Day 5 at the International Championship
So as we reach the final phase of this tournament, we now know who the runners and riders will be who have the opportunity to capture this Chinese crown. Some players like Bingtao, Higgins and Lisowski have fallen by the wayside and with Neil Robertson losing to Shaun Murphy in a decider, it seems likely that the drama in China hasn’t subsided quite yet. With the cream of the crop on show, it was a tough ask for Gary Wilson to slay Selby as he is known to dig in deep in a match and rarely leaves without being prised from the table. We know that Gary Wilson is oozing with talent and his moments came when he nearly got to the final of the World Championship earlier in the year. In the match itself both players proved that they were not prepared to give up this journey without a fight and like so many of these matches this week was on the day, all down to a deciding frame. Perhaps this is another example of an expert playing his protégé. Clearly Wilson has evolved as a player but like so many was just pipped at the post. Mark is still in this but as I keep saying, he needs to win matches convincingly and so needs to change this 6-5 win into something more substantial.
Elsewhere in the auditorium, Judd continued his mission to reach this year’s final and his next opponent, Tom Ford can often create a shock win. This was a game of two halves and Ford managed to control the Trump factor quite well but when you play Judd you have to kill frames off and if you don’t, the Juggernaut will pounce on you. On the day, Ford reached the halfway mark of three frames but couldn’t stop the Trump onslaught, Judd is clearly at the top of his game and his World Championship victory and new number one spot, has sent this player into a great winning streak that one that seems unlikely to end anytime soon. The convincing 6-3 victory by Trump further enforced that Trump’s name could be winning this title at the weekend.
Fast forward to the evening session and Mark Allen was playing Ding Junhui. Both these players are excellent break builders and know the game inside out but they can on the day be their worst enemy, Ding clearly has been playing well this week and has already slain three of the other Chinese players in this event. Similarly you can see how much Mark wants to retain this title and you will snatch it off him with a fight. Junhui seemed downbeat in his press interview yesterday when he was asked about today’s match and knew that this would be a battle where he would come out smiling or be spat out to the nearest taxi. On the day Allen had Ding in a snooker headlock that the Chinese player clearly struggled with. Before long, Allen had motored into a 3-1 advantage but Mark Allen has a weakness of rushing the shot on a crucial ball and has done now three times in this match.This was clear in the fifth frame when the door was left open for Ding and he took the winning opportunity. A painful reminder for Allen who have been one frame away from victory but instead had his advantage further eroded to 3-2. However Allen came back at Ding and made it 4-2.
Ding’s problem is that he looks away after taking the shot and this causes him to miss. His concentration is not there and lets his opponent in. This is a dangerous mistake when you play Mark Allen because he is such a dangerous player and this distraction for a low play Ding meant the match became a 5-2 deficit for him. With the cue ball nailed to the cushion on the next,Ding made a valiant effort to muster up some long needed determination to win the frame, 5-3 Allen just couldn’t get over the winning line and not even his lethal long pots could string him a sizeable break together. In such circumstances, you would have thought Junhui would have killed off the frame but it looks likes his was struggling with the snooker demons as well This was proved when Allen killed off the match on the pink and so sails in the semi-finals.
The other quarter final match was a tussle between Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy. The gritty Scott had in recent months had many battles on the baize but has always come painstakingly close to winning the match. This was another of these occasions and maybe he regretted saying that he doesn’t like or drink in the interval because his just couldn’t close this match out and bolstered by yesterday’s tight win again Neil Robertson, Shaun was in no mood to hang around ands in the end stamped his winning trademark on the match, winning 6-4. So we are nicely set for the semi-finals with a battle between Mark Allen v Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby v Judd Trump.
Elsewhere in the auditorium, Judd continued his mission to reach this year’s final and his next opponent, Tom Ford can often create a shock win. This was a game of two halves and Ford managed to control the Trump factor quite well but when you play Judd you have to kill frames off and if you don’t, the Juggernaut will pounce on you. On the day, Ford reached the halfway mark of three frames but couldn’t stop the Trump onslaught, Judd is clearly at the top of his game and his World Championship victory and new number one spot, has sent this player into a great winning streak that one that seems unlikely to end anytime soon. The convincing 6-3 victory by Trump further enforced that Trump’s name could be winning this title at the weekend.
Fast forward to the evening session and Mark Allen was playing Ding Junhui. Both these players are excellent break builders and know the game inside out but they can on the day be their worst enemy, Ding clearly has been playing well this week and has already slain three of the other Chinese players in this event. Similarly you can see how much Mark wants to retain this title and you will snatch it off him with a fight. Junhui seemed downbeat in his press interview yesterday when he was asked about today’s match and knew that this would be a battle where he would come out smiling or be spat out to the nearest taxi. On the day Allen had Ding in a snooker headlock that the Chinese player clearly struggled with. Before long, Allen had motored into a 3-1 advantage but Mark Allen has a weakness of rushing the shot on a crucial ball and has done now three times in this match.This was clear in the fifth frame when the door was left open for Ding and he took the winning opportunity. A painful reminder for Allen who have been one frame away from victory but instead had his advantage further eroded to 3-2. However Allen came back at Ding and made it 4-2.
Ding’s problem is that he looks away after taking the shot and this causes him to miss. His concentration is not there and lets his opponent in. This is a dangerous mistake when you play Mark Allen because he is such a dangerous player and this distraction for a low play Ding meant the match became a 5-2 deficit for him. With the cue ball nailed to the cushion on the next,Ding made a valiant effort to muster up some long needed determination to win the frame, 5-3 Allen just couldn’t get over the winning line and not even his lethal long pots could string him a sizeable break together. In such circumstances, you would have thought Junhui would have killed off the frame but it looks likes his was struggling with the snooker demons as well This was proved when Allen killed off the match on the pink and so sails in the semi-finals.
The other quarter final match was a tussle between Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy. The gritty Scott had in recent months had many battles on the baize but has always come painstakingly close to winning the match. This was another of these occasions and maybe he regretted saying that he doesn’t like or drink in the interval because his just couldn’t close this match out and bolstered by yesterday’s tight win again Neil Robertson, Shaun was in no mood to hang around ands in the end stamped his winning trademark on the match, winning 6-4. So we are nicely set for the semi-finals with a battle between Mark Allen v Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby v Judd Trump.
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