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Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Juddernaut88

chengdufan wrote:
Juddernaut88 wrote:That Shanghai Masters final had that controversial incident as to whether it was a foul or not. Selby ended up winning that frame and match :(

What happened?


Mark Williams was 9-7 up, 43 points ahead, 6 reds left. he got Selby in a tough snooker, Selby did a hit and hope, at first glance it looked like he hit the pink ref called foul and a miss, then after few mins changed his mind, Selby didn't really leave anything on, Williams lost all his focus and lost the frame and he didn't seem to recover from it.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Juddernaut88 wrote:
chengdufan wrote:
Juddernaut88 wrote:That Shanghai Masters final had that controversial incident as to whether it was a foul or not. Selby ended up winning that frame and match :(

What happened?


Mark Williams was 9-7 up, 43 points ahead, 6 reds left. he got Selby in a tough snooker, Selby did a hit and hope, at first glance it looked like he hit the pink ref called foul and a miss, then after few mins changed his mind, Selby didn't really leave anything on, Williams lost all his focus and lost the frame and he didn't seem to recover from it.


<ok> Thanks

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

I've just watched it on YouTube. Looks like he most likely hit the red first to be fair, or hit the red and pink simultaneously.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby SnookerEd25

chengdufan wrote:I've just watched it on YouTube. Looks like he most likely hit the red first to be fair, or hit the red and pink simultaneously.


Simultaneously is a foul, supposedly. To my eyes, there are a lot of simultaneous hits in matches that don’t get called. My eyes aren’t the greatest though - I do feel it’s the toughest call a referee has to make (even tougher than push shots) and a lot of them give the striking player the benefit of the doubt because they can never be 100% sure.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 5 - World Snooker Academy, Sheffield

SFs
Andrew Higginson (21) 4-1 Jack Lisowski (44)
John Higgins (3) 4-1 Barry Hawkins (20)

Final
Higginson (21) 4-1 Higgins (3)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 27625
2 = Mark Williams 26437
3 = John Higgins 25625
4 +1 Judd Trump 20021
5 -1 Ding Junhui 19814
6 = Shaun Murphy 18517
7 +2 Neil Robertson 18476
8 -1 Graeme Dott 18475
9 -1 Ronnie O'Sullivan 17694
10 = Stuart Bingham 17009
11 = Ali Carter 15612
12 = Stephen Maguire 14569
13 = Mark Allen 13806
14 +1 Martin Gould 13095
15 -1 Stephen Lee 13061
16 = Mark Davis 12173

Top 32
In: Lack Lisowski; Ryan Day
Out: Liang Wenbo; Jamie Jones

Top 64
In: Rod Lawler
Out: Andrew Pagett

Top 128
In: David Gray (a); James McGouran (a)
Out: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (a); Jin Long (a)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 6 - Arena Ursynów, Warsaw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 93_Event_6

SFs
Ricky Walden (24) 4-3 Steve Davis (59)
Neil Robertson (7) 4-0 Stephen Lee (15)

Final
Robertson (7) 4-1 Walden (24)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 28397
2 = Mark Williams 26911
3 = John Higgins 26385
4 = Judd Trump 21015
5 = Ding Junhui 20214
6 +1 Neil Robertson 20157
7 -1 Shaun Murphy 19186
8 = Graeme Dott 18699
9 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 17842
10 = Stuart Bingham 17215
11 = Ali Carter 15975
12 = Stephen Maguire 15244
13 = Mark Allen 14146
14 +1 Stephen Lee 14085
15 -1 Martin Gould 12811
16 = Mark Davis 12313

Top 32
In: Liang Wenbo; Xiao Guodong
Out: Tom Ford; Ryan Day

Top 64
In: Alfie Burden; Joe Swail
Out: Rod Lawler; Patrick Wallace (a)

Top 128 - no change

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 7 (Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy) - South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 93_Event_7

SFs
Ronnie O'Sullivan (9) 4-2 Michael White (48)
Matthew Stevens (21) 4-0 Jimmy Robertson (55)

