2020 World Championship Thread

[CaledonianCraig]

First topic message reminder :

How about a thread to discuss the 2020 World Snooker Championships at The Crucible.

The delayed tournament starts today with a limited audience allowed in to watch the matches. The draw is as follows:-

Judd Trump (1) v Tom Ford
Yan Bingtao (16) v Elliot Slessor
Stephen Maguire (9) v Martin Gould
Kyren Wilson (8) - BYE
John Higgins (5) v Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert (12) v Kurt Maflin
Jack Lisowski (13) v Anthony McGill
Mark Allen (4) v Jamie Clarke
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Mark Williams (3) v Alan McManus
Stuart Bingham (14) v Ashley Carty
Ding Junhui (11) v Mark King
Ronnie O’Sullivan (6) v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Mark Selby (7) v Jordan Brown
Shaun Murphy (10) v Noppon Saengkham
Barry Hawkins (15) v Alexander Ursenbacher
Neil Robertson (2) v Liang Wenbo

Anthony Hamilton who suffers from asthma and qualified for the tournament has withdrawn due to COVID-19 and the fact there will be fans attending. This means Kyren Wilson gets a bye through to the Second Round.

This year there are five players making their Crucible debuts those being Elliot Slessor (England), Jordan Brown (Northern Ireland), Ashley Carty (England), Alexander Ursenbacher (Switzerland - the first Swiss player to play at the Crucible) and Jamie Clarke (Wales).

[CaledonianCraig]

A break of 13 and has to play safe on the last red. He has a five point lead.

[CaledonianCraig]

Wilson holding advantage in the safety exchange. Great drama. One poor shot could be your last.

[CaledonianCraig]

Chance for Wilson with a tricky red.

[CaledonianCraig]

A long way off. Can McGill play a telling safety?

[CaledonianCraig]

Superb safety shot from Wilson. That could go some way to winning him a place in the final.

[CaledonianCraig]

This semi is slipping away from McGill. Pretty soon McGill will need a snooker. Six failed attempts at a devil of a snooker.

[Guest]

Unbelievable scenes. Painful to watch

[CaledonianCraig]

Drama. McGill needed a snooker and Wilson obliges by going in off the red.

[Guest]

Haha Wilson what a shocker. Can’t believe what’s happening here

[CaledonianCraig]

This is crazy stuff. Wilson rolls the white into middle pocket. Now McGill holds advantage in the safety exchange.

[Guest]

Why did Wilson not let McGill keep missing behind that yellow? Did he feel sorry for him?

[CaledonianCraig]

But not for long as he flukes a snooker on the last red.

[CaledonianCraig]

Incredible. Just incredible.

[Guest]

Snookered behind the pink

Oh my days

[Guest]

This is beyond embarrassing now

[CaledonianCraig]

Dramatic last frame that swayed this way and that. I think both players have gone mentally.

[EdWoodjr]

Easily the most dramatic decider I’ve ever seen. Forget Nugget/Taylor.

[JDizzle]

Wilson flukes the green!

[CaledonianCraig]

And Wilson takes one of the most dramatic deciding frames ever seen. It ends with a fluked green from Wilson that left McGill in an impossible position. That was cruel on Anthony McGill. Shame there had to be a loser. McGill done himself proud in the match. For Wilson onwards to his first World Final. He'll play either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Mark Selby for which there will be a crowd of 300.

[Duty281]

Easily the most dramatic snooker frame I've ever seen. Extraordinary that, once again, McGill got unlucky on the pack split. He would have won the match had either one that didn't go for him broke as expected. So unfortunate.

And there was the multitude of snooker misses that cost about 30 points, McGill snookering himself after surely getting the win by potting the bizarre red, Wilson missing a pretty simple red, Wilson fluking the deciding green and plenty more besides. Madness. Utter madness.

Unsure whether Wilson will recover in time, mentally, for tomorrow's final. Full sympathy to McGill for such a valiant effort and playing the better snooker this afternoon. A lot of players would have folded at 14-11 down.

