The World Championship 2014 QualiFier
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| Ponds Forge |
Draw and Format
I'm proud that my country will have a player between the 112 players at the Ponds Forge Arena (new venue for snooker) competing for a place at The Crucible. He is Igor Figueiredo, reigning and 6 Times Brazilian Champion. He have played a QualiFier but lost in the last match for a place at The Crucible.
I usually watch Igor playing and he is in very decent form. He have consistency as well, so he would be top 32, in my opinion, if he could play more events on the professional tour.
If he play with the pressure off and how he does here in Brazil, he can beat Adam Duffy, his first opponent, and also beat Gerard Greene in the second round. But I don't fancy him to beat Wenbo.
Welsh is in trouble. The very traditional country in snooker, don't have a player with a guaranteed place at the Crucible this year, but anyway I think Welsh will have players at the Crucible because there are 4 players needing just one victory to qualify.
There are some interesting fights for a place in the Crucible, let's see some:
- Former World Champion and current ranked 29th in the World Ranking, Irishman Ken Doherty, even needing just one victory for a place at the Crucible, will surely have a tough opponent because Dechawat Poomjaeng, trying a second consecutive Crucible appearance and Steve Davis are in the same section as Ken.
I really think Dechawat, who is now very different than last year - when he reached to the last 16 of the WSC - will catch a Crucible place again, while Ken is just running for a career end, already missing the last year's World Championship.
- Twice Crucible Runner-up, Welshman Matthew Stevens, current number 19 in the world, even needing just one match as well, will have the toughest section.
The round 2 will probably produce 2 great matches: The talented Gary Wilson v Tom Ford and The Young star Luca Brecel v Yu Delu, another young with much potential.
I would like to see Gary Wilson at the Crucible, but Luca Brecel is playing some nice snooker, and ever show his potential when playing professional events, even not entering as much as he would.
Then I think Brecel, will play an out of form Stevens, and Brecel will have already played 3 matches, he will have rhythm, and will beat Stevens.
- Xiao Guodong, world number 25 also will have a very interesting draw, with the likes of Alex Davies and Joe Swail to met in the first round. Then, the winner here will make a round 2 met with Anthony Hamilton.
I fancy Guodong to qualify here, but any of these 3 names are well capable to catch a Crucible place.
- Scott Donaldson, world number 65 (growing up 24 positions since the start of the season) is my prefer young player, and maybe the most improved player of the season. Even needing to win 4 matches to qualify, he have a really nice chance for. He will face Ahmed Saif (who can be white-washed by someone who never picked up a cue) and will surely win 10-0. Then, he will face Cao Yupeng in the second round, and if he wins this very tough match, he will have opponents he can beat.Ben Woollaston, world number 28 is perhaps the worst (he is a very nice player, but his ranking is very high for his potential in my opinion) player who will need just one match to qualify, so I fancy Scott making his debut at the Crucible this year.
There will be live streams for 2 matches in each session, and I'm really looking forward for this qualifier, which is one of the most interesting events of the snooker calendar.
I want to talk another thing: A spokesman from Ponds Forge said this will be the biggest event that Ponds Forge has ever based on.
It show us how snooker is a big and important sport, which don't need events like ET3, ET6, Indian Open, World Open, and some qualifiers in venues without the minimum condition for the snooker be played.
Anyway, this qualifier is a very good event to watch in the arena - unfortunate I'm not travelling for this championship, but you should buy tickets for it.
The crucible is another good venue to go, but I think the tickets are already selled-out.
You can follow all results from Ponds Forge and the news from the world of snooker at Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook
Thanks to read! Enjoy!
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