Ronnie won his all important quarter finals match against Mark Selby.   He beat him by 5-1. Here are the frames scores.

After a lenghty first frame that went his way , Ronnie found form and won three frames in quick succession playing some marvellous snooker. At that stage he looked unplayable. He probably didn’t want the interval to come.

It was all so quick that it triggered this tweet by Neil Robertson whose match was coming next.

The interval though broke Ronnie’s rhythm. It gave him time to reflect on what was happening and when they came back, the fluency was gone and Ronnie looked a bit anxious. Errors crept in and Mark Selby took advantage. His highest break was still only 37, but he won the first frame after the resumption. Ronnie was still 4-1 up, but looked edgy. In the next, Mark Selby was unlucky to knock a red in whilst splitting the pack from the blue. Ronnie constructed a good break to get to the snookers required stage, with one red remaining. It was only one snooker to tie though. Instead of just rolling the red into the pocket, Ronnie played it harder than necessary to get position on a colour. As a result he missed it… a few minutes later Mark Selby had got the penalty points he needed, when Ronnie was unlucky to pocket the white, off another ball. Luckily for Ronnie, Mark Selby had a similar misfortune whilst playing the last green. This time Ronnie made no mistake.

This is the report by WST

Friday 14 Feb 2020 10:40PM

Ronnie O’Sullivan produced a sublime performance to beat Mark Selby 5-1 and reach the semi-finals of the ManBetX Welsh Open in Cardiff.

Victory for O’Sullivan crucially moves him into 16^thposition on the live one-year money list. That means that as things stand he is set to edge into the upcoming Players Championship. The top 16 at the end of next week’s Shoot Out will earn a spot.

Today’s win also enhances O’Sullivan’s head-to-head record in his momentous rivalry with Selby, which has included Masters, UK Championship and World Championship finals. The Rocket is now 15-10 ahead in contests between the pair.

Selby can reflect on his defeat with the knowledge that he still made Home Nations history this season. The Jester from Leicester became the first player to win two events in a single campaign, with victories at the English and Scottish Opens.

O’Sullivan produced spellbinding snooker to storm into a 4-0 advantage at the mid-session. He compiled breaks of 142, 95 and 85 to rapidly move to the verge of victory.

Selby kept himself in the tie by edging a narrow fifth frame. He was first in again in the next, but cruelly went in-off to afford O’Sullivan an opportunity to close out the match. He left Selby needing snookers, which he got. However, a second stroke of hard luck saw Selby go in-off in an attempt to develop the green. O’Sullivan made no mistake from there and secured victory.

O’Sullivan said: “I tried to take the game to Mark as much as I could and be prepared for a battle. It is always hard against Mark and he never makes it easy for you.

“I got off to a good start and managed to get amongst the balls and score some good breaks. I came out after the interval and it started to go itsy bitsy. I kept saying to myself that if I managed to find one good frame I should be fine.

“I enjoyed the match. It was tough and I haven’t faced players of Mark’s calibre regularly. It was a test for me to see where I was, so it was nice to come out on top today.”

O’Sullivan’s semi-final opponent will be Kyren Wilson, who recorded an impressive 5-0 whitewash victory against 18-time ranking event winner Neil Robertson.

Here is the match

And some great images thanks to Tai Chengzhe

This win puts Ronnie on place 16th in the one year list, 6000 points ahead of Gary Wilson. As  it stands, he is in the mix to play in the 2020 Players Championship, where he is the defending Champion. He would face Judd Trump in the first round (last 16). He isn’t completely safe though as the points of the Shoot Out will also come into play.

If he could win his semi finals match tomorrow, he would climb to spot n°15, ahead of David Gilbert, with a 16000  cushion and the prospect to play Shaun Murphy, first in Southport.

Ronnie will play Kyren Wilson tomorrow as Kyren did beat Neil Robertson by 5-0 this afternoon.

This is the evening session preview, with the ES pundits assessment of the afternoon matches and Ronnie’s interview

The Thursday at the Home Nations tournament is always very busy, as two rounds are played: 32 players start in the morning, only 8 remain in the evening.