Final
O'Sullivan (9) 4-2 Stevens (21)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 27548
2 +1 John Higgins 26247
3 -1 Mark Williams 25726
4 = Judd Trump 20628
5 +1 Neil Robertson 19939
6 +3 Ronnie O'Sullivan 19714
7 -2 Ding Junhui 19573
8 -1 Shaun Murphy 19276
9 -1 Graeme Dott 19229
10 = Stuart Bingham 17304
11 = Ali Carter 16097
12 = Stephen Maguire 15725
13 = Mark Allen 14039
14 = Stephen Lee 13782
15 = Martin Gould 12807
16 +5 Matthew Stevens 12595

In: Matthew Stevens
Out: Mark Davis

Top 32
In: Jamie Jones; Michael Holt
Out: Marco Fu; Peter Ebdon

Top 64
In: Andrew Pagett; Patrick Wallace (a)
Out: Joe Swail; Alfie Burden

Top 128 - no change

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 8 (Alex Higgins International Trophy) - Killarney Convention Centre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 93_Event_8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killarney

SFs
Neil Robertson (5) 4-3 Mark Allen (13)
Judd Trump (4) 4-1 Mark Selby (1)

Final
Robertson (5) 4-1 Trump (4)


Updated rankings
1 = Mark Selby 28548
2 = John Higgins 26850
3 = Mark Williams 25219
4 = Judd Trump 22253
5 = Neil Robertson 21016
6 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 19469
7 +1 Shaun Murphy 19324
8 +1 Graeme Dott 19051
9 -2 Ding Junhui 18847
10 = Stuart Bingham 18071
11 = Ali Carter 16069
12 = Stephen Maguire 16040
13 = Mark Allen 15184
14 = Stephen Lee 14094
15 = Martin Gould 12659
16 +2 Andrew Higginson 12343

In: Andrew Higginson
Out: Matthew Stevens

Top 32
In: Ryan Day
Out: Liang Wenbo

Top 64
In: Alfie Burden
Out: Patrick Wallace (a)

Top 128
In: Mitchell Mann (a)
Out: Dermot McGlinchey (a)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 9 (Antwerp Open) - Lotto Arena, Antwerp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 93_Event_9

Bjorn Haneveer retired after this event due to the cost of playing.

SFs
Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 4-1 Graeme Dott (8)
Judd Trump (4) 4-1 Martin Gould (15)

Final
Trump (4) 4-3 O'Sullivan (6)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 26799
2 = John Higgins 25825
3 = Mark Williams 23577
4 = Judd Trump 22529
5 +1 Ronnie O'Sullivan 20077
6 -1 Neil Robertson 20011
7 = Shaun Murphy 18186
8 = Graeme Dott 17938
9 +1 Stuart Bingham 17401
10 -1 Ding Junhui 17330
11 +1 Stephen Maguire 15229
12 -1 Ali Carter 14719
13 = Mark Allen 14252
14 = Stephen Lee 14016
15 = Martin Gould 13083
16 +2 Matthew Stevens 12736

In: Matthew Stevens
Out: Andrew Higginson

Top 32
In: Ben Woollaston; Tom Ford; Michael White
Out: Joe Perry; Rory McLeod; Ryan Day

Top 64
In: Andy Hicks
Out: Alfie Burden

Top 128
In: Ashley Wright (a); Robin Hull
Out: Paul Davies (a); Mitchell Mann (a)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 10 - World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 3_Event_10

There were two 147s in this event. One from David Gray in qualifying, and one from Ricky Walden.

