2017 World Cup - Highlights
The 15th edition of Snooker's World Cup has just ended in Wuxi, after a thrilling week that saw 24 teams of 23 different nations battle out for the title of Champion of the World.
In the end, with a comeback v England in the Final that delighted the local fans, China conquered their third straight title - this time with their A team of Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo. Let's have a chronological look at the 2017 World Cup highlights:
Brazilian boys shock again: Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos, who represented Brazil in 2015 when they got that famous win against Scotland, did even more damage this year in China. With four wins in five matches, Brazil finished leveled with the defending Champions China B by the end of the Group phase, but the fact they'd lost their match against China B earlier in the week meant they couldn't get through. By the way the defeat against the defending champions was Brazil's only in the tournament.
In the last round, like in 2016, Brazil got another huge win against a giant Snooker country: Wales. They had been unbeaten to that point and were responsible for the tournament's highest break (Ryan Day's 140), but couldn't deny a 3-2 win for the South Americans. And Brazil couldn't have got any closer to a place in the Last 8, as by the time they beat Wales Malaysia were 2-1 up on China B, and had that not been reversed into a 2-3 defeat Brazil would've been through.
However, for a team that came with no big expectations at all and is happy just to share some TV space with famous names like Mark Williams and Ryan Day, Brazil has earned a lot of respect in the international Snooker scenario after another very good World Cup campaign.
Scottish and Irish disappointment: Favourite of many, Scotland knew they had been drawn into a very difficult Group with the likes of Northern Ireland, Thailand and India. Yet with a team having John Higgins and Anthony McGill they were expected not just to go through, but to go and win the whole thing.
However, Anthony McGill didn't start very well and Scotland begun the tournament already losing to Thailand. Towards the end McGill settled but Higgins (who was in the Scottish team Champion in 1996 and runner-up in 2015) couldn't produce, as they lost to Northern Ireland and couldn't score more than 3 points v India and Cyprus.
Elsewhere, Republic of Ireland (Ken Doherty and Fergal O`Brien) - a team that I had high expectations from seeing their player's recent form - couldn't do better than 4th place in Group B, finishing behind Belgium, China A and Hong Kong. Despite responsible for Belgium's only defeat in Group stage, Ireland lost 5-0 to China A in the opening Round and later on suffered a 4-1 defeat to Hong Kong.
Belgian repeated success: In 2015 Belgium led their Group ahead of the likes of Scotland and Hong Kong. This time, the young team of Luca Brecel and Jeff Jacobs topped Group B ahead of eventual winners China A, Hong Kong and Republic of Ireland.
Unfortunately for them, history also repeated in the knock-out stages as again they couldn't go past the Quarter-Finals (3-4 defeat to China B), but they've certainly earned a lot of respect amongst other teams for future World Cups.
The Knock-Out Stage: We have to congatulate, first of all, Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong. Now 17 and 19 years of age respectively, they represented China's B team again and did an amazing job defending the title they won two years ago. As mentioned before, they just about made it through the complicated Group A, but then they reached the last 4 with a 4-3 win over Belgium. They got very close of making the Final again, but ended up losing a narrow semi-final 3-4 to England. England themselves had a dramatic weekend: Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins beat Northern Ireland in the decider in a British derby for the Quarter-Finals, then beat China B in another 4-3 just before playing a Final that would go all the way again.
In the other part of the draw, Thailand beat Iran 4-1 and China A beat Wales by the same scoreline before meeting in the Semi-Finais, won by China A 4-2 (coming back from 0-2 down).
The Final: Like I had predicted - rightly so - before the tournament started, China A won the tournament. But it wasn't before a quite dramatic World Final (the first to end up in a decider since 1989).
England, taking part in their first Final in 28 years, went 3-1 up after Hawkins' win over Liang Wenbo in frame four. However, Ding Junhui's win over Judd Trump in frame 5 was the first signal that the Wuxi boy would delight his home crowd later.