The remaining 8 in Cardiff are: Judd Trump, Neil Robetson, John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao and Ronnie. All of them are in the current ranking top 16, except Yan Bingtao (20th) and all of them are in the one year list top 16 except Ronnie (17th). Ronnie of course in there because he hasn’t played as much as the other ones this season, and because the only title he won was in an invitational event.

So it’s really the best players right now battling it out in Cardiff.

Here is WST report on the last 16 round:

Friday 14 Feb 2020 12:14AM

Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan will meet in the quarter-finals of the ManBetX Welsh Open after both players secured last 16 wins in Cardiff.

The pair have already faced each other in a Home Nations quarter-final this season. On that occasion it was Selby who prevailed with an enthralling 5-4 victory at the Scottish Open in Glasgow, where he went on to lift the title. Overall O’Sullivan has the edge in his head-to-head record with Selby, leading 14-10.

This evening Selby came through a thrilling encounter with China’s Zhao Xintong 4-3 to book his place in the last eight.

The Jester from Leicester had moved himself to the verge of victory at 3-1 ahead. He compiled breaks of 55, 66 and 83, before crafting a run of 60 in the fifth frame. However, after Selby fell out of position, Zhao cleared with a brilliant break of 74 to keep himself in the match.

Zhao then fired in a contribution of 76 straight from Selby’s break-off to level the tie at 3-3. Despite the spirited fightback, it was Selby who showed his typical nerve under pressure, controlling the decider to progress 4-3.

“Zhao is so talented, he just sees the shots very quickly, is a great talent and is brilliant for snooker,” said Selby. “Whenever you play Ronnie at any tournament it is always a great game and a great occasion. It was a good game at the Scottish Open. I gave him the rock-paper-scissors at the start of the match, because he tried to fist bump me!”

O’Sullivan booked his place in the quarters with a 4-0 defeat of Iran’s Soheil Vahedi.

His run this week could prove to be crucial in the race to earn a spot in the upcoming Coral Players Championship. Only the top 16 players in the one-year list will qualify, O’Sullivan currently lies in 17^th position in the live rankings.

The Rocket wasted little time in progressing this evening. He top scored with a break of 131 in a victory which took under an hour to complete.

O’Sullivan said: “I’m pleased to get the win and happy to be in the next round. I managed to pinch the second frame to go 2-0 up. I played a good third and the fourth was in and out, I am really pleased to get through.”

Defending champion Neil Robertson continued his phenomenal run of form to whitewash Gerard Greene 4-0 and seal his place in the last eight.

The Thunder from Down Under has been in the last three consecutive finals, winning the BetVictor European Masters and the Coral World Grand Prix and losing the German Masters final.

This evening he produced a near flawless display, making breaks of 116, 121 and 85 on his way to victory.

Robertson will face tough opposition in the quarters against Kyren Wilson, who defeated Ding Junhui 4-2.

World Champion Judd Trump is searching for his maiden Welsh Open title this week and he moved one step closer with a 4-1 win over Stephen Maguire.

Trump faces fellow Triple Crown winner Shaun Murphy in the quarters, who is also hoping to land a maiden Welsh Open title this week. The Magician defeated the only remaining Welshman Dominic Dale 4-1.

John Higgins required a final frame decider to beat Belgian Luca Brecel 4-3. He will face Yan Bingtao in the last eight, who edged out Anthony McGill 4-3.

There was no WST report on the last 32 round.

You can read more on Ronnie’s last 32 win here (with images and coverage)

And you can read more on Ronnie’s last 16 win here (with coverage)

Judd Trump was pretty awful in defeating Stephen Maguire who was plain terrible himself. Judd was the first to admit to it when assessing the match with the ES pundits, stating that if he had faced anyone with some fight in them, he would have lost. Well, I’m not sure what to make of that exactly, but it’s quite damning!

You can hear this by yourself here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNAdh1oHGvM

It’s always very hard to make an opinion when a player appears not to try properly. I remember one occurence at the Crucible, where Ryan Day was well ahead in his match and  lost, playing a terrible last session. There were all sorts of speculations, and, of course, people going about his “lack of bottle”. The next day, it transpired that he was suffering from a very bad bout of migraine. Believe me (I have experience in this!) there is no way you can win a match of snooker if your head is pounding like hell, you eyesight is messed up and you fight nausea.