SFs
Michael Holt (27) 4-2 John Higgins (2)
Dominic Dale (24) 4-2 Stephen Lee (14)

Final
Holt (27) 4-2 Dale (24)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 26999
2 = John Higgins 26170
3 = Mark Williams 23790
4 = Judd Trump 22489
5 +1 Neil Robertson 20656
6 -1 Ronnie O'Sullivan 20125
7 +1 Graeme Dott 18286
8 -1 Shaun Murphy 17596
9 = Stuart Bingham 17284
10 = Ding Junhui 17156
11 +3 Stephen Lee 15250
12 -1 Stephen Maguire 15179
13 -1 Ali Carter 14637
14 -1 Mark Allen 14227
15 = Martin Gould 13122
16 +1 Andrew Higginson 12945

In: Andrew Higginson
Out: Matthew Stevens

Top 32
In: Joe Perry; Rory McLeod; Liang Wenbo
Out: Fergal O'Brien; Tom Ford; Michael White

Top 64
In: Mike Dunn
Out: Tony Drago

Top 128 - no change

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 UK Championship - Barbican Centre, York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_UK_Championship

Judd Trump won his second ranking title, beating Mark Allen 10-8 in the final.
Allen led 3-1 before Trump won 7 on the bounce to lead 8-3. The Pistol got it back to within one frame, at 9-8, but Trump made it over the line at the fourth time of asking, making a 91 break in the last frame.
In the 8 frames that Allen won, he knocked in 4 120+ breaks, including a 141 and a 139. Trump had 9 50+ breaks, the highest a 109.

World number 1, Mark Selby, lost to Marco Fu in the last 16.

L16
Stephen Maguire (12) 6-4 John Higgins (2)
Judd Trump (4) 6-5 Ronnie O'Sullivan (6)
Ding Junhui (10)6-5 Matthew Stevens (18)
Neil Robertson (5) 6-3 Graeme Dott (7)
Ricky Walden (22) 6-3 Mark Williams (3)
Shaun Murphy (8) 6-4 Martin Gould (15)
Mark Allen (14) 6-2 Ali Carter (13)
Marco Fu (37) 6-3 Mark Selby (1)

QFs
Trump (4) 6-3 Maguire (12)
Robertson (5) 6-2 Ding (10)
Walden (22) 6-3 Murphy (8)
Allen (14) 6-5 Fu (37)

SFs
Trump (4) 9-7 Robertson (5)
Allen (14) 9-7 Walden (22)

Final
Trump (4) 10-8 Allen (14)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Rankings following the 2011 UK Championship

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 27559
2 = John Higgins 26802
3 +1 Judd Trump 26045
4 -1 Mark Williams 24350
5 = Neil Robertson 22776
6 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 20969
7 = Graeme Dott 18882
8 = Shaun Murphy 18644
9 +1 Ding Junhui 18116
10 -1 Stuart Bingham 17508
11 +3 Mark Allen 17451
12 = Stephen Maguire 16527
13 -2 Stephen Lee 15418
14 -1 Ali Carter 15125
15 = Martin Gould 13802
16 +6 Ricky Walden 13784

In: Ricky Walden
Out: Andrew Higginson

Top 32
In: Marco Fu
Out: Liang Wenbo

Top 64
In: Li Yan
Out: Andrew Pagett

Top 128 - no change

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Truth

chengdufan wrote:
D4P wrote:
chengdufan wrote:Does that mean my rankings are rubbish? The short answer is: yes! In the case of Steve Davis, he is certainly ranked artificially lowly by me because he didn't enter one of the only other two ranking events this season.


Does this imply that your ranking system is based on adding up a player's results across tournaments, rather than taking some kind of average...?

Yes, every frame you win within a two year period counts, with weightings for round, opponent, recency, and whether it's a match or tournament winning frame.

However, Stevie D coming into the 83 WC ranked 17 has got me thinking about making a change.
I'm on the case.


Have you considered adding open tournaments to your calculation methods for the earlier seasons?
Looking back at the 81-82 season I can see that Davis won 7 tournaments and 4 of those (including the UK) although not ranking tournaments at the time would certainly meet the criteria of ranking tournaments these days. However, despite Davis easily being the best player of 81-82 his ranking (according to your methods) is as farcically low as 17 (probably due to one loss against Tony Knowles). Everyone knows Davis was the best player in the world since 81 at the latest. Really Davis's 28 ranking titles understate how dominant he was in the 80s.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Truth wrote:
chengdufan wrote:
D4P wrote:
chengdufan wrote:Does that mean my rankings are rubbish? The short answer is: yes! In the case of Steve Davis, he is certainly ranked artificially lowly by me because he didn't enter one of the only other two ranking events this season.


