World Snooker Championship
Ronnie O`Sullivan played one of his best matches of the season to outplay twice Finalist Matthew Stevens in the last 16 by 13-5.
The Rocket lost the first two frames and had a bad mistake in the third frame which made him smash his cue on the table looking very angry and hard at himself. But he immediately got another chance and made a terrific 100 Break to put a frame on the board against Stevens, who was the last Welshman left in the tournament and had beaten compatriot Mark Williams in the 1st Round.
O`Sullivan then played nearly his best to win the next four with Top Breaks of 63 and 61, but Matthew managed to win the last frame of the session with a 71 Break to keep his hopes 3-5 down.
But then in the second session Ronnie O`Sullivan just flied over producing - what was for me - his best Snooker of the season as Breaks of 62, 110 & 139 (back-to-back) and 61 helped him to win that session 7-1 and hold a 12(25)4 lead overnight.
And yesterday Ronnie O`Sullivan hadn't much to work for as despite Stevens pulled one back with a 63 Break, a 77 Break in the first visit gave Ronnie his Quarter Final place.
Meanwhile Neil Robertson compiled 4 Centuries in a 13-5 defeat of Ali Carter, including a 145 in the last frame, the highest tournament's Break so far.
This World Snooker Championship has been having a fantastic standard, worth of people's expectation before it started.
Many are saying that this is the strongest Quarter Final line-up ever and I wouldn't doubt that, all 8 players left in the tournament are playing so good Snooker, and have been through so good seasons apart from Ding Junhui maybe, but at this tournament the Chinese ace has been playing very good Snooker, improving every day and will be full of confidence against Judd Trump after wins over Ricky Walden and Four-Times Champion John Higgins. I should fancy his chances against Trump, who looks pretty well and confident but gave signs of losing his focus on his match against Marco Fu.
I also fancy debutant McGill to beat 2005 Champion Shaun Murphy because even Murphy has won 5 titles for the past 15 months and became the first player ever to make 3 maximum breaks in one year last year, at this very tournament McGill has shown more form than him, and I'm not saying it just because he's a debutant and knocked out the defending Champion of the World, his form is really impressive, even more than Shaun's.
Hawkins is another player through the Quarter Final after beating Mark Allen 13-11 from 8-11 behind. That match gives him confidence and if you look for his Crucible record in the couple of years, he has a Final in 2013 and a Semi-Final in 2014 defeated by Ronnie O`Sullivan in both occasions. He hasn't had a good season but neither did his opponent Robertson, so all we have to look for is their previous matches at the tournament, and looking at it I shouldn't say Hawkins has any chances but if you look at where his confidence is at the moment and the memories he has, you can't write him off.
Stuart Bingham defeated 2006 Champion Graeme Dott 13-5, and made quit a few centuries there, but he's got the tougher draw of this Quarters against in-form O`Sullivan, who he doesn't have a good head-to-head against, but he's changed a lot as a player for the last year and a half, so I believe it can go close but Ronnie O`Sullivan will get over the line in the end.
This promises to be very good and close Quarter-Finals and the better you can do is just watch and enjoy. Semi-Finals starts on Thursday and keep alert here on the blog for a Quarters review and a preview of the semis.
Quarter Finals (Best of 25 frames):
Seeds in brackets
Anthony McGill (23) vs Shaun Murphy (8)
Barry Hawkins (5) vs Neil Robertson (4)
Ding Junhui (3) vs Judd Trump (6)
Stuart Bingham (10) vs Ronnie O`Sullivan (2) - Sessions: Tue (28) at 14:30, Wed (29) at 14:30 and 19:00.
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