Yesterday Ronnie beat Soheil Vahedi, from Iran, by 4-0, to reach the QF in Cardiff. He will face Mark Selby this afternoon. He is currently 17th on the one year list. A win today would put him on 16th at the expense of Gary Wilson.

Here is the report by WST:

O’Sullivan booked his place in the quarters with a 4-0 defeat of Iran’s Soheil Vahedi.

His run this week could prove to be crucial in the race to earn a spot in the upcoming Coral Players Championship. Only the top 16 players in the one-year list will qualify, O’Sullivan currently lies in 17^th position in the live rankings.

The Rocket wasted little time in progressing this evening. He top scored with a break of 131 in a victory which took under an hour to complete.

O’Sullivan said: “I’m pleased to get the win and happy to be in the next round. I managed to pinch the second frame to go 2-0 up. I played a good third and the fourth was in and out, I am really pleased to get through.”

Ronnie played well really, and gave his opponent due respect.

Coverage:

The Match:

The evening session preview by the ES pundits (with i nterviews with Judd Trump, Ronnie and Soheil Vahedi)

The evening mid session analysis by the ES pundits, with Ronnie in the studio

As you can hear Ronnie was full of praise for his opponent, stressing how difficult it is on tour for expat players like him. He was also very critical of the conditions, as had been other top players this week.

The last 64 round at the 2020 Welsh Open was played to a completion yesterday.

Here is the report by WST:

Wednesday 12 Feb 2020 11:24PM

Trump Aces The Castle

World Champion Judd Trump produced a strong showing to whitewash Billy Castle 4-0 and reach the last 32 of the ManBetX Welsh Open in Cardiff.

The Ace in the Pack is still searching for his maiden title in this event, but did reach the final in 2017 when he was runner-up to Stuart Bingham.

If world number one Trump were to be victorious this week he would equal Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan’s record of five ranking crowns in a single season. Trump’s four wins so far this campaign have come at the International Championship, World Open, Northern Ireland Open and the recent German Masters.

This afternoon Trump fired in breaks of 71, 121 and 67 on his way to a victory which took under an hour. He faces Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo up next.

Trump said: “It was a good performance. I played pretty solidly and I didn’t miss much when I got amongst the balls. I’m very happy with the first three frames and pleased to put the match to bed quite comfortably.

“I felt very comfortable in that game. I made a good break to go 1-0 up and it just settled me down. I was able to dictate what was going on. My safety was very good and I played well enough to put him under pressure.”

Higgins Beats Familiar Foe

John Higgins defeated 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty 4-1 in the pair’s first meeting in five years, as he secured his last 32 spot.

The Wizard of Wishaw defeated Doherty 18-12 to claim his maiden World Championship title back in 1998. The most recent clash between them was at the 2015 German Masters when Higgins prevailed 5-2.

Higgins, a record five-time winner of this event, produced his best snooker at the closing stages this evening. He fired in back-to-back century breaks of 100 and 104 to secure victory.

Rocket Downs The Mariner

Ronnie O’Sullivan came through an intriguing clash with Stuart Carrington 4-2 to progress.

The Rocket looked to be in danger when he trailed 2-1. Carrington spurned a golden opportunity to move one from victory, missing a red with a chance to clear. O’Sullivan pounced with a break of 31 to restore parity.

From there five-time World Champion O’Sullivan grasped control of proceedings. He claimed the fifth frame, before a run of 96 secured his victory. O’Sullivan faces Anthony Hamilton in tomorrow’s last 32.

Round Up

Mark Selby progressed courtesy of a 4-1 defeat of Chen Zifan, while Neil Robertson notched up the 700th century of his career during a 4-2 win over Mark Joyce.

Stuart Bingham was a 4-1 winner against Chen Feilong and Shaun Murphy required a final frame decider to beat Alfie Burden 4-3.

Once again, WST report is rather minimalist and focussing only on the top players.

Yes, Judd Trump played very well, but he was not put under any sort of pressure by his opponent who clearly struggled playing on the main television table. He will face Igor Figueiredo today. Igor had four breaks over 50 in beating the vastly experienced Mark Davis. He came back fro 3-1 down as well. However Igor hasn’t played on the main table and that may take some time to get used to, time you don’t get in a best of 7.