[Duty281]

Why did Wilson not let McGill keep missing behind that yellow? Did he feel sorry for him?

Can't do that when it reaches the 'snookers required' stage. Otherwise, I'm sure he would have!

[CaledonianCraig]

That semi beats the other semi into a cocked hat no matter what happens tonight. Higher breaks, better standards and such drama.

[Guest]

Ronnie takes the opener

13-12

[Guest]

Ronnie’s looking sharp, compared to this morning

13-13

Game on

[Soul Requiem]

The grinder gets lucky there.

[Guest]

Selby in the lead 15-13

[Soul Requiem]

So very dull, match turns on luck.

[Guest]

Must win frame this one for, Ronnie

[Guest]

Big miss for Selby

Ronnie makes it 15-14

[88Chris05]

O'Sullivan just isn't up for the hard grind here. He'll apply himself if he gets a good chance around the black spot, but some of his hit and hopes, safety shots etc. show that he just doesn't want it as much, or isn't as willing, as Selby. That said, he's still in it - somehow.

[Guest]

Amazed Ronnie even has a chance of making this 15-15, given the fact he’s not caring and just smashing the ball everywhere

[Guest]

Painful viewing really, and a shame. Just undid all his good work has Ronnie. Total brain fade but not surprising. Stephen Peters or that psychologist needs sacking.

[Guest]

15-16 to Selby

If RoS just took a little more care in the previous frames, he’d probably be one away now from victory.

[Guest]

Ridiculous stuff in the last 10 mins

Could be 16-16

Mad, just mad

[88Chris05]

Unreal snooker in those last two frames. It was PlayStation snooker. In ten minutes or so O'Sullivan has transformed the whole feel of the match. 16-16....

[Guest]

Unbelievable turnaround

[CaledonianCraig]

Ronnie has this now I feel. Great turnaround.

[No name Bertie]

I'm getting all my snooker info here. These semi-finals have been to and fro. Thanks to all.

[CaledonianCraig]

Well played to O'Sullivan on ending that Selby Crucible Curse - his first win in four earns him a place in the final where he will play Kyren Wilson. A weird session tonight with bizarre moments but at the business end Ronnie froze Selby out to take the match.

[Guest]

Yessssss!!!
Unbelievable
Can’t believe what I’ve seen.
Ronnie in the final
17-16

Crazy

[JDizzle]

Brilliant day of snooker.

[Guest]

I’ve not watched much snooker in recent years but Ronnie is the greatest that ever lived.

[Guest]

He literally gave up at 16-14. Mentally gone, with no care in the world.

[No name Bertie]

Snooker at its best - so full of unbelievable drama.

[Soul Requiem]

Ridiculous final three frames, pure natural talent.

[88Chris05]

Words can't really do justice to those semi finals, or at least how they ended.

O'Sullivan looked down and out at 14-16. Uninterested, tetchy, unfocussed etc. There's probably only one guy who could win three frames on the spin against Selby like that, given the Jester's style, and that guy is O'Sullivan. Was able to win three frames like that against the game's best tactician and safety player, without having to bother with any real tactics, because of that pure talent and care-free attitude.

Certainly rode his luck, mind you. Got away with some reckless hit and hopes, and the corner pocket was very generous in the way that red slid into it in the final frame - looked like he'd missed it, still not sure how it dropped given how early it hit the near cushion. But I guess when you play like that you could argue he made (and deserved) his own luck there.

Selby must be wondering how the hell he's lost that. Had O'Sullivan exactly where he wanted him and seemed in control at 16-14 - then he didn't have a shot for the next 2.75 frames, which took a grand total of about fifteen minutes. Was fully expecting him to clear up and nick it on the black when he got that chance in the decider - and after that point you'd have to say he was a bit unfortunate and can feel a shade hard done by.

