigy and now top 64 player Yan Bingtao, while Murphy will come up against 47-year-old Ken Doherty, arguably the player of the season so far having been relegated at the end of last season.

Other match-ups to keep an eye out for include a match between Stephen Maguire and Rory McLeod in a repeat of their Crucible last 16 clash back in April, while veteran duo Peter Ebdon and Anthony Hamilton meet 25 years on from their first professional encounter at the 1992 Strachan Challenge.

The Second Quarter

Top seed in the second quarter of the draw is home hero Ding Junhui, who like Selby above has had his last 128 match against countryman Niu Zhuang held over to the venue stages. Awaiting the winner will be Alfie Burden in the last 64, no stranger to difficult second round draws in recent years, while either Elliot Slessor or Alan McManus would be next up in the last 32.

The other half of this mini-section is relatively open with 13th seeded Kyren Wilson having fallen in qualifying to Michael Georgiou, meaning that either the Cypriot, Mark King, Fergal O’Brien or Kurt Maflin is guaranteed to feature in the last 16. Of note, Northern Ireland Open champion King did in fact defeat Kurt Maflin during the recent European Masters qualifiers in Preston, while Georgiou recorded a 5-0 win against O’Brien in their World Open qualifiers just days ago.

Elsewhere, former World Championship finalists Barry Hawkins and Ali Carter are seeded to meet in the last 16, but interestingly it is Carter who has had the better of their rivalry down the years, winning six of their seven matches outside of the Championship League.

Among those looking to spoil the party are Ben Woollaston and Mark Davis who meet in what on the face of it looks to be a difficult to call last 64 match, although upon closer inspection it is Woollaston who has dominated their recently encounters.

David Grace meanwhile will face Ian Preece in what will be their first professional meeting, Preece having whitewashed Ricky Walden to qualify.

The Third Quarter

Moving to the third half of the draw and immediately what jumps off the screen is a potential last 16 meeting between Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan, a result of O’Sullivan having dropped to 14th in the seeding list for this tournament.

Of course nothing is guaranteed however and with Trump having suffered a 5-0 whitewash to Sam Craigie last week, he will be looking to get back on track with a win against either Daniel Wells or Ma Chunmao in his last 64 match. If he can win that, he would face either 2006 world champion Graeme Dott or Robert Milkins, ahead of that potential O’Sullivan encounter.

Speaking of O’Sullivan, he will begin his tournament against Sam Baird, the latter having won their only previous professional meeting at a PTC event back in 2011, while either David Gilbert or Stuart Carrington would await the winner in the last 32.

In the other half of the quarter we find Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo, both ranking event winners last season and looking to kickstart 2017/18 in Guangzhou. For Fu, a tricky opener against Iran’s Hossein Vafaei Ayouri in what will be their first professional meeting, while either Jimmy Robertson or Luca Brecel, the latter who Fu memorably came back from the brink to defeat back at the Crucible in April, would provide the opposition in the last 32.

For Liang, he will have an extra match to navigate as he faces Ian Burns in a match held over from Preston, with Allan Taylor already awaiting the winner in the second round.

Completing the section are Mike Dunn and Joe Perry, Dunn hoping to record his first ever professional win against the former Players Championship winner.

The Bottom Quarter

Last but certainly not least comes the bottom section of the draw, from which the likes of John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Mark Allen and Mark Williams will be among those looking to emerge.

For the defending champion Higgins comes a held over match against Lyu Haotian, before a potential meeting against Chris Wakelin in the last 64 and then a contest with either Matt Selt or Tom Ford in the following round.

Whoever can come through that section is guaranteed to face either Welsh or Chinese opposition. Top ranked Welsh duo Mark Williams and Riga champion Ryan Day can both be found here on a collision course for the last 32, or perhaps neither will make it and Cao Yupeng will take on either Tian Pengfei or Fan Zhenyi.

Further up the draw Neil Robertson will be looking to continue the form that he showed in winning the invitational Hong Kong Masters last month with victory against Li Hang in his opening match. The last time the pair met in China, Robertson notched four century breaks at the 2013 International Championship on his way to his landmark ‘century of centuries’ achievement by the end of the season. The winner will face either Michael White or Xiao Guodong who have both enjoyed improved fortunes of late and perhaps most notably met in the final of the 2015 Shoot Out, won by White.

Finally, new father Mark Allen is set to face Matthew Stevens in the last 64, the Northern Irishman looking for a similar outcome to his 10-4 victory against Stevens in their last meeting back in the final of the 2013 World Open. Either way, the winner will be rewarded with a clash against either Michael Holt or Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

How to watch

The tournament gets underway on Wednesday and will be available to watch both on Eurosport TV and Eurosport Player.

