Judd Can’t Be Stopped! World Open Final 2019 – Shorts Thoughts

As opposed to the normal approach I take with these finals breakdowns, I’ll do a brief rundown of how the match transpired but I mainly want to look at the results of this contest going forward for each of the players involved. The Yushan World Open final saw two players, very closely matched in style; World Champion and No. 1: Judd Trump, and the fastest player on the tour and Haining Open winner: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

But first, the brief breakdown. The match was Trump-all-the-way; Un-Nooh found himself playing catch-up the whole final. Trump developed a 7-2 lead after the first session, where the 7th frame included a 3-miss rule that resulted in a forfeited frame for Un-Nooh. Despite Un-Nooh doing well to bring it back to 8-5, Trump showed his new championship resolve to finish the final 10-5.

Un-Nooh put up a respectable performance against the current best player in the world and should have a lot of confidence in his attempt to claw back into the game, rather than retreat and only claim a small handful of frames. Experience is something that can help Un-Nooh at this stage and with his recent exposure at the Haining Open and now this final, it’s a step in the right direction. And Un-Nooh shouldn’t forget how close he ran Trump in the first round of the World Championship. Another big final such as this one will put him at arm’s length of the Top 16.

And then there’s Trump. He continued what he’s been doing for the past 12 months. Absolutely paving the way forward and running away with his No. 1 position in the one and two-year rankings. This win puts Trump’s ranking tally at 13, matching him with Ding and within reaching distance of Selby and Robertson at 16. The way things have been going, it’s only a matter of time and don’t be surprised if that is equalled this season. But Trump is taking the right approach and mentality towards it by aiming for 20 first, then seeing what happens from there.

Trump is starting to develop the aura that Selby has in which he doesn’t need to play his best to beat anyone. He can afford to make mistakes but he now has that fear-factor which can carry him in a game where he doesn’t need to be at his top form. Another way in which Trump is starting to remind me of Selby is that it seems the best time to deal with him in a tournament is in the early rounds. Similarly to Selby, the further Trump makes it in an event, the stronger he will be. Trump was taken to a deciding frame 3 times in the World Open (which included a Close Encounters of the Third Kind this season against Joe Perry), but what once may have shaken him has now turned into a resolve of steel.

There is a tweet from Phil Mudd which shows all of Trump’s wins in the last 12 months and how much he has earned from these events. In those prize winnings alone, he has earned almost £1.2m. And we are almost back to where the barrage began: the Northern Ireland Open.

The thing that impresses me most about Judd Trump nowadays is the way he presents and carries himself on top of his tremendous talent. He is really starting to turn into ‘the guy’ to take snooker forward and bring in new generations of viewers and fans. If he continues like this, he will be the main name associated with the sport!

What a Performance! Bingham vs. Selby World Open 2019 – Shorts Thoughts

This would be really easy to write – all I would need to say is that Stuart Bingham dominated with breaks of x,y and z to comfortably win over Mark Selby. But the match didn’t seem as if it was going to go that way, considering Bingham was 2-0 down to the English Open champion. Let’s observe Bingham’s cruise to victory against Selby in the Last-16 of the World Open.

Probably the longest and closest frame of match, Frame 1 saw Selby pot a strong opening red from distance which resulted in a 42 break ceasing after an unsuccessful split. After a careful safety exchange, Bingham slotted a wonderful 3-ball plant into the left centre, leading to a break of 41. Selby had Bingham in a lot of trouble with snookers but Bingham got one of his own which offered a chance to clear the colours. Bingham fell short at the blue as it was tight to the baulk cushion resulting in Selby securing the frame.

Frame 2 seemed as if Selby was picking up right where he left off after the English Open and his earlier round matches. A break of 86 helped him take the second frame. Smooth sailings for Selby, right? Unfortunately for him in Frame 3, a powerful and impressive long pot went in-off after which Bingham placed his cue ball and made a 108.

A loose safety from Selby in Frame 4 allowed Bingham to make a 40 with a delicate opening red into left centre. He would have made the century if he got a better position on the blue to split the pack but he had another shot at the table from another short safety by Selby. In came a break of 97. Bingham wasn’t missing. This was followed by a 114 in Frame 5. A missed long pot from Selby turned into a successful long pot from Bingham.

Unlikely from Selby, he played the break far too short which led to another century of 104 from Bingham, leaving him needing one more frame for the win. Similar to the loose safety Selby played in Frame 4, Bingham did something similar in Frame 7 – Selby made a break of 11 but grazed off the side of the pack when playing the blue, leaving him on nothing. Selby’s final shot came at a hesitant long pot attempt. Bingham followed to win the match with a 117, which included a couple of nice doubles on the final 2 reds.

Despite a smooth start for Selby, his safety faulted throughout the rest of the match and those loose safeties are what Bingham capitalised on. This was very similar to what Selby did to Gilbert in the English Open final. Selby probably would have guessed that Bingham wouldn’t clear up the way he did. Selby won’t lose any confidence from this match. He still has the English Open win under his belt and he knew that he was up against someone in top form. If Selby’s safety was as it were in the English Open final, then he would’ve given Bingham a little more trouble.

Bingham brought out the kind of snooker that players wish they could always bring out. He was a century and break-building machine; but he was also matching Selby’s safeties and escaping his snookers comfortably. Much like the usual, just when everyone somewhat forgets about Bingham and thinks he’s fading out of the game, he comes and wins an Open. And whether he goes on to win this tournament or not, I wouldn’t be surprised if he won a ranking event this season.

