Post a reply

Format for the China Open

Postby SnookerFan

Am I the only one who thought the China Open was a truly excellent tournament? We seldom get tournaments this season, where the tournament lasts a week and the matches are never shorter then best of nine.

In actual fact, it's only been the Shanghai Masters and the China Open that has filled both these criteria. The only other best of nine tournament was Germany, and that was padded into a few days. With all these tournaments being shortened, and people talking about each tournament having their own identity, I feel this tournament showed there was nothing boring about best of nine tournaments where the standard is high.

Do people feel there is room for another tournament with this more traditional format? Best of nines up to semi, semi = best of 11, Final = best of 19.

Personally, I think best of sevens are cool, but belong in PTCs. And the World Open was fine, but was high on pressure. But, it was low on memorable matches. Nothing wrong with either of these on their own, but I feel there is plenty of room for more China Open style tournaments. What do other people thing?

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby Roland

The format is good but when every tournament has this exact format it is definitely stale. Therefore I love the way the season has been mixed up and I loved the German Masters too which had this format but with more going on and open plan.

The reason this China Open was so good is because players are match sharp because of how much snooker has been going on this season.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby GJ

good event but for quality the uk was better IMO

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby SnookerFan

Sonny wrote:The format is good but when every tournament has this exact format it is definitely stale. Therefore I love the way the season has been mixed up and I loved the German Masters too which had this format but with more going on and open plan.

The reason this China Open was so good is because players are match sharp because of how much snooker has been going on this season.


There is truth there. The fact that the standard was high, was because we had the PTCs every weekend for the first half of the season. Which is why I'm so pysched for the worlds. Also Germany was pretty entertaining, and the set up looked good. Pity that was so short, but that's probably a minor complaint.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby Wildey

what i have seen this year is because the bog standard best of 9s are no more bog standard it does give a tournament a special feel i still say they need a longer format in china even if its best of 11s with Best of 13 semis but it was a excellent event and a truly great standard and competitive final to cap it off.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby SnookerFan

Wild wrote:what i have seen this year is because the bog standard best of 9s are no more bog standard it does give a tournament a special feel i still say they need a longer format in china even if its best of 11s with Best of 13 semis but it was a excellent event and a truly great standard and competitive final to cap it off.


What with the standard we saw this week, and the respect the players gave to the tournament, I wouldn't mind seeing a ranking tournament like the one you just described one little bit. They are always putting on minor tournament on the smaller provinces of China. Maybe they could find a home for it in Hainan or Wuxi, or somewhere.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby snooky147

I would imagine it is enough of a logistic problem getting 12 players to Hainan. I am told the journey was a nightmare, 27 hours on planes and then a gruelling drive so organising a full ranker might be a bit of a job.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby PLtheRef

I've always said the problem for this tournament is that for the Chinese, this is a marathon, I've always said that the reason why a chinese bid for the WC never gets considered is because they have said it'd be reduced to 9,9,9,11,19

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby Tubberlad

The best of 9 worked really well for the China Open. There's nothing wrong with the 9, 9, 9, 11, 17 (or 19) format, but the thing is that it was being used for all bar two of the rankers during the season. It DID become staid and devalued.

However, with it's less frequent use, you can see that it is a cracking format.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby SnookerFan

I don't know where people got this idea that it was dull from, to be fair. I never watched it and thought; "Oh no, not best of nines again." But that might just be my personal preference.

Was the issue more that there wasn't enough tournaments, so some players got rusty. With the PTCS improving everybody's match sharpness, making everybody play better, there was nothing boring about it.

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby Wildey

PLtheRef wrote:I've always said the problem for this tournament is that for the Chinese, this is a marathon, I've always said that the reason why a chinese bid for the WC never gets considered is because they have said it'd be reduced to 9,9,9,11,19

do you know that for definite ??

i cant believe the chinese are that stupid :?

Re: Format for the China Open

Postby SnookerFan

Wild wrote:
PLtheRef wrote:I've always said the problem for this tournament is that for the Chinese, this is a marathon, I've always said that the reason why a chinese bid for the WC never gets considered is because they have said it'd be reduced to 9,9,9,11,19

do you know that for definite ??

i cant believe the chinese are that stupid :?


That sounds like bullocks. If they were considering that, then the speculation linking the worlds to China would've ended there.