After a dramatic doubles frame decided on the blue, crucially won by China, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui would play a play-off frame to decide who was going to lift the 2017 World Cup golden trophy. It was a careless safety from Trump that gave the chance for Ding to take the lead with a 59 break - a lead he would never give away as China claimed ther third World Title, moving one ahead of Wales, levelling Ireland and getting one short of England itself.
With Ding winning his three singles frames in the Final, it was the second time that the Liang-Ding duo claimed the title: They won it together in 2011, before China B got the title in 2015.
The good and the bad: Shall we reflect now on the good, but also on the bad points of the 2017 World Cup:
On the positive side, we once again had the participation of 23 nations with some of them making a World Cup debut - what shows the result of Barry Hearn and Jason Ferguson's work ahead of the World Snooker and the WPBSA for the last 7 years. Technically, the standard of the event was higher than ever: every team in the 2017 World Cup has or had at least one player on the Main Tour in 2017, and the result of it was 14 Century Breaks produced, a rise of 4 from the last World Cup.
It's also great to see that the players are very happy with the event and Wuxi is offering the best possible structure for it. In fact it's great to see the event held in Wuxi city, as unlike elsewhere in China, there the crowd attends the event and gets really involved. I think the World Cup that felt more like an exhibition event has long gone and now it's a serious competition that every player wants to be involved and do well.
It wasn't all good though, there are a few things that still got to be improved or even got worse compared to 2015. However, by saying it here I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the tournament or it should be scratched out, I'm suggesting reasonable changes that would come for the benefit of the event and the sport itself.
Firstly, the issue of watching the game online outside Europe continues. Since they made their deal with Eurosport in 2016 fans outside Europe have no means of watching Snooker online, and that means fans in countries that don't show it on TV are simply unable to watch the game whatsoever. For example, despite Brazil's awesome campaign, fans here couldn't watch any of it. I had hoped that what they did during the Crucible (showing it live on Facebook for countries that don't have it on TV or online) would tell them the value to stream the game outside Europe, but if they haven't done it at the World Cup (which has much more potential to reach a worldwide audience than the Crucible), it seems like nothing's changing.
Another careless bit from World Snooker was the lack of information they provided. Just three weeks before the tournament started we knew nothing about the tournament we had already been waiting two years for. It was just before the World Cup started we got to know all the teams and the format, and it wasn't since the Quarter-Final line-up was complete that we'd knew the structure had changed from it's previous format.
It's also a shame that some countries that took part in the tournament in 2015 went missing this year, and some of them are economically strong nations that would be very good to Snooker. I don't know why Singapore, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Austria and Poland couldn't play this year's World Cup, and I'm aware all teams had at least one main tour player, but these teams I mentioned definitely proved competitive and I'm sure at least one of them should comeback and make it 24 nations instead of giving China two teams. The goal of a World Cup is to see which country wins, not which player (for that we have the Crucible), and it sets my teeth on edge that we have "China B", even though I know they won it in 2015 I think they should have only one team. Let's remember their excuse to have two teams is that they're the hosting country, but that makes no sense at all once the World Cup is fixed in China now.
Something that bothers me as well is that World Snooker changed the Quarter-Final structure (It was A1 v B2 and B1 v B2 in top half, and C1 v D2 and D1 v C2 in the bottom half in 2015, changing to a confusing A1 v B2, D1 v C2 top half, B1 v A2, C1 v D2 bottom half this year), and seeing that no one knew this before the Quarter-Final, apparently this move was taken exactly to give China the chance to have two teams in the Final. There's no need to say that it's absolutely shambles if I'm right - if you unnecessarily give China two teams, at least set a rule that makes them meet if both reaches the semi-final, to avoid the chance of a meaningless Final.
