World Grand Prix 2016 highlights
Last year ITV inaugurated the World Grand Prix, counting with the 32 best players in a Ranking that counted the World Championship and the events of the ongoing season. It wasn't a Ranking Event but the amazing ITV coverage on free TV for the UK combined with EuroSport showing the tournament in Europe and the big prize money made it a huge event.
But this year the World Grand Prix's Ranking list doens't count last season's World Championship, and so give every professional a chance to get into it. Then, it has became a Ranking Event and what was already big last year has been even bigger this time.
During the week a lot of things that happened in Llandudno - North Coast Wales - caught the attention of the public, and I'll reflect some of them here:
As for Stuart Bingham, he wasn't having a great season as reigning Champion of the World until now, but his run to the Final might have been a turning point. I said here in the Blog recently that I think Bingham has been poor this season because he plays well when he plays a lot and doing all that stuff the World Champions do off table was dragging him away a little bit and he's not practicing as much as he would be doing if he wasn't World Champion - not that it's a bad thing, but if he wants to get close to the sharpness he had last year when he came to the Crucible he'd better practice every day he can in the build up to the World Championship, which starts in one month time on 16th April.
I don't think Bingham will win the World Championship because he doesn't seem to be on his best form, although he made the Final in Llandudno he never had a Century Break throughout the event. And I don't think Bingham is the player who could lift the World Trophy not playing his best Snooker, but he's got potential, he's improving, that's already a good signal.
I think Bingham needs a win under his belt to prove himself he gets into tournaments to win them, it's not great from our World Champion to say he'd be "happy with a couple of wins" or that he's "had a good season because only lost to players who were better on the day", it took Murphy two years to win another Ranking Event when he won the World Championship in 2005 but Bingham will work to win one quicker as he's already 39 and Murphy was 23 when he lifted the World Trophy.
But this year the World Grand Prix's Ranking list doens't count last season's World Championship, and so give every professional a chance to get into it. Then, it has became a Ranking Event and what was already big last year has been even bigger this time.
During the week a lot of things that happened in Llandudno - North Coast Wales - caught the attention of the public, and I'll reflect some of them here:
The Best of 7's
The "short" best-of-7 format have always been polemic since Mr Barry Hearn took the command of World Snooker quite a few years ago now, and introduced a lot of new tournaments to the schedule. Well, we have Snooker very nearly every week nowadays and you couldn't have long match formats all the time, it should be impossible really, but Ronnie O`Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby losing in the 1st Round in Llandudno didn't help with people that are against this short format, I heard some saying that the best-of-7's are "disgraceful".
Well, first of all I think the best players still prevail in the short formats, although you're playing Snooker nearly every week as I said and you can't avoid to have some surprises throughout the year, you often see some low ranked players get some momentum and then running deep into tournaments. But then how do we know if the player is playing well or not if unexpected results are inevitable and 1 Round defeats doesn't mean much? Well principally we got to judge by the Triple Crown events, which have no best-of-7 matches. But I'm not saying the other events don't mean anything, they do but you got to have some consistency, to prove you're playing well.
I'm personally a fan of the long match formats like in the old days where the matches at the UK Championship for example were best-of-17 instead of best-of-11, but the Sport has to go on with time like other sports do, and if you asked me I wouldn't go back to the old days when we had only 7 tournaments a year and we only knew a few players. The standard of the game grew a lot when more tournaments were introduced to the calendar and if it's not possible to have all the tournaments with long matches, then I'm happy with the best-of-7's. And I'm not the only probably, because Snooker is all the time on TV, only the Championship League ain't televised by now I think, and ITV came from 0 Snooker events broadcasted in 2012 to 4 in 2016 - and counting.
Ronnie O`Sullivan said on his latest Radio Show that "The best of 11 are good and the best players should still win [...] I think Michael Holt won because he was the better player on the day, he would win if it was first to 4, first to 5 or first to 9!"
Thepchaiya Oh-No
You won't see many players as talented as Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. He's fast, attacking and his cue action is flawless. His back swing is fantastic and he get so much reaction from the Cue Ball seeming effortless.
Well, he played very well at the World Grand Prix and got into the Quarters with wins over Marco Fu and Mark Allen and he looked unstopable when he got 3-1 up on Ding Junhui in the quarters. Ding had done nothing wrong and the only frame he won he made a break of 92 to earn it. Un-Nooh himself compiled Breaks of 97, 84 and 74 needing just one chance for each, but anyway in frame 5 he had a chance to clean the table and missed a red where I think he was really effortless. At this level you can't afford any mistakes when you have the chance to kill the match, because you only get one, and this theory was proven as Ding made Breaks of 65 and then 108 in the decider to win the match.
Un-Nooh have his natural style and that's great to watch, but I think sometimes he would just take a couple more of seconds to think about the shots when it matters most. He should've done that in the Black he missed for a 147 at the UK Championship, in a few chances he had to make Centuries in this match versus Ding and of course in the chance he had in the 5th frame to kill the match. I don't like saying that but that's just the way it is at the very top level.