Neil Robertson v Mark Joyce was actually a very close match. The last four frames were pretty scrappy.

Mark Selby won comfortably but was very unhappy with his own performance and with the conditions. Ding was happy and relaxed after his win over Ricky Walden and hoping for more centuries, as each century made in the tournament is worth £1000 in help to those affected by the coronavirus outbreak in China.

You can hear them both here with the ES team

Mark Selby saying that he never doubted his own win even after his opponent had won the first frame, and despite himself playing terrible, may sound big headed. I’m sure it wasn’t: he explained that this feeling was trigged by Chen Zifan shots choice, and him not taking opportunities. The discussion about how the young Chinese players could improve, and Reanne’s input, is quite interesting. More “diversity” in their practice, and more focus on safety / match play is what she and Alan McManus suggested.

Mark Williams victory over Jordan Brown had more to do with Jordan struggling than with Mark’s brilliance. Then again Jordan rarely plays on television.

Regarding the race to the Players Championship, Ronnie is now 19th, only 1750 points behind Jack Lisowski. He could face Jack tonight in the last 16. If Ronnie manages to reach the QF, he will find himself on the unenviable 17th spot still 4000 points behind Gary Wilson. But Gary is out, so the SF would guarantee Ronnie a top 16 spot in the one year list, with a 6000 points cushion. Still not safe though and with the prospect to meet Judd Trump in the first round in Southport.

More about Ronnie’s win, with pictures and coverage are available here

Ronnie beat Stuart Carrington by 4-2 yesterday evening, to book his place in the last 32 of the 2020 Welsh Open. He will face Anthony Hamilton this afternoon. Should he win, Jack Lisowski or Soheil Vahedi will be waiting for him.

Here is the report by WST:

Rocket Downs The Mariner

Ronnie O’Sullivan came through an intriguing clash with Stuart Carrington 4-2 to progress.

The Rocket looked to be in danger when he trailed 2-1. Carrington spurned a golden opportunity to move one from victory, missing a red with a chance to clear. O’Sullivan pounced with a break of 31 to restore parity.

From there five-time World Champion O’Sullivan grasped control of proceedings. He claimed the fifth frame, before a run of 96 secured his victory. O’Sullivan faces Anthony Hamilton in tomorrow’s last 32.

Stuart Carrington is very solid, reliable; he has beaten Ronnie before.  In the early stages of the match, he was the better player and Ronnie looked very nervous. Frame 4 was the turning point. Having “stolen” that one, Ronnie appeared to relax a bit and became much more aggressive. It paid off. In the last two frames,  Ronnie played some fantastic shots. Later in the ES studio he said that he enjoyed the match.

His attitude was consistent with what he has been saying for some time, and confirmed to Hector Nunns in an interview after his first round victory.

Coverage:

The Match

The ES evening session preview

The ES evening session mid-session with Ronnie’s post interview

Big thanks to Tai Chengzhe for those great pictures

The second day in Cardiff saw the first round – last 128 – of the 2020 Welsh Open played to a conclusion.

Here is WST report on the day

Wednesday 12 Feb 2020 12:32AM

Maximum Glory For Warrior

Kyren Wilson made an astonishing 147 break in his very first visit of the match against Jackson Page, eventually emerging a 4-3 victor at the ManBetX Welsh Open in Cardiff.

The Warrior stepped up and rolled in a long range red from Page’s break-off in the opener and compiled the perfect break from it.

That puts him in line for this week’s £5,000 top break prize. It’s the second maximum break of Wilson’s career, following a 147 at the 2017 International Championship.

From that point onwards Wilson struggled to recapture the form which saw him beat Judd Trump and John Higgins on his way to the semi-finals of last week’s Coral World Grand Prix.

Welshman Page moved into a 3-2 lead, having trailed 2-0. However, Wilson regained his composure to make breaks of 47 and 59 to claim the last two frames and book a second round clash with Liam Highfield.

Wilson said: “As soon as I made the maximum I turned to the crowd and said it could only go one way from there. Unfortunately it did and it went downhill. It is to be expected, you go through a lot of adrenaline when you make a 147.