Does this imply that your ranking system is based on adding up a player's results across tournaments, rather than taking some kind of average...?

Yes, every frame you win within a two year period counts, with weightings for round, opponent, recency, and whether it's a match or tournament winning frame.

However, Stevie D coming into the 83 WC ranked 17 has got me thinking about making a change.
I'm on the case.


Have you considered adding open tournaments to your calculation methods for the earlier seasons?
Looking back at the 81-82 season I can see that Davis won 7 tournaments and 4 of those (including the UK) although not ranking tournaments at the time would certainly meet the criteria of ranking tournaments these days. However, despite Davis easily being the best player of 81-82 his ranking (according to your methods) is as farcically low as 17 (probably due to one loss against Tony Knowles). Everyone knows Davis was the best player in the world since 81 at the latest. Really Davis's 28 ranking titles understate how dominant he was in the 80s.

Hi Truth! Welcome to the thread :-D

Ideally, yes, if I could include every event in which all the professional players were allowed to play, and the majority were willing to play in, the rankings would gain more validity.

So, what are the barriers to me adding more tournaments in at this point?:
1. I don't have the knowledge base to identify which tournaments to add - There would need to be a definitive list of tournaments, and this list would need to include all the tournaments that fit the criteria (open to all pros and the vast majority of the pros play in it).
If someone was able to provide a list of non-ranking tournament which fit the criteria, I could consider adding them.
2. We're now at the end of 2011 and I have already entered the data for around 250 events. As we progress through history, the points awarded to each player in a particular event depend (partially) on the ranking of their opponents. So if I now added 1980s events into the data, this would have a ripple effect throughout the data, all the way up to 2011. I would have to review and make adjustments to the entire dataset - this would be a major undertaking and could potentially set me back by a significant length of time. It also wouldn't be very enjoyable for me personally to go back and make slight adjustments and corrections. I've done this a couple of times already when I've spotted mistakes and it is incredibly tedious.

I am willing to consider it if someone provides a list of tournaments which I should/could include.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2011 PTC 11 - World Snooker Academy, Sheffield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 3_Event_11

Ding Junhui and Jamie Cope both made 147s in this event.

SFs
Martin Gould (15) 4-3 Anthony Hamilton (23)
Tom Ford (35) 4-0 Graeme Dott (7)

Final
Ford (35) 4-3 Gould (15)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 27606
2 +1 Judd Trump 26332
3 -1 John Higgins 24756
4 = Mark Williams 23501
5 = Neil Robertson 22022
6 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 20631
7 = Graeme Dott 19687
8 = Shaun Murphy 17943
9 = Ding Junhui 17468
10 +1 Mark Allen 16819
11 -1 Stuart Bingham 16740
12 = Stephen Maguire 15899
13 +2 Martin Gould 15486
14 = Ali Carter 14849
15 -2 Stephen Lee 14729
16 = Ricky Walden 14043

Top 32
In: Tom Ford
Out: Ken Doherty

Top 64
In: Andrew Pagett
Out: Mike Dunn

Top 128
In: Mitchell Mann (a)
Out: -

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Truth

chengdufan wrote:
Truth wrote:
chengdufan wrote:
D4P wrote:
chengdufan wrote:Does that mean my rankings are rubbish? The short answer is: yes! In the case of Steve Davis, he is certainly ranked artificially lowly by me because he didn't enter one of the only other two ranking events this season.


Does this imply that your ranking system is based on adding up a player's results across tournaments, rather than taking some kind of average...?

Yes, every frame you win within a two year period counts, with weightings for round, opponent, recency, and whether it's a match or tournament winning frame.

However, Stevie D coming into the 83 WC ranked 17 has got me thinking about making a change.
I'm on the case.