It’s not an easy draw for Ronnie. Sam Baird is very dangerous on his day, he’s a very heavy scorer. The same is certainly true for David Gilbert who is on the verge of the top 16 bracket. And then of course, it could be Judd Trump next. I don’t read anything in Judd’s heavy defeat in the World Open qualifiers, I don’t think he really wanted to play there. His form in Hong Kong was pretty good, but so was Ronnie’s and I expect a close match if both get that far.

World Snooker Services – the fitters – have shared these pictures of the setup on social media. It looks great.

And, finally, here is the trailer:

Four more days of qualifying action took place in Preston and the line-up for the World Open 2017 in Yushan is now known. Seven last 128 matches are held over to the venue: they involve Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo, China’s top players, Mark Selby, the World Champion and the four matches featuring a wildcard. Ali Carter, the Defending Champion, did not enter.

Going from best of 7 with no MSI, in the Indian Open and European Masters qualifiers, to best of 9, with an interval did make a huge difference in terms of results. All top players involved will be in Yushan, except for Judd Trump who played a real shocker. In fact out of 56 matches played, 45 were won by the top seed. Among those who caused an “upset”, three did actually qualify for all three events Indian Open, European Masters and World Open. They are Ken Doherty, Cao Yupeng and Alexander Ursenbacher. Well done to them. And well done as well to Jack Lisoswki, who also qualified for all three events: Jack had a very lean spell and needs results this season in order to avoid relegation.

This is the question that keeps popping into my mind a lot recently, reading about snooker as well as watching it.

The last occurrence happened on Monday watching Judd Trump being absolutely trashed by Sam Craigie in the World Open 2017 qualifiers. Sam Craigie is very talented – we have known that for years – and he played really well, so there is absolutely no questioning his win. But I’m questioning Judd’s defeat and the manner of it: Judd scored only 37 points in the whole match and his highest break was 9, how come? Judd had disclosed on twitter that he had a laser surgery a few days before the match, so maybe he was not yet completely  accustomed to the eyesight change and felt uncomfortable? Possibly, but this is not consistent with what he had tweeted about feeling good about it. The blatant fact was that Judd’s attitude was not right, he was taking all the wrong shots and everything he was doing was claiming that he didn’t want to be there. Judd was extremely upset when WPBSA announced that the Shanghai Masters was replaced by the World Open, with a flat draw, a qualifying round and played in Yushan, a rather remote place. In fact, he was in tears according to his manager. So lack of motivation is likely to be a big factor in what we have witnessed. I’m very surprised that the word “unprofessional” didn’t pop up on my twitter feed… not that I would have agreed with that simplistic view on what was happening out there. Let me try to explain and look at a few things currently happening in snooker.

Last season Ding Junhui didn’t play ANY qualifying match: indeed as China n°1 player, all his matches in Chinese events were held over to the venue and he gave the less lucrative European events a miss, either not entering, or withdrawing in the case of the European Masters. How did it come to this? Well … Ding rather often failed to qualify for Chinese events, because he didn’t like to have to qualify in the UK for his home events, and, often came to play ill prepared, jet lagged, leaving China too late, and / or clearly in the wrong frame of mind, a bit like Judd two days ago. In the 2014 Wuxi Classic qualifiers, Ding lost by 5-0 to amateur Oliver Brown. It was a disaster for the tournament and the sponsors, all the more so because Wuxi is Ding home town. Following this, and previous similar incidents, it was decided that the top two Chinese players’ opening round matches would be held over to the venues, in order to guarantee their appearance in all Chinese events. So, actually, Ding was rewarded for not trying his best, or not preparing adequately, by being excused from qualifying rounds and getting a significant advantage over fellow players, especially fellow Chinese players, who still had to qualify in the UK, for their home events. Of course China n°2, currently Liang Wenbo, is also similarly privileged, but … Hong Kong has been reunited with China 20 years ago, still, Marco Fu, who is indeed ranked higher than Liang, never benefitted from this exception. When I say “advantage” it’s about not having to travel to UK, not having to play in a multi table setup with little atmosphere, not having to worry about  a visa or jet lag … Barry Hearn justified the scrapping of the Shanghai Masters, and its possible reinstallation provided it’s a flat draw, with qualifiers, by claiming once again that he wants a level playing field. Really? It seems to me that it’s only true as long as it suits the sponsors… and his own agenda. Not in this instance, certainly. And not when it was decided to modify the qualifying criteria for the Champion of Champions, to include a non-champion, the World Championship runner-up, who, incidentally was … Ding. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the person Ding, and I genuinely like his game, but clearly, he gets special treatment and it all comes from the importance of China in supporting the sport financially and Ding’s own status in his counytry.