Has Mark Selby Returned? English Open Final 2019 – Shorts Thoughts

In an English Open final which closely resembled that of 2017 involving O’Sullivan and Wilson, this year’s final experienced a similar fashion with a contest between 3-time World Champion Mark Selby, and WSC semi-finalist David Gilbert. Given these two consistently practice with each other, what happened in Sunday’s final?

Selby took Frames 1-4 with breaks of 88, 68, 79 and 85. Unlike his matches leading up to the final, Selby established a dominant presence straight from the offset. That isn’t to say that Gilbert didn’t have any chances – Selby played a couple of loose safeties in Frame 2 which Gilbert couldn’t convert. Besides these, Selby’s safety was already too strong for Gilbert to compete with.

Frame 5 was the first frame to see any kind of back-and-forth action; so far it had just been frame winning contributions from Selby. One of Selby’s very few misses had come from a missed black at a break of 40. The black ending up on the other end of the table made it difficult for Gilbert to string a break. When Gilbert was 44-40 ahead, a safety battle commenced which ultimately went to Selby (with the help of a snooker that took Gilbert 7 attempts to escape).

Despite a valiant attempt to get into the match with a break of 101 in Frame 6, Gilbert was one-upped by practice partner Selby, with a subsequent 130 clearance. Selby followed this with a 97 in Frame 8. Frame 9 was effectively Gilbert’s last chance – he made a break of 51 but couldn’t continue. He had another chance at the table but misjudged the final red. Needless to say, Selby was able to clear the rest of the table and then take the final frame with a 101 break.

Let’s look at Gilbert and start with his play. He didn’t make too many mistakes in all honesty. The main concern came from his safeties which weren’t good enough in this match. He was always under/over-running the cue ball, rarely actually leaving it against the cushion. Under normal circumstances, he would get more opportunities to get into the match, but he happened to be playing against someone who was punishing literally every ball he missed. Most say that Gilbert was out of his element but I don’t think that’s completely fair. Selby was playing in a manner in which most other players would have deeply struggled with, and that includes those at the top.

And then there’s Selby. This was the kind of performance that enabled him to win 5 titles in 2016/17 and 3 World titles in 4 years. He ended with a 97% pot success but more importantly, he won almost every single frame with a one-visit contribution. Even when he wasn’t potting, he was causing trouble for Gilbert in his safeties. There wasn’t a weak facet in his game on Sunday.

The main difference between Selby and Gilbert is that Selby is a proven victor. It is a significantly more difficult final for someone who hasn’t won a ranking title. A win of this magnitude may give Selby the boost to get back into his consistent winning form. Two semi-finals prior to this will also add to this confident start to his campaign. Selby mentioned in interviews that he has been practicing well and he has been just trying to treat competitive play similar to that, and I think this is something key to his performance. If he can carry this forward, I would love to see him up against Trump, O’Sullivan or Robertson quite soon.

Stay tuned to Snooker Shorts for this Saturday’s Short post which will look at why David Gilbert shouldn’t be disappointed after the English Open!

Robertson vs. Fu English Open 2019 – Shorts Thoughts

It may not have been as exciting as one would have expected between these two contestants, but they are two of my favourite players and I wanted to watch and report on this match regardless of how it played out. Their last contest was in 2017 – technically, it was the Hong Kong Masters but their epic at the WSC that year was the more memorable occasion.

The opening frame commenced with a good safety bout from both players. Both Robertson and Fu had chances at opening pots but did not secure them. Fu then had the first real chance but slightly overcut a red which allowed Robertson to win with a break of 75. Fu then seemed to have found his rhythm in Frame 2 where a tuck-in behind the brown opened an opportunity for Fu to make a break of 90.

It took a couple of visits for Robertson to take Frame 3. A strong opening pot powering through the pack saw a break of 49 where a tricky cutback on the black didn’t leave him in a position to continue the break. However, an impressive pot a couple shots later led to a break of 50 for Robertson. Robertson then extended his lead by making an exact break of 100 in Frame 4 – capitalising off a long pot attempt from Fu.

Frame 5 opened with a good long pot by Robertson but he misplayed a canon to make a substantial break to close out the match. A further tentative long pot attempt from Robertson left Fu in to make a break of 50. Robertson had a couple bites of the cherry but to no avail. A couple of good snookers from Fu gave him the chance to wrap up the frame despite a lengthy attempt from Robertson to claw it back for victory. Then the final frame saw some weak shots from Fu to allow Robertson to make breaks of 36 and 35 to clinch victory.

It was a shame that neither of these players went on further in the English Open but that comes with the nature of a flat 128 draw tournament like the Home Nations. As seen countless times before in snooker, a best-of-11 match could have led to a completely different result than a best-of-7.

Robertson would have preferred to make further ground in this event to try and continue his momentum from last year. Ideally, he would be wanting to have the form that Shaun Murphy has had in this season so far. At this point last season, he had won the Riga Masters and came runner up in the International Championship.

As for Fu, he needs to get the confidence back that he had a few years ago. This can only come from a big win, even if it was a non-ranking event. He was missing pots that he ordinarily wouldn’t have missed in this match and I am always hoping that another win is in the near future for Fu.