“The fans that watch it live can remember that forever, it is a bit of a bucket list thing for followers of snooker so I am delighted that I managed to do it for the people in there tonight.”

Lift Off For The Rocket

Ronnie O’Sullivan secured his passage to the second round with a 4-1 defeat of China’s Zhang Jiankang.

The Rocket is in need of a strong showing here in Cardiff and at next week’s Shoot Out if he harbours any hopes forcing his way into the upcoming Coral Players Championship. Only the top 16 players on the one-year list will earn a place at the elite Southport event and O’Sullivan lies in 20^th position in the live rankings.

This afternoon five-time World Champion O’Sullivan composed breaks of 51, 53, 69 and 81 on his way to dispatching world number 88 Zhang. Next up 44-year-old O’Sullivan faces Stuart Carrington.

“It was a good game. I’m pleased to win. He can play, so I am just pleased to be through to the next round,” said O’Sullivan. “It is only one match, it is very hard to assess after one match, but hopefully I will feel a bit stronger after each game. That is the idea, so we will just have to wait and see.”

Defending Champion Robertson Survives Clarke Scare

Defending champion Neil Robertson admitted to feeling jaded during his 4-2 win over Jamie Clarke this evening.

The Australian has enjoyed an extraordinary run of form, which has seen him reach three finals in the last three weeks. Robertson lifted the trophy at the recent BetVictor European Masters in Austria, was runner-up at the BetVictor German Masters in Berlin and defeated Graeme Dott 10-8 on Sunday night to win the World Grand Prix in Cheltenham.

Robertson struggled to produce his best in this evening’s tie. However, he summoned a fine break of 51 in the decisive frame to emerge with the 4-2 win.

“It was very tough. The final against Graeme Dott was literally the last of my reserves. That was scraping the bottom of the well and I think tonight showed that,” said Robertson. “It was only that my winning mentality and instincts kicked in towards the end when I did that really good clearance.”

Round-up

Shaun Murphy progressed courtesy of a 4-0 demolition of Welsh veteran Darren Morgan. John Higgins defeated Joe O’Connor 4-1 to book his place in the second round.

Gary Wilson recorded a 4-1 defeat of Chang Bingyu, while Iran’s Soheil Vahedi secured a shock 4-2 win against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

You can read more about Ronnie’s win and look at some great images here

Kyren Wilson 147

Kyren was really poor after that 147. Jackson Page should have won that match and I guess it’s only lack of experience that prevented him to do so. Jackson’s shot selection wasn’t the best at times. He didn’t take reckless shots, but sometimes over complicated things. The way he lost frame 6 was an example: he took the risk to develop the little cluster around the pink when all he needed to win the match was to pot the red that stood in the open. We should remember that he’s only 18, still learning, and was playing on the main table in Wales.

Neil Robertson was absolutely awfull. Of course he was shattered, as was Graeme Dott who lost by 4-0 to Zhao Xintong. Neil only went through because of two things: Jamie Clarke, who I like as a person, is unable to play under pressure and Neil decided to go for everything, knowling that he didn’t have the energy to sustain long battles. Jamie made so many mistakes that it was actually unsettling. He could benefit from some help by a sport psychologist. Speaking to the ES pundits after the match, Neil admitted that, had he not been the defending champion, he would have pulled out, and even added that losing in the first round might have been a blessing. He was feeling that exhausted. And of course things weren’t made easier by the fact that he got caught in traffic on his way to the venue and only just made it… As a result, he didn’t have time to “prepare” and his curls were on show. I, for one, like them.

In other news, not mentioned in WST round-up …

Igor Figueiredo beat Hossein Vafaei by 4-1. That’s a huge surprise but, to me, a good one. Igor on form is great to watch. Zhou Yuelong was beaten by 4-1 by Elliot Slessor, who scored heavily. I just hope this isn’t a sign that Zhou is struggling to overcome his 9-0 defeat at the hands of Neil Robertson in Austria. Both Luo Honghao and Sunny Akani lost again as well.  They are struggling this season. Luo is in real danger to lose his tour card. As is Noppon Saengkham, but yesterday he got a win over the always hard to beat Alan McManus.