by Monique » 09 Sep 2012 Read
Ok here is my take on yesterday's action from what I was able to watch on streaming.
First whatever is said the top players crashed out: none of Higgins, Ronnie, Ding, Selby or Allen made it through, for various reasons
Higgins: people can waffle all they want about him being the best player with the best all round game, for me, he isn't and has not been for over a year now. His display against young Samuel Thistlewhite was very poor, whatever the score. The young lad can play better than this - I've seen him play before - but was probably very tense to be on streaming facing a four times World Champion. Any more experienced player would have beat him given how many chances he left to his opponent due to poor safety/positional play and basic misses. Alfie Burden dispatched him rather easily. I watched only the last frame of this match but again Alfie had any number of chances and eventually clinched it.
Ronnie: I wonder why he entered this event al all, TBH I didn't expect him to. He never played properly in that match, he treated like an exhibition. I can't remember him playing a single telling safety and he was going for everything remotely pottable. Watching the match I was both going Wow! at some shots and pulling my hair at the overall display. All credit to Simon Bedford , he kept his professionalism through it and the clearance he made in the decider was class.
Ding: he won his first match in about 1/2 hour by 4-0, but against Yu Delu he looked frustrated and bored out of his skull. It's blatantly obvious that he neither rates, nor likes those PTCs. I'm not in the least surprised that Ken Doherty beat him in the next match. Ken was playing well and clearly up for it for what I've seen of him (which in truth wasn't much)
Allen: I didn't see much of any of his matches, so I can't comment.
Selby: He looks tired and applied himself but was nowhere near his best game, or even his B game. I've often suffered sonny's wrath for criticizing his favourite and people think I dislike him. It's not the case. I dislike it when he plays negatively - which he does at times - but I certainly don't dislike the person. So coming back to Selby, I believe that if he wants to deliver his full potential - which is huge - he needs to pay attention to his health and give his body the rest it needs. Snooker might not be a physical game, it's extremely demanding mentally and emotionally and players who are as intense as Selby is, spend a lot of energy playing it. Also, a physical injury like he suffered recently takes its toll, because the recovery process and because one generally doesn't sleep well through persistent pain that last several weeks.
Now for those who went through.
Stuart Bingham: he looked sharp to me and he is a resilient lad.
Doherty: impressed me. He still has it in him albeit not consistently and I like his clever game.
Lee: what to say? I can't deny he played well, very well … and I hate saying it because he is one (of the rare) player I do dislike, big time.
The others I didn't have the opportunity to watch.
Deserves it after beating both Allen and Ding.