I don’t know a single top player who likes to have to qualify under the current system. Top players take pride in their skills, want to entertain the fans and thrive on big occasions. Some cope better than others, but they don’t like it, and I’m not sure the sponsors like it that much either, because ultimately, each and every time, they lose some of the top stars along the way. Ronnie  certainly doesn’t like it either and said as much. He often points out that you don’t see Federer, Nadal, Murray or Djokovic having to qualify and that qualifiers should be for amateurs only. He doesn’t mind starting at the last 128, provided it’s part of the main event, at the main event location. In particular, he believes that the Chinese events should be played in China from round 1. If you think about it, there we have another really unfair setup. In order to make events less expensive for UK players, all qualifiers are played in the UK … which means they are more expensive for overseas players who need to travel to UK to qualify even for their home events, and possibly struggle to get a visa. It also means that the “top-up” system benefits mainly to UK amateurs although it seems that things are changing a bit this season, with local wildcards entering in round one, held-over matches. Indeed who would travel to the other side of the world, to play one match, against a top 64 player and likely come out of it penniless? Other top players, notably Mark Williams, have expressed similar views and I completely agree with them. If it IS a flat draw there should be no qualifiers and there should be only one venue where it’s played, by all competitors involved, from start to finish.

Another area where there isn’t a level playing field is the access to the professional status. The main route is the Q-School, and it might become even more important now that WPBSA and IBSF are in a war. Q-School is played exclusively in te UK. It’s been promised that there would be Q-Schools in Asia and Europe, but for the time being, it’s still only UK. Which means that playing in there is more difficult and more expensive for non UK players. WPBSA claim they want to make the game global, but this only contributes to maintain the UK dominance. Even worse the current top-ups system, which gives amateurs invaluable experience, and the future challengers tour are / will be accessible only to players who entered the Q-School. Of course the Q-School is probably a significant source of revenues for the governing body…

Another area where players are not exactly treated equal is the relationship with the media. In this case, it’s not related to the way the game is managed, it’s purely linked to the nature of relationship between the media and any sport. Last season Ronnie embarked in series of comedy protest “performances” because he had the feeling that he was fined more than others for speaking his mind. He felt bullied and Clive Everton repeatedly suggested that he wanted to be treated differently from the rest. I don’t think that’s true, A few years back Mark Allen came to a press conference with some tape over his mouth after a series of fines. Mark Williams has become a master at saying things on twitter without actually saying them. The thing is … any sport needs exposure, so it is expected from the exponents, especially from  the top exponents, that they make themselves available to the press. And the press wants them to say interesting things, things that create stories rather than a bunch of trivialities and small talk. The higher the profile, the bigger the demand, and, as we all know, only those who wash the dishes do occasionally break plates. Statistically, the more dishes you wash … the more plates you will break. Hector Nunns touched on the subject in this article. Here is an excerpt:

In fairness to O’Sullivan, he has done his bit over 25 years. Yes, he may have ducked the odd press conference, although you would be hard pushed to name more than one in recent years, but he has done more media over the years than most of the players put together. The fair ones know this, acknowledge it, and are often quite grateful that he is the lightning conductor.

So yes, players sometime DO say inappropriate things. Especially right after difficult match or a defeat with emotions running high. and, then again, usually the media are not interested in losers, unless they are high-profile. Of course, Ronnie criticising the referee live on TV right after the match was not acceptable, and Mark Allen saying that cheating is a Chinese trait wasn’t either. But sometimes players are fined for just expressing their frustration or disappointment, like every one of us at times, in the heat of the moment, with strong words.  Or for saying inconvenient truths. They are expected to be “role models” in every aspect of their professional life, all the time. Is it realistic to expect them to be perfect at all times? Is this even productive? I doubt it. I mean, we, all of us, we are not perfect, and, personally, I find it extremely difficult to relate to perfect people. They don’t feel like “real persons”, they don’t come across as genuine. And if you look across sports at the sportspersons the general public warmed to, they are very seldom the “perfect” type. Think Alex Higgins, Jimmy White, Georges Best, Paul Gascoigne, even John McEnroe nowadays … I think the sport authorities, and broadcasters, should think about this and take a more relaxed attitude, within limits of course. I don’t believe that the occasional swear word will damage any sport, or deter any sponsor. At worse it will damage the culprit image. But it will also show their human side, their “character” (allegedly sorely missing nowadays). The current obsession with “political correctness” has gone too far, in my opinion at least. The ONLY things that REALLY damages a sport are foul play, cheating, match fixing. Towards that there should rightly be zero tolerance. Everything else should be treated with a good dose of common sense.

All opinions express above are mine, and mine only.