This is it then - and once again I would like to say that the negative points I criticised here didn't make the World Cup less enjoyable to myself, but certainly can be easily fixed by World Snooker, giving everyone a more enjoyable and fair event than it already is. Thanks for reading 😉
In the end, with a comeback v England in the Final that delighted the local fans, China conquered their third straight title - this time with their A team of Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo. Let's have a chronological look at the 2017 World Cup highlights:
Brazilian boys shock again: Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos, who represented Brazil in 2015 when they got that famous win against Scotland, did even more damage this year in China. With four wins in five matches, Brazil finished leveled with the defending Champions China B by the end of the Group phase, but the fact they'd lost their match against China B earlier in the week meant they couldn't get through. By the way the defeat against the defending champions was Brazil's only in the tournament.
In the last round, like in 2016, Brazil got another huge win against a giant Snooker country: Wales. They had been unbeaten to that point and were responsible for the tournament's highest break (Ryan Day's 140), but couldn't deny a 3-2 win for the South Americans. And Brazil couldn't have got any closer to a place in the Last 8, as by the time they beat Wales Malaysia were 2-1 up on China B, and had that not been reversed into a 2-3 defeat Brazil would've been through.
However, for a team that came with no big expectations at all and is happy just to share some TV space with famous names like Mark Williams and Ryan Day, Brazil has earned a lot of respect in the international Snooker scenario after another very good World Cup campaign.
Scottish and Irish disappointment: Favourite of many, Scotland knew they had been drawn into a very difficult Group with the likes of Northern Ireland, Thailand and India. Yet with a team having John Higgins and Anthony McGill they were expected not just to go through, but to go and win the whole thing.
However, Anthony McGill didn't start very well and Scotland begun the tournament already losing to Thailand. Towards the end McGill settled but Higgins (who was in the Scottish team Champion in 1996 and runner-up in 2015) couldn't produce, as they lost to Northern Ireland and couldn't score more than 3 points v India and Cyprus.
Elsewhere, Republic of Ireland (Ken Doherty and Fergal O`Brien) - a team that I had high expectations from seeing their player's recent form - couldn't do better than 4th place in Group B, finishing behind Belgium, China A and Hong Kong. Despite responsible for Belgium's only defeat in Group stage, Ireland lost 5-0 to China A in the opening Round and later on suffered a 4-1 defeat to Hong Kong.
Belgian repeated success: In 2015 Belgium led their Group ahead of the likes of Scotland and Hong Kong. This time, the young team of Luca Brecel and Jeff Jacobs topped Group B ahead of eventual winners China A, Hong Kong and Republic of Ireland.
Unfortunately for them, history also repeated in the knock-out stages as again they couldn't go past the Quarter-Finals (3-4 defeat to China B), but they've certainly earned a lot of respect amongst other teams for future World Cups.
The Knock-Out Stage: We have to congatulate, first of all, Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong. Now 17 and 19 years of age respectively, they represented China's B team again and did an amazing job defending the title they won two years ago. As mentioned before, they just about made it through the complicated Group A, but then they reached the last 4 with a 4-3 win over Belgium. They got very close of making the Final again, but ended up losing a narrow semi-final 3-4 to England. England themselves had a dramatic weekend: Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins beat Northern Ireland in the decider in a British derby for the Quarter-Finals, then beat China B in another 4-3 just before playing a Final that would go all the way again.
In the other part of the draw, Thailand beat Iran 4-1 and China A beat Wales by the same scoreline before meeting in the Semi-Finais, won by China A 4-2 (coming back from 0-2 down).
The Final: Like I had predicted - rightly so - before the tournament started, China A won the tournament. But it wasn't before a quite dramatic World Final (the first to end up in a decider since 1989).
England, taking part in their first Final in 28 years, went 3-1 up after Hawkins' win over Liang Wenbo in frame four. However, Ding Junhui's win over Judd Trump in frame 5 was the first signal that the Wuxi boy would delight his home crowd later.