Have you considered adding open tournaments to your calculation methods for the earlier seasons?
Looking back at the 81-82 season I can see that Davis won 7 tournaments and 4 of those (including the UK) although not ranking tournaments at the time would certainly meet the criteria of ranking tournaments these days. However, despite Davis easily being the best player of 81-82 his ranking (according to your methods) is as farcically low as 17 (probably due to one loss against Tony Knowles). Everyone knows Davis was the best player in the world since 81 at the latest. Really Davis's 28 ranking titles understate how dominant he was in the 80s.

Hi Truth! Welcome to the thread :-D

Ideally, yes, if I could include every event in which all the professional players were allowed to play, and the majority were willing to play in, the rankings would gain more validity.

So, what are the barriers to me adding more tournaments in at this point?:
1. I don't have the knowledge base to identify which tournaments to add - There would need to be a definitive list of tournaments, and this list would need to include all the tournaments that fit the criteria (open to all pros and the vast majority of the pros play in it).
If someone was able to provide a list of non-ranking tournament which fit the criteria, I could consider adding them.
2. We're now at the end of 2011 and I have already entered the data for around 250 events. As we progress through history, the points awarded to each player in a particular event depend (partially) on the ranking of their opponents. So if I now added 1980s events into the data, this would have a ripple effect throughout the data, all the way up to 2011. I would have to review and make adjustments to the entire dataset - this would be a major undertaking and could potentially set me back by a significant length of time. It also wouldn't be very enjoyable for me personally to go back and make slight adjustments and corrections. I've done this a couple of times already when I've spotted mistakes and it is incredibly tedious.

I am willing to consider it if someone provides a list of tournaments which I should/could include.


Thanks for your detailed response. I'm afraid that I don't have any concise list of tournaments that you should include, but I think it would be quite easy to determine which tournaments deserve to be considered. Cuetracker has a seasons section (you are probably more familiar with this than me), and the tournaments are listed as "ranking" "non ranking" and "invitational". Obviously, ranking should be included and invitational should be excluded. IMO "non ranking" should be included if the draw isn't restrictive and people of all nationalities are allowed to compete.

Going back to the 4 non-invitational non-ranking tournaments that Davis won in https://cuetracker.net/seasons/1981-1982:

1981 UK Championship:
https://cuetracker.net/tournaments/uk-c ... p/1981/779
Qualification cycle, all nationalities (well I see Canadians), ranker!

1981 International Open:
https://cuetracker.net/tournaments/inte ... n/1981/780
5 rounds of qualifiers before the last 16, Cliff Thorburn is in it, clearly we have a ranker!

1982 International Masters:
https://cuetracker.net/tournaments/inte ... s/1982/810
37 pros, 98 matches, but unorthodox group format, possible ranker.

1982 Pontins Professional:
https://cuetracker.net/tournaments/pont ... l/1982/788
Not listed as invitational, but only 8 players, I think too restrictive to be a ranker.

Anyway, it is easy for me to make suggestions, but you would have to do all the work! I could understand if you don't consider this a worth while exercise, so I suppose it really depends on how much you care about whether your rankings reflect the true ability of players back when ranking events were sparse.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

Thank you for the suggestion. It is appreciated! I've had a think about it.

My goal at the moment (other than enjoying putting the data in) is to reach the present day so that I (and those interested on the island) can have a realistic representation of the rankings of the current players, particularly those lower down than the top 16.
As entering extra data in the 1980s won't make a significant difference to the current rankings, for now I'm going to continue as I am, going into 2012.

Once I reach the present day, as well as maintaining the rankings, I will be starting a new project using the data I have. There are actually a lot of things I'm planning to do with the data, but the first will be an overall ranking of players across history. I was going to use my rankings to rank the players from 1984 onwards, but instead I am going to look into the tournaments that meet the criteria for inclusion but were not ranking events, as you have suggested. If there are enough worthy events, I will add them in and this will potentially allow me to go further back in time beyond 1984 to form the historical ranking list.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2012 PTC 12 - Event Forum, Fürstenfeldbruck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_T ... 3_Event_12
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstenfeldbruck

Matthew Stevens and Ding Junhui made 147s on the same day in this event.