Different styles of play, but very reminiscent in some ways of Ebdon's tremendous comeback from the brink in the 2002 semi final, where he beat Stevens 17-16 after staring defeat full in the face when 14-16 down. Turned it around with pure bottle and a pinch of good luck, as if it was fated.

[Duty281]

Oh Ronnie, you beautiful, beautiful man.

Yeah...I don't know he did it either. A few years ago, Ronnie's I-don't-give-a-toss mode meant cheap surrender, now he can stay in the game when it happens. As he did here, not just tonight, but earlier in the morning session too.

And the way he can just turn it on and win frames against anyone in the blink of an eye is just amazing. He did it against Williams after going 6-2 down, but this was another level again to go from 14-16 to winning the match.

Lovely to hear Selby's post-match comments, too, couldn't happen to a nicer or more sportsmanlike player.

Two fantastic semi-finals today and a great day for snooker. I think O'Sullivan's the overwhelming favourite to beat a shattered Kyren Wilson. With all due respect, if McGill can take 16 frames out of 33 against him, O'Sullivan should win comfortably. A 6th World title and an underlining of Ronnie's GOAT status awaits...just 18 more frames lad!

[No name Bertie]

For those that also contribute to the F1 thread, I think you will know what I mean when I say that in those last four or five frames Ronnie O'Sullivan turned up his engine to party mode.

ps: I watched the last frame of the McGill v Wilson match and the last five frames of O'Sullivan v Selby on youtube (x2 speed).   O'Sullivan definitely went into party mode in the fourth from last frame - he just went gung-ho and lost that frame playing cavalier shots to go 14-16 down.  Then the third from last frame all his shots went in and he won that frame with a break of 138 in hardly any time at all. The 32nd frame was over after about 6 minutes with a quick fire 71 break and follow up. Then the final frame had everything, could have gone either way, but that incredible / lucky snooker into snooker shot from Ronnie, put Ronnie into the advantage which he later completed with a great shot and quick fire potting.

[No name Bertie]

Post match interviews (paraphrased):
O'Sullivan: "It is all about the cue action.  I seem to have been struggling for 15 days trying to find my cue action, but it's been wayward like a golfer always finding the rough rather than the fairway and having to chip out.  After a while it gets frustrating.  The last three frames I just brought my hip closer to the table and I started to feel more comfortable.  For the final it is going to depend on whether or not I can find that cue action for long enough periods."

Selby: "Disrespectful.  I thought he was disrespectful to me and the game.  Whenever I played him into a snooker he would just hit the ball at 100 miles per hour, where the balls could have gone anywhere, maybe he was hoping to fluke it.  Also I was playing a shot and he stood up into my eyeline ... disrespectful ..."

Maybe it was not good to interview Selby immediately after the match because I fear the headlines are going to be negative.  We know O'Sullivan's past history with depression and such comments and headlines are not going to be helpful.  O'Sullivan just speaks his mind and plays the way he plays.  We have now had negative comments directed at him from Williams after the quarter-final and now this from Selby after the semi-final.

Ps: I am not making any predictions for the final.

[88Chris05]

The O'Sullivan die hards might get a little precious over this, but it's a storm in a tea cup. They, and O'Sullivan himself, have had plenty to say about Selby and his style over the years and a lot of it hasn't been very complimentary or deserved. Selby didn't word it as well as he might have, but he's entitled to feel that Lady Luck most definitely wasn't on his side in that match and that O'Sullivan got away with some very reckless and impatient stuff.

I think what Selby was getting at, though he didn't say it outright, is that O'Sullivan wouldn't have been playing all those hit and hopes against anyone else, despite all his claims to the contrary. O'Sullivan seems to have a particular disdain for playing against Selby ahead of all the other major players and even when he's 'complimenting' Selby and his game, it's often done in a very passive-aggressive and underhand way. No love lost between them and it's a rivalry which definitely has a bit of a personal touch about it.

I could be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if O'Sullivan employs those same kind of tactics (particularly with such regularity) when he's snookered or in a tactical battle against Wilson.

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