After a dramatic doubles frame decided on the blue, crucially won by China, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui would play a play-off frame to decide who was going to lift the 2017 World Cup golden trophy. It was a careless safety from Trump that gave the chance for Ding to take the lead with a 59 break - a lead he would never give away as China claimed ther third World Title, moving one ahead of Wales, levelling Ireland and getting one short of England itself.
With Ding winning his three singles frames in the Final, it was the second time that the Liang-Ding duo claimed the title: They won it together in 2011, before China B got the title in 2015.
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| Does three consecutive World Titles means supremacy? |
The good and the bad: Shall we reflect now on the good, but also on the bad points of the 2017 World Cup:
On the positive side, we once again had the participation of 23 nations with some of them making a World Cup debut - what shows the result of Barry Hearn and Jason Ferguson's work ahead of the World Snooker and the WPBSA for the last 7 years. Technically, the standard of the event was higher than ever: every team in the 2017 World Cup has or had at least one player on the Main Tour in 2017, and the result of it was 14 Century Breaks produced, a rise of 4 from the last World Cup.
It's also great to see that the players are very happy with the event and Wuxi is offering the best possible structure for it. In fact it's great to see the event held in Wuxi city, as unlike elsewhere in China, there the crowd attends the event and gets really involved. I think the World Cup that felt more like an exhibition event has long gone and now it's a serious competition that every player wants to be involved and do well.
It wasn't all good though, there are a few things that still got to be improved or even got worse compared to 2015. However, by saying it here I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the tournament or it should be scratched out, I'm suggesting reasonable changes that would come for the benefit of the event and the sport itself.
Firstly, the issue of watching the game online outside Europe continues. Since they made their deal with Eurosport in 2016 fans outside Europe have no means of watching Snooker online, and that means fans in countries that don't show it on TV are simply unable to watch the game whatsoever. For example, despite Brazil's awesome campaign, fans here couldn't watch any of it. I had hoped that what they did during the Crucible (showing it live on Facebook for countries that don't have it on TV or online) would tell them the value to stream the game outside Europe, but if they haven't done it at the World Cup (which has much more potential to reach a worldwide audience than the Crucible), it seems like nothing's changing.
Another careless bit from World Snooker was the lack of information they provided. Just three weeks before the tournament started we knew nothing about the tournament we had already been waiting two years for. It was just before the World Cup started we got to know all the teams and the format, and it wasn't since the Quarter-Final line-up was complete that we'd knew the structure had changed from it's previous format.
It's also a shame that some countries that took part in the tournament in 2015 went missing this year, and some of them are economically strong nations that would be very good to Snooker. I don't know why Singapore, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Austria and Poland couldn't play this year's World Cup, and I'm aware all teams had at least one main tour player, but these teams I mentioned definitely proved competitive and I'm sure at least one of them should comeback and make it 24 nations instead of giving China two teams. The goal of a World Cup is to see which country wins, not which player (for that we have the Crucible), and it sets my teeth on edge that we have "China B", even though I know they won it in 2015 I think they should have only one team. Let's remember their excuse to have two teams is that they're the hosting country, but that makes no sense at all once the World Cup is fixed in China now.
Something that bothers me as well is that World Snooker changed the Quarter-Final structure (It was A1 v B2 and B1 v B2 in top half, and C1 v D2 and D1 v C2 in the bottom half in 2015, changing to a confusing A1 v B2, D1 v C2 top half, B1 v A2, C1 v D2 bottom half this year), and seeing that no one knew this before the Quarter-Final, apparently this move was taken exactly to give China the chance to have two teams in the Final. There's no need to say that it's absolutely shambles if I'm right - if you unnecessarily give China two teams, at least set a rule that makes them meet if both reaches the semi-final, to avoid the chance of a meaningless Final.
This is it then - and once again I would like to say that the negative points I criticised here didn't make the World Cup less enjoyable to myself, but certainly can be easily fixed by World Snooker, giving everyone a more enjoyable and fair event than it already is. Thanks for reading 😉
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