I also don't like to compare players with Ronnie O`Sullivan because that feels unfair, but in this case it's impossible not to. O`Sullivan is very similar to Un-Nooh, but when he knows it means more he just take a deep breathe and concentrates more than he normally would. That's how he managed to make more than 800 Century Breaks and 13 Maximums (both comfortably standing as records). And when he get a chance to kill the match he concludes it, in The Masters this year he was 5-2 ahead of Mark Selby - who's well know for his unlikely comebacks - and Selby pulled one back, 5-3, and made a 70 Break in the 9th. Although when he lost position he was very frustrated because he knew he couldn't give a chance to Ronnie, and Ronnie knew that was the only chance he'd get, so he simply produced a brilliant 73 Clearance to win frame and match.
But Un-Nooh is 30 years-old yet, that's young in Snooker terms, he's got a lot to learn but time isn't his enemy, I'd say he's got at least 10 years being able to produce his best Snooker left and possibly even more as he's fit.
Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham playing better
Whoever is a fan of Snooker for long enough to have seen China's Ding Junhui playing his best Snooker will be excited about him now. He reached the last 8 of the Welsh Open weeks ago making a 147 Break in the Quarter Finals and reached the Semi-Finals in Llandudno playing some good Snooker. And it took two in-form players to beat him: Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy. In the last few years we've seen the bar being raised by Ronnie O`Sullivan and Neil Robertson, and there are so many other players playing a very good Snooker, but I can tell you that the only one able to reach the level of O`Sullivan and Robertson is Ding Junhui, if he comes back to his best the game wins too, the general average of the tour could go higher. But the fact is that he's had two poor seasons not showing improvement at any time, so the improvement that he showed in these last couple Welsh events is getting everyone excited, Phil Yates, who commentated the World Grand Prix for ITV, said "Ding is back to his imperious best". I think that's a bit exaggerated, but in fact Ding is one of the all time greats and he just need to prove it at the Crucible in the World Championship. His problem have always been psycholocical, nothing to do with his form and that's why I think he have sort of underachieved in his career, principally at the Crucible, but he's working now with 1979 World Champion Terry Griffths, who as a coach is an specialist in the mental aspect of the game. Hawkins was a professional for around 10 years and only became a Top Player after his work with Griffiths, since then he's won Ranking Events and reached the Final of the two biggest Snooker events, only denied the title by a certain O`Sullivan in both occasions. Michael Holt is not nicknamed "the hitman" for nothing, but he's also working with Terry Griffiths and managed to beat O`Sullivan in a tense decider in Llandudno. I'd like to see Ding mentally tested in a match to see if Griffiths work is reallly improving Ding, but the World Championship at The Crucible is coming and we'll have plenty of time to check this out.As for Stuart Bingham, he wasn't having a great season as reigning Champion of the World until now, but his run to the Final might have been a turning point. I said here in the Blog recently that I think Bingham has been poor this season because he plays well when he plays a lot and doing all that stuff the World Champions do off table was dragging him away a little bit and he's not practicing as much as he would be doing if he wasn't World Champion - not that it's a bad thing, but if he wants to get close to the sharpness he had last year when he came to the Crucible he'd better practice every day he can in the build up to the World Championship, which starts in one month time on 16th April.
I don't think Bingham will win the World Championship because he doesn't seem to be on his best form, although he made the Final in Llandudno he never had a Century Break throughout the event. And I don't think Bingham is the player who could lift the World Trophy not playing his best Snooker, but he's got potential, he's improving, that's already a good signal.
I think Bingham needs a win under his belt to prove himself he gets into tournaments to win them, it's not great from our World Champion to say he'd be "happy with a couple of wins" or that he's "had a good season because only lost to players who were better on the day", it took Murphy two years to win another Ranking Event when he won the World Championship in 2005 but Bingham will work to win one quicker as he's already 39 and Murphy was 23 when he lifted the World Trophy.
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| The Final was a repeat of last year's Crucible Final |
Shaun Murphy wins
Shaun Murphy enjoyed an amazing time in North Wales winning his 1st title of the season, after a very slow start to the campaign.
I still don't think Murphy was on his best form, but his cue action was just fantastic, the best I've seen him cueing this season and even not at his best he's just too good not to win titles, and I mean "just" because he beat Bingham in a tense Final frame decider.
I think Murphy have improved because he stopped to think about what was wrong with his game and just played his own shots - of course himself said it all the week long in Llandudno -, but principally I think he stopped thinking about kicks now, it was affecting him and when he had one his head was gone. I suppose he just tried to forget it and go on with it. This week his cueing was a lot better and he rarely got kick, that only proves my theory about kicks is right.
However, a win brings Murphy a lot of confidence, and he's another player who's coming into form at the right time and will take some beating at the Crucible next month.
I still don't think Murphy was on his best form, but his cue action was just fantastic, the best I've seen him cueing this season and even not at his best he's just too good not to win titles, and I mean "just" because he beat Bingham in a tense Final frame decider.
I think Murphy have improved because he stopped to think about what was wrong with his game and just played his own shots - of course himself said it all the week long in Llandudno -, but principally I think he stopped thinking about kicks now, it was affecting him and when he had one his head was gone. I suppose he just tried to forget it and go on with it. This week his cueing was a lot better and he rarely got kick, that only proves my theory about kicks is right.
However, a win brings Murphy a lot of confidence, and he's another player who's coming into form at the right time and will take some beating at the Crucible next month.
The next professional tournament will be the PC Grand Final, which brings the best 32 players during the European Tour events and the Asian Tour played in the 2015/16 season. It begins on 22nd March, will also be coveraged by ITV and you can be aware of everything that happens in Manchester that week by giving our Facebook Page a like!
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