SFs
Joe Perry (28) 4-0 Martin Gould (13)
Stephen Maguire (12) 4-3 Stephen Hendry (50)

Final
Maguire (12) 4-2 Perry (28)


Updated rankings

Top 16
1 = Mark Selby 28427
2 = Judd Trump 27112
3 = John Higgins 24634
4 = Mark Williams 23218
5 = Neil Robertson 22260
6 = Ronnie O'Sullivan 20414
7 = Graeme Dott 19535
8 = Shaun Murphy 18131
9 +1 Mark Allen 17726
10 -1 Ding Junhui 17474
11 +1 Stephen Maguire 17395
12 -1 Stuart Bingham 16646
13 = Martin Gould 16402
14 +2 Ricky Walden 14989
15 -1 Ali Carter 14955
16 -1 Stephen Lee 14803

Top 32
In: Ken Doherty
Out: Jamie Jones

Top 64
In: Mike Dunn; Kurt Maflin
Out: Liam Highfield; Andrew Pagett

Top 128
In: Duane Jones (a)
Out: Nick Jennings (a); Patrick Einsle (a)

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Truth

chengdufan wrote:Thank you for the suggestion. It is appreciated! I've had a think about it.

My goal at the moment (other than enjoying putting the data in) is to reach the present day so that I (and those interested on the island) can have a realistic representation of the rankings of the current players, particularly those lower down than the top 16.
As entering extra data in the 1980s won't make a significant difference to the current rankings, for now I'm going to continue as I am, going into 2012.

Once I reach the present day, as well as maintaining the rankings, I will be starting a new project using the data I have. There are actually a lot of things I'm planning to do with the data, but the first will be an overall ranking of players across history. I was going to use my rankings to rank the players from 1984 onwards, but instead I am going to look into the tournaments that meet the criteria for inclusion but were not ranking events, as you have suggested. If there are enough worthy events, I will add them in and this will potentially allow me to go further back in time beyond 1984 to form the historical ranking list.


<ok>

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby SnookerEd25

Juddernaut88 wrote:Now heading into 2012, not too far away from Hendry retiring :sad:


*Spoiler alert*

Nine years later he comes back...

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby Juddernaut88

SnookerEd25 wrote:
Juddernaut88 wrote:Now heading into 2012, not too far away from Hendry retiring :sad:


*Spoiler alert*

Nine years later he comes back...


But still you know you know.

Re: Rankings revisit - a trip through history

Postby chengdufan

2012 German Masters - Tempdrom, Berlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_German_Masters

Wiki reckons this is the first ranking event for 15 years that didn't feature Stephen Hendry in the venue (final) stages. I can't find any missed events from the late 90s though and make it that in fact the 1987 British Open was the last time. I wonder if Wiki means 25 rather than 15? Happy to be corrected...

Ronnie O'Sullivan won his 23rd ranking event, in what was a very strong field in the latter stages of the event.
In the final, Stephen Maguire knocked in three centuries and took a 5-2 lead. I can imagine what some of the posts on the island might have been like at that stage of the match! It wasn't enough though for On Fire, and Ronnie came back to win 9-7.

Newcomer to the tour, Yu Delu, had a very good run in this event. After beating Pinches, Burden and Cope in qualifying, and winning a tough wildcard match against strong amateur and recent pro Chris Norbury, he beat compatriot Ding Junhui in the first round.

QFs
Stephen Lee (16) 5-3 Mark Williams (4)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 5-3 Matthew Stevens (18)
Shaun Murphy (8) 5-3 Mark Selby (1)
Stephen Maguire (11) 5-4 Judd Trump (2)

SFs
O'Sullivan (6) 6-4 Lee (16)
Maguire (11) 6-0 Murphy (8)

Final
O'Sullivan (6) 9-7 